A 



GEOGRAPHICAL 

DICTIONARY OF THE HOLT 
SCRIPTURES : 

INCLUDING ALSO 

NOTICES OF THE CHIEF PLACES AND PEOPLE MENTIONED 

IN 

THE APOCRYPHA. 

BY 

/ 

THE REV. A. AMOWSMTTH, M.A., 

LATK CURATE OF WHITCHURCH, SALOP. 




LONGMAN, 



LONDON: 
BROWN, GREEN, AND 
1855. 



LONGMANS. 



London : 
and Ci. A. Spottiswoode, 
Ncw-street-bi|i;are. 



PREFACE. 



The following pages have been compiled in the intervals of leisure from 
more active duties, and during a long confinement by illness. They 
pretend to no learning or originality, accuracy and usefulness having 
been chiefly kept in view. It is hoped, that some scriptural account 
will be found in them of every place and people mentioned in Holy 
Writ, coupled with short notices from other sources ; and also that the 
references to every passage in which they are mentioned (three names 
alone excepted) will always be given. 

The testimony of so humble an individual in such a matter can be of 
little consequence, compared with the overwhelming proofs already 
before the world ; but, after a careful comparison of some hundred 
thousand passages for the purposes of this Work, the Author cannot 
forbear expressing his deepened conviction, that the Holy Bible is 
indeed, what every good and candid man must believe, the Inspired 
Word of God. 

Whitchurch, Salop, 
Nov. .3. 1852. 



GEOGRAPHICAL 

DICTIONARY OF THE HOLY 
SCRIPTURES. 



AARONITES, 1 Chron. xii. 27., xxvii. 17., 
of whom, in David's time, Jehoiada and Zadok 
were the leaders or rulers. They were likewise 
called THE Children of Aaron, Josh. xxi. 
4. 10. 13. 19. ; 1 Chron. xv. 4, ; and the Sons of 
Aaron, Ex. xl. 31. ; Lev. viii. SO. ; Num. iv. 5. 
They were all Levites, of the family of Aaron, 
ordained by Almighty God to be the priests of the 
sanctuary. Ex xxviii. 1., xl. 15. ; Num. xvi. 
40. ; 1 Chron. vi. 49. It was into their office that 
Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, with others, endea- 
voured to thrust themselves, Num. xvi. 10. ; 
Jude ii. ; but were miraculously destroyed by 
the earth opening and swallowing up some, 
whilst fire consumed the others. Their duties 
are amply set forth in the book of Leviticus and 
elsewhere : the service they had to perform about 
the sanctuary, &c. is described Num. iv. 5 — 16. 
Their inheritance in the land of Canaan is stated 
in Josh. xxi. 9 — 19. ; 1 Chron. vi. 54—60. ; and 
was so ordered, that, upon the division of all 
Israel into the two kingdoms of Judah and Israel, 
it fell within the limits of the former kingdom. 
They had in all thirteen cities out of the tribes of 

Judah. Simeon. Benjamin. 

Hebron, A in, Gib eon. 

(city of Refuge.) or Ashan. Geba. 

Libnah. Anathoth. 

Jattir. Almon, 

Eshtemoa. or Alemeth. 
Holon. 
Debir. 
Juttah. 
Bethshemesh. 

The Aaronites were a numerous body; for, on 



the death of Saul, there were 3700 men who 
joined David, 1 Chron. xii. 27. They are some- 
times called THE House of Aaron, Ps. cxv. 10. 
12., cxviii. 3., cxxxv. 19. ; and sometimes the 
Seed of Aaron, as in Lev. xxi. 21., xxii. 4. ; 
Num. xvi. 40. Elisabeth, the mother of John 
the Baptist, was one of the daughters of Aaron, 
Lu. i. 5. See Levites. 

ABANA, a river of Syria, in the region of 
Damascus, probably the same now called Nahr- 
el-Berde, which flows down from Mt. Hermon, a 
little to the S. of the city of Damascus ; and, 
after a course of about 30 miles, enters the beauti- 
ful lake at present known as the Bahr-el-Merj, 
or Lake of the Meadows, but anciently, as it would 
appeal-, merely styled the Sea, Jer. xlix. 23. 
The name of this river occurs only once in the 
Bible, 2 Kgs. v. 12., where it is cited by Naaman 
the Syrian as one of the rivers of Damascus ; 
and it was in it, or in Pharpar, that he was 
Avilling to wash, after having been desired by 
Elisha to wash in Jordan. It is called Ajiana 
in the margin, which is thought to be the true 
reading by some commentators, from its signify- 
ing perennial ; but this is doubtful. Much differ- 
ence of opinion exists as to the exact locality of 
the R. Abana, there being several rivers in the 
neighbourhood of Damascus ; some interpreters 
placing it further N. and making it identical 
with the modern R. Barada (called Chrysor- 
rhoas by the Greeks), which runs through the 
city of Damascus ; for Amana was also the name 
of a peak in Lebanon, So. of Sol. iv. 8., whence 
flows down the R. Barada. The difficulty of 
several rivers now existing in this ueighbour- 
B 



2 ABARIM, MT. 



ABEL, THE GREAT STONE OF, 



hood has by some been endeavoured to be got 
rid of, by the hypothesis that originally there 
were but two, and that the others are merely 
modern artificial formations for the purpose of 
irrigation ; but it does not seem to be necessary 
to suppose that Naaman would mention all the 
rivers of Damascus. See Phakpar. 

ABAEIM, MT., or Avarim, or Mountains op 
Abarim, a range of mountains on the E. side of 
Jordan, partly forming the frontier of the Moa- 
bites. Ammonites, and also of the tribe of Keuben. 
The word signifies passages; and hence it has 
been supposed that this range of mountains de- 
rived its name from the various passages over 
them from one country to another. Others, how- 
ever, connect the origin of the name with the 
ancient mythology of the country. It extended 
a considerable way into the territories- of the 
Eeubenites ; and a portion of it is described by 
Eusebius, as lying 6 miles E. of Heshbon. It is 
mentioned in Deut. xxxii. 49., as being over 
against Jericho, and is so described by Josephus. 
It contained the several summits of Nebo, Pis- 
gah, and Peor, Num. xxiii .28., xxvii. 12. ; Deut. 
iii. 27., xxxii. 49., xxxiv. 1. It was so lofty 
that from it Moses had his eyes strengthened 
to view the whole of the Promised Land, from 
Dan and Lebanon on the N". to its S. borders 
and the Mediterranean Sea, Deut. iii. 24 — 27., 
xxxiv. 1—4. It was on one of the summits 
of this mountain that Moses died. The children 
of Israel, after they had crossed the R. Arnon, 
pitched their camp for a time in the Mountains 
of Abarim, Num. xxxiii. 47, 48., whence they 
withdrew to the Plains of Moab, by Jordan. 
Another of their encampments, called in our 
translation Ije-abarim, Num. xxi. 11., xxxiii. 
44., and in our margin Heaps of Abarim, is 
rendered by some scholars "lim on Mt. Aba- 
im" (cf. Num. xxxiii. 45.). If this be correct, 
it would seem that the general range of the 
Abarim must have extended a long way 
further S. into Arabia Petraea, or else there 
must have been two mountains of the same 
name. The words rendered " cry from the pas- 
sages," in our version of Jer. xxii. 20., are other- 
wise translated by some "cry from Abarim." 
Eusebius and Jerome describe part of the moun- 
tain-ridge near Heshbon as retaining in their 
days the name of Abarim. 

ABDON, a city in the tribe of Asher, one of 
the four given with its suburbs to the Ger- 
shonites, Josh. xxi. 30. ; 1 Chron. vi. 74. 

ABEL (i. e. the valley or plain), a city in the 
N. part of the land of Israel, 2 Sam. xx. 14., 



apparently on the ^orders of Zebulun and 
Naphtali, from its connection with places in 
that neighbourhood, 1 Kgs. xv. 20. ; 2 Kgs. xv. 
29. It seems to have once enjoyed considerable 
reputation for its counsellors, 2 Sam. xx. 18., 
and to have been called Mother, 19. (Metropolis 
in the Septuagint). Josephus, likewise, calls it 
a metropolis of Israel, though he writes the 
name Abelmachea, and Abellana; which latter 
spelling has led some to conjecture that in his 
time it was called by the Greeks Abelene or 
Abela. Upon the occasion of the quarrel be- 
tween the men of Judah and Israel about David's 
return to Jerusalem, Sheba made a party against 
David, and withdrew to this city; but the in- 
habitants being closely pressed by Joab, David's 
general, and at the advice of a " wise woman " 
within the city, cut oif Sheba's head and threw 
it over the wall to Joab, that they might be 
spared the horrors of a siege. So Joab retired 
from before the place, b.c. 1022. It is also 
called Abel of Bethjmaachah, 2 Sam. xx. 
15. ; Abel-Bethmaachah, 1 Kgs. xv. 20. ; 2 
Kgs. XV. 29.; and in the parallel passage, 
2 Chron. xvi. 4., Abel-Maim. Dming the 
reign of Baasha, king of Israel, this city was 
taken and pillaged by Benhadad, king of Syria ; 
and about 200 years afterwards, in the days of 
Pekah, king of Israel, it was again taken by 
Tiglath-Pileser, king of Assyria, when its in- 
habitants, together with those of many neigh- 
bouring places, were carried captive to Assyria. 
It has been supposed that Belmen, Judith iv. 4., 
is a corrupt form of Abel-Maim, Some have 
fancied that Abel was the same with Abila 
of Lysanias, near Damascus, which cannot have 
been the case, for the bounds of Naphtali (in 
which tribe Abel probably was) never extended so 
far in that direction. Others identify Abel with 
Abila of Pha3nicia mentioned by Eusebius. Its 
most probable site has been fixed to the N.W. of 
the Bahr el Huleh, at a place called Abil el Kamh. 

ABEL, THE GREAT STONE OF, 1 Sam. 
vi. 18., on which the ark of God was set down, 
after it had been sent back by the Philistines. 
It was situated in the field of Joshua, a Beth- 
shemite, near Bethshemesh, on the common 
borders of Philistia and of the tribes Judah and 
Dan. It was here, that they clave the wood of 
the cart on which the ark was brought, and 
offered the kine as a burnt offering; and the 
Levites took down the ark, and the coffer that 
was with it, wherein the jewels of gold were, and 
put them on "The Great Stone." See marg. 
By some the name of this place is rendered 
Grjsat Abel, i. e. Great Mourning^ Abel signi- 



ABEL-BETHISIAACHAH. 



ABEL-SHITTIM. 3 



fying mourning as jWell as valley; and it is 
supposed to have obtained this appellation in 
consequence of the mourning there made for 
the Bethshemites who were struck dead for pre- 
suming to look into the ark, 1 Sam. vi. 14 — 19. 

ABEL-BETHaiAACHAH, or Abel of Beth- 
maachah (i.e. Abel near the house or city of 
Maachah), a place so called to distinguish it 
from others which bore the name of Abel. It 
was in the region of Bethmaachah, and the 
same city with Abel, described above, 2 Sam. 
XX. 15. ; 1 Kgs. XV. 20. ; 2 Kgs. xv. 29. 

ABEL-MAIM (i.e. the Valley of the Waters, 
or the Mourning of the Waters), another name for 
Abel, derived probably from its situation upon 
some river or stream, 2 Chron. xvi. 4. 

ABEL-MEHOLAH {the Place of Dancing'), a 
town in the neighbourhood of Bethshean, 1 Kgs. 
iv. 12.; according to Eusebius, about 15 miles 
to the S. of it, and so, probably, in the tribe of 
Manasseh on this side Jordan. Near it Gideon 
defeated the Midianites, Judg. vii. 22. ; but it 
is chiefly remarkable from having been the birth- 
place of Elisha, 1 Kgs. xix. 16. 

ABEL-MIZRAIM, formerly called the Thresh- 
ing-floor of Atad, Gen. 1. 11. Jacob, upon his 
deathbed, having charged his sons to bury him 
when dead, with his fathers, in the cave of 
Machpelah, Joseph, accompanied by his brethren 
and great numbers of the principal persons of 
Egypt, fulfilled the patriarch's dying reqiiest. 
But when they came to the Threshing-floor of 
Atad, they " mourned with a great and veiy sore 
lamentation " for seven days ; and the Canaanites, 
taking the whole company for Egyptians, called 
the spot Abel-Mizraim, i. e. the Moiirning of the 
Egyptians. The situation of this place is not 
known with any precision. Some have supposed 
it might not be far from the place where Jacob 
was buried, and so, close to Hebron ; others, how- 
ever, have thought that it was the first halting- 
place to which the Israelites came in the land 
which had been promised for an inheritance to 
their fathers. Jerome fixes it 3 miles from 
Jericho and 2 from the Jordan ; adding that in 
his time it was called Bethagla. From the ex- 
pression that it was "beyond Jordan," Gen. 1. 
10, 11., it must not be supposed that Abel- 
Mizraim was in that portion of the Promised 
Land commonly called " beyond Jordan," in the 
Scriptures; or that Joseph and the Egyptians 
went through Lloab and this region, and so 
crossed the Jordan in order to come at Mach- 
pelah. All, probably, that is meant by the 
expression is, that Moses, when rehearsing this 



history to the Israelites, being on the E. side of 
Jordan, meant them to understand that the 
burying-place of their fathers was to the W. of 
that river. Instances of the same kind occur in 
Deut. iii. 25, "the good land that is beyond 
Jordan," i.e. to the W. of it; xi. 29, 30., " Geri- 
zim — Ebal, are they not on the other side Jor- 
dan," i. e. W. of the river : and contrariwise " this 
side Jordan," is used for the E. division of 
the country'- at Deut. iv. 41., against the common 
usage of the inspired penman, for the reason 
above assigned, viz. that he was E. of Jordan 
when these things were -written. 

ABEL OF THE VINEYARDS, Judg. xi. 33., 
marg., otherwise Abel-keramim, or Abel-Car- 
maim, and called in our translation the Plain 
OF THE Vineyards, a town or village beyond 
Jordan, memorable for the slaughter of the Am- 
monites by Jephthah, who pursued them as far 
as this spot. It is placed by Eusebius 6 miles 
from Philadelphia (i.e. Rabbath-Ammon), and 
was probably on the borders of the Ammonites ; 
although some writers think it was within the 
limits of the children of Israel, in the inherit- 
ance of Gad. Eusebius and Jerome describe this 
neighbourhood as abounding in vineyards in 
their time. The former historian mentions two 
places of this name both celebrated for their 
vines; one near Rabbath-Ammon, the other 
(called Abila of the Decapolis) near Gadara. 

ABEL-SHITTIM, on the other side Jordan, 
in the plains of Moab and tribe of Reuben, 
opposite Jericho, Num. xxii. 1., xxxiii. 49. It 
was here that the Israelites pitched their camp 
under Moses previous to their passing the Jordan 
under Joshua, their lines extending from Beth- 
jesimoth to Abel-Shittim. It is supposed to be 
the same with Shittim mentioned Num. xxv. 
1. ; Josh. ii. 1., iii. 1.; Mic. vi. 5., or at any 
rate, that Shittim was the district, and Abel- 
Shittim the valley or plain in it; whence the 
marginal reading at Num. xxxiii. 49. is, the 
Plains of Shittim. The Valley of Shittim is 
specially mentioned, Joel iii. 18., but there it is 
usually supposed to be an appellative for some 
Valley of the Acacias, as the name is thought to 
signify. Abel-Shittim appears, from its being 
connected with Gilgal by the prophet Micah, 
to have been at no great distance from the 
Jordan. Josephus, who calls it Abila, places it 
about 60 furlongs from it. Eusebius states it to 
have been in the neighbourhood of Mt. Peor. 
It was here, that, seduced by Balak, the Israelites 
fell into sin, in the matter of Baal-peor, when so 
many of them were A-isited with death for their 
B 2 



4 



ABEZ. 



ABINADAB, HOUSE OF. 



transgression : and to this destruction of them ' 
some attribute the origin of the name, Abel- 
Shittim, i. e. the Mourning of Shittim. This, 
however, is doubtful. See Shittim. It was 
from this place that Joshua sent out the two 
spies to Jericho; and that he and the Israelites 
finally removed to take up a position on the 
banks of Jordan, prior to their passing the river. 
It is supposed that Shittim obtained its name 
from the abundance of Shittim wood in this 
neighbourhood, and which is so often mentioned 
in the book of Exodus : it appears to have been 
one of the sweet-scented acacias, still very much 
prized for its hardness and beauty. 

ABEZ, a town in the N. of Caanan, belonging 
to the tribe of Issachar, Josh. xix. 20. 

ABIEZER, a town or family beyond Jordan, 
probably in the tribe of Gad, and fancied by 
some to be the same with Jazer. It appears 
to have derived its name from a descendant of 
Gilead and Manasseh, Josh. xvii. 2. ; 1 Chron. 
vii. 18., who at Num. xxvi. 30. is called Jeezer, 
and who was the ancestor of Gideon. The people 
of this place were summoned by Gideon to go 
out against the Midianites, Amalekites, and the 
Children of the East, Judg. vi. 34., viii. 2. 

ABIEZER, CHILDREN OF, part of the fore- 
going family, whose inheritance was assigned by 
Joshua within the borders of Manasseh on this 
side Jordan, probably in the neighbourhood of 
Ophrah, Josh. xvii. 2. 

ABIEZRITES, THE, are mentioned as dwell- 
ing in Ophrah, a to-v\Ti on this side Jordan, in the 
tribe of Manasseh, Judg. vi. 11. 24. Joash and 
his son Gideon were Abiezrites. 

ABILENE, a country in Coele-Syria, to the 
E. of Anti-Lebanon and Hermon, and N. of the 
city of Damascus. Its name occurs only once in 
the Bible, Lu. iii. 1., where Lysanias is said to 
have been tetrarch of it, at the commencement 
of the ministry of John the Baptist. It appears 
to have derived its name from its chief town 
Abila, otherwise called Abila Lysaniee, Abila ad 
Libanum, Abila Libani, and Abila Phoenices, 
which is placed by Antonine's Itinerary 18 miles 
N. of Damascus, and 38 S. of Heliopolis, and 
still preserves its ancient name in that of Nebi 
Abel. It is mentioned by Polybius, Pliny, 
Ptolemy, Josephus, and Eusebius. It was like- 
wise called Leucas or Leucadia, and Claudiopolis 
or Claudia; and has been identified by some, 
though probably erroneously, with Abila Ba- 
tansese, a town of the Decapolis. — The history 
of the district or government of Abilene, is 



enveloped in obscurity. It appears to have beeii 
ruled at one time by Ptolemy Menneus, king of 
the neighbouring region of Chalcis, or at any 
rate by his successor Lysanias ; but through the 
wily conduct of Cleopatra, Lysanias, on the 
charge of intriguing with the Parthians, was put 
to death by Antony, b. c. 34, when it would 
appear the whole region fell under the immediate 
management of the Roman governors. At all 
events, we find, on the death of Cleopatra, a 
certain Zenodorus forming what was called the 
DoMus Zenodori, consisting, as is supposed, of 
Abilene, Trachonitis, Auranitis, together with 
some parts of Batansea, and styled variously Tre- 
trarchy and Eparchy. Zenodorus seems to have 
joined and headed the robbers who infested the 
neighbouring countries and concealed themselves 
in the fastnesses of the Trachonitis, until they 
were di-iven out and exterminated by Herod the 
Great. For these sendees, the Emperor Augustus 
gave Herod the greater portion of the dominions 
of Zenodorus; and at the death of the latter, 
Abilene may have been likewise included ; if it 
was not rather committed to the charge of a 
distinct ofiicer, under the immediate control of 
the Roman governor of Syi'ia. This officer may 
have been some branch of the family of Lysa- 
nias ; for at the death of Herod, and on the di\i- 
sion of his dominions into separate governments, 
no mention is made of Abilene; and Josephus 
expressly stating that a part of the House of 
Zenodorus paid tribute to Philip, it has been 
inferred that Abilene had been restored to the 
family of Ptolemy Menneus. However this may 
be, it was called the Tetrarchy of Abilene, in 
the time of John Baptist's ministry; and was 
governed by one Lysanias, probably a descendant 
of that Lysanias who, 60 years before, had been 
put to death. Abilene was eventually taken 
away from the family of Lysanias by the Em- 
peror Claudius, and given to Herod Agrippa. 

ABINADAB, HOUSE OF, the place where 
the ark of the covenant was deposited, after it 
had been restored by the Philistines, b.c. 1120. 
Here it remained about 78 years, until David 
fetched it away to take it to Zion ; but for his 
own and Uzzah's disobedience — Uzzah being 
struck dead — Da\'id was afraid to bring it to 
Jerusalem, and so placed it for a time in the 
house of Obed-edom. Abinadab was a Levite, 
and dwelt in the city of Kirjath-jearim, not far 
from Bethshemesh, in the N.W. corner of the 
tribe of Judah : his house was in the " Gibeah " 
or Hill, i. e. the highest part of Kirjath-jearim. 
His son Eleazar was sanctified to Iteep the ark-5 



ABINADAB, SON OF. 



ACCHO. 



5 



but whether in the lifetime of his father, or as 1 
Ms successor, is not known, 1 Sam. vii. 1. ; 
2 Sam. vi. 2, 3, 4. ; 1, Chron. xiii. 5—7. 

ABINADAB, SON OF, or Ben-abinadab, one 
of Solomon's twelve officers over all Israel, to 
provide victuals for the king and his household. 
His government or purveyorship was all the 
region of Dor, on the central part of the sea- 
coast of the coxmtry, 1 Kgs. iv. 11. 

ABSALOM'S PLACE (or Absalom's Hand, as 
it is in the Heb. and Sept.), a pillar reared up by- 
Absalom, the son of David, because he had no 
son to keep his name in remembrance. It was 
built in the King's Dale, or Valley of Kedron, 
on the E. side of Jerusalem, 2 Sam. xviii. 18. 
We are informed by Josephus that it was a 
marble column, about 2 furlongs distant from 
the city, and that it was called Absalom's Hand. 
It was probably distinguished by the figure of a 
hand, as the emblem of power ; a device not un- 
common even now in Eastern countries, and one 
which may be referred to in 1 Sam. xv. 12.; 
2 Sam. viii. 3. ; 1 Chron. xviii. 3., and elsewhere. 
A monument, called Absalom's Pillar, is still 
shown hereabouts; but its great antiquity is 
thought doubtful. 

ACCAD, a city founded by Nimrod in the land 
of Shinar, Gen. x. 10. There is much specula- 
tion, and more doubt, as to its situation; but 
it was probably in the neighboui'hood of the three 
other cities mentioned with it, viz. Babel, 
Erech, and Calneh, whose sites are better 
known. As Babel itself has been for centuries 
but a heap of ruins, it cannot be expected that 
anything should be known with the least cer- 
tainty concerning Accad. The Septuagint writes 
the name Archad ; and hence some traces of the 
old appellation are thought to have been pre- 
served in the Eiver Ai-gades, mentioned by 
Ctesias as a river of Sittacene, a country lying 
between Babylon and Susiana. If so, then the 
city Sitace, at the confluence of this river with 
the Tigris, or Ctesiphon on the banks of the 
latter river, may represent the more ancient 
Accad. Ainsworth and other modem autho- 
rities have identified its site in some ruins, on 
the W. side of the Tigris (about 6 miles from 
Bagdad) called " Aker Kuf," or Xirarod's Tower. 
Some authors, however (as Ephraem the Syrian, 
and Jerome, together with the Targums of 
Jerusalem and Jonathan) identify Accad -nath 
Nisibis, a very ancient city in the N. part of 
Mesopotamia, on the borders of Armenia. But 
such a situation, whatever authority may be cited 
in its favoui-, appears to be far too remote from 



the other cities of Nimrod, and can hardly be 
said to be in the land of Shinar. 

ACCARON, the same with Ekron, the Phi- 
listine city so often spoken of in the Bible. 
Accaron is mentioned 1 Mace. x. 89., as having 
been given by King Alexander to Jonathan 
Maccabseus. See Ekron. 

ACCHO, a sea-port town in the S. part of 
the tribe of Asher, and near the foot of Mt. 
Carmel, from which the original inhabitants 
were not driven out by the Israelites, Judg. i. 31. 
It was of Canaanitish origin; and from its 
beautiful situation on the shores of the Medi- 
terranean Sea, at the head of the bay now called 
the Bay of Acre, it was probably an important 
"Haven of the Sea" at all times to the Phoe- 
nicians. It would appear to be the same with 
Ocina mentioned by the apoci-}T)hal ^NTiter of 
Judith ii. 28., in his account of the campaign of 
Holofernes, the Assp'ian general. Its name was 
afterwards changed to PTOLEiiAis by one of the 
Ptolemies, probably Ptolemy the First ; to whose 
lot, upon the death of his master Alexander the 
Great, this part of his dominions eventually fell. 
But others suppose Accho owed its new appella- 
tion to Ptolemy Lathyrus, who lived long after- 
wards, and made war upon Jud^a, about 100 
years B.C., for the assistance it had rendered his 
mother Cleopatra in banishing him from the 
throne of Egypt. Ptolemais is frequently spoken 
of in the apocryphal writings, as the scene of 
many important events during the great struggle 
between the Jews and their enemies in the days 
of the Maccabees. Its inhabitants joined with 
the rest of the neighbouiing heathen in per- 
secuting the Jews, who at length besieged them 
for some time and got hold of the city, though 
eventually Jonathan Maccabseus was slain with- 
in its walls, 1 Mace. v. 15. 22. 55., x. 1. 56. 58. 60., 
xi. 22., xii. 45. 48. ; 2 Mace. xiii. 24, 25. It is 
also called Ptolemais in the New Testament, Acts 
xxi. 7.; where it is mentioned as the place at 
which St. Paul touched, and where he remained 
one day after his return from Greece and Mace- 
donia. It was named Ace by the Greeks, whose 
vanity led them to invent an origin for the 
appellation correspondent with their own lan- 
guage ; viz. that Hercules had there been healed 
of the serpent's bite. The Roman emperor 
Claudius gave it municipal rights, after which it 
was styled Colonia Claudii Ctesaris ; but the old 
native name always prevailed, and has survived 
the others ; for it is now called Acre, or St. Jean 
d'Acre, and by the Turks Akka. It is now a 
flonrishing town for this part of the world, and 
the capital of a pachalic of the same name. 



ACELDAMA. 



ACHMETHA. 



ACELDAMA (i. e. the Field of Blood), so 
called from its having been purchased by the 
priests and elders of the Jews with the 30 pieces 
of silver for which Judas betrayed his Master, 
Acts i. 19.; Matt, xxvii. 3—8. And because 
they affirmed it was not lawful to employ the 
money for sacred purposes, they bought this place 
to bury strangers in. It was a small field, out- 
side the walls of Jerusalem, beyond the brook of 
Siloam, on the S. side of the city ; and had been 
formerly called the Potter's Field, Zech. xi, 
13. ; Matt, xxvii. 7. 10. ; because (as is said) 
materials were dug out of it, of which pottery 
was made. Some suppose it to have been the 
same with the Fuller's Field, Isa. vii. 3. ; where 
they whitened cloth; but this is very doubt- 
ful. Helena, the mother of the Emperor Con- 
stantine, covered in part of the "Field" as a 
place of burial ; for which purpose it has been 
long used by the Armenian Christians, who have 
a convent on Mount Zion. 

ACHAIA, originally a small territory and in- 
dependent state, in the northernmost part of the 
Peloponnesus in Greece ; but it does not appear 
to be ever mentioned in the Bible, although 
some think that it, and not the province, is meant 
at Acts xviii. 27. ; Rom. xvi. 5. ; 1 Cor. xvi. 15. ; 
2 Cor. i. 1., xi. 10. ; but the Achaia spoken of in 
these passages can hardly be any other than the 
region known at the time imder this appellation. 
In the times of the Apostles the name was em- 
ployed by the Romans to designate a much 
larger extent of country, which, with their great 
province of Macedonia, embraced the whole of 
what they called Greece. Hence we find the two 
names of Achaia and Macedonia so often com- 
bined, as in Acts xix. 21. ; Rom. xv. 26. ; 
2 Cor. ix. 2. ; 1 Thess. i. 7, 8. This great province 
of Achaia (which must not be confounded with 
the little state of Achaia) included the whole of 
Peloponnesus, and what was then termed Hellas, 
and was at first governed by proconsuls under 
the senate. Tiberius changed it into an imperial 
province, and appointed procurators over it; 
but Claudius restored it again to the senate 
under the charge of proconsuls, one of whom was 
the deputy Gallio, before whom St. Paul was 
brought by the unbelie\ang Jews of Coiinth, 
Acts xviii. 12. Corinth appears to have been 
reckoned its chief city ; hence St. Paul, when 
commending the forward liberality of the Corin- 
thian believers, speaks of " Achaia " having been 
ready a year ago ; and hence, too, he mentions 
the house of Stephanas and Epenetus (appareutl}^ 
Corinthian converts) as the first fruits of 



" Achaia ;" and again, when rebuking the Corin- 
thians for their folly, and recounting his own 
labours among them, he declares no man should 
stop him of this boasting in the regions of 
" Achaia," 2 Cor. xi. 10. It was an important, 
laborious, and trying scene of the great Apostle's 
labours. Achaicus, mentioned by St. Paul, 1 Cor. 
xvi. 17., with kindness and commendation, pro- 
bably derived his name from this country ; and 
by him, together with Stephanas, Fortimatus, 
and Timotheus, St. Paul sent his first epistle to 
the Corinthians ; his second epistle is addressed 
not to the Corinthians only, but to all the saints 
in all Achaia. 

ACHMETHA, where was a palace of the kings 
of Persia, in which was found, B.C. 519., a copy 
of CjTTus's edict, permitting the Jews to return 
to their own country, Ezra vi. 2. The name is 
otherwise written Amatha or Ahmetha in the 
Septuagint. It is believed to be the same place 
with the ancient Ecbatana or Agbatana, sur- 
named Ecbatana Medorum and Ecbatana Me- 
diae, to distinguish it from another Ecbatana in 
Persia, a town of the Magi. In the margin of 
our Bible, Achmetha is rendered Ecbatana, or 
otherwise "in a coffer," some interpreters thus 
translating the original word ; i. e. the edict was 
found in a coffer, in the palace that is in the 
province of the Medes. But as this place would 
appear to have been the treasury of all the 
public records, Ezra vi. 1., and as the famous 
" palace " in Ecbatana was at this time a favourite 
residence of the Persian kings, there is no reason 
for disturbing our own text by unnecessarily 
translating a proper name, when so much had 
been said as to where the edict was found. 
Ecbatana, if not originally built, was at least en- 
larged and strengthened, by Dejoces, king of 
Media, about 728 years B.C. ; it was improved 
by Semiramis ; and further increased and beau- 
tified by Seleucus. It is said to have been 
encompassed with seven walls, each of a difierent 
colour, the largest of which was equal in extent 
to that of Athens ; and, owing to the ascent on 
which it was built, each wall rose one above an- 
other. Polybius and Diodorus Siculus say that 
the city itself had no walls ; but ^lian afiirms 
that its walls were thrown to the ground by 
Alexander the Great, in his grief at the death of 
Hephasstion, who died here. Ecbatana was the 
capital of Media and the residence of its kings. 
After the conquest of Cyrus, and the union of 
Media with Persia, it was made the residence of 
the Persian monarchs during the summer 
months, the winter palace being at Susa. It 



ACHOR, VALLEY OF. 



ADAM. 



7 



contained a very splendid palace, and a temple 
to Anaitis. The palace existed in the time of 
Josephus, and seems to be the same with the 
edifice or tower, which he says was built by the 
prophet Daniel (i. e. probably under his direc- 
tion) for Darius the Mede. Ecbatana was 
situated in the W. division of the province of 
Media, about a mile and a half from Mt. Orontes ; 
it is still a considerable place, called Hamadan, 
and contains upwards of 40,000 inhabitants. The 
tombs of Esther and Mordecai are shown here, 
apparently with truth. Others, however, place 
it where now Tauris stands. Ecbatana or Ecba- 
tane is mentioned frequently in the Apocr>'pha 
as a city of importance. In 1 Esd. vi. 23. the 
same account is given of the finding of Cjnrus's 
edict as in the canonical book of Ezra. Mention 
is likewise made of it in the book of Tobit, vi. 5., 
viL 1., xiv. 14., as the scene of certain wonders 
and the death of Tobias. In Judith i. 1, 2. 14. it 
is described as the royal city of Ai'phaxad, king 
of the Medes, who greatly strengthened it, but 
was at last overthrown by Nabuchodonosor, who 
reigned at Nineveh. In 2 Mace. ix. 3., it is 
mentioned as the place to which Antiochus 
Epiphanes retired after he had been chased from 
Persepolis, and from which he set out on his 
expedition to make Jerusalem a grave for the 
JcAvs, but met his death before he could reach it, 
B.C. 164. 

ACHOE, VALLEY OF (i. e. the Valley of 
Trouble), the place where Achan, the " troubler " 
of Israel, with his sons and daughters, was stoned 
to death by Joshua and the whole congregation 
for breaking the commandment of God in re- 
gard to the spoils of Jericho, upon which their 
bodies, and his cattle, and all his goods, and the 
concealed articles were burned with fire. The 
Israelites then raised a heap of stones over the 
ashes, which remained when the book of Joshua 
was wi-itten. Josh. vii. 24. 26. The name likewise 
occurs in the description of the boundary of 
Judah, Josh. xv. 7. ; whence it is manifest it was 
in the borders of Judah and Benjamin, close on 
the Salt Sea, and not far S.E. of Jericho. The 
prophets Isaiah, Ixv. 10., and Hosea, ii. 15., 
mention it in connection with the restoration of 
the Jews. In the days of Eusebius and Jerome 
the name was still in use. 

ACHSHAPH, a town in the N. part of the 
Land of Promise, belonging to the tribe of Asher, 
Josh. xix. 25., and probably inland, not far from 
the borders of Xaphtali. It was once a royal 
city of the Canaanites; but its king, having 
joined with Jabin, king of Hazor, and others, 



against Israel, was conquered and slain by Joshua 
at the Waters of Merom, Josh. xi. 1., xii. 20. 
Some have thought it was identical with Achzib ; 
but this is not likely, since they are both men- 
tioned as towns of Asher in the same paragraph, 
Josh. xix. 25. 29. Jerome says that in his time 
it was very small, and was named Chasalus. It 
seems to have lain to the S. of Tyre, and N.E. 
of Accho. 

ACHZIB, a town in the K of Canaan, on the 
shores of the Mediterranean, S. of Tyre, and W. 
of Achshaph. It was assigned to the children 
of Asher, Josh. xix. 29., who were unable to drive 
out its original inhabitants, Judg. i. 31. It is 
identified with Ecdippa, 9 Roman miles N. of 
Ptolemais according to Jerome, and now called 
Zib. 

ACHZIB, a town with villages belonging to it, 
in the plain country of the tribe of Judah, pro- 
bably near Keilah and IMareshah ; and so, not far 
from the borders of Simeon, Josh. xv. 44.; 
Mic. i. 14. It is supposed by some to have been 
the same with Chezib, Gen. xxxviii. 5., and 
Chozeba, 1 Chron. iv. 22., the countr}^ of Shelah, 
son of Judah. 

ADADAH, one of the uttermost S. towns of 
the tribe of Judah, on the borders of Edom, near 
Dimonah and Kedesh, Josh. xv. 22. 

ADAM, or Ado^i, a city near Zaretan and 
Succoth, in the plain of Jordan, and probably in 
the tribe of Manasseh on this side Jordan. It is 
mentioned. Josh. iii. 16., as the place at some 
distance from which the watei-s of the Jordan 
were cut off on the IST. side, that a ^xj passage 
over the bed of the river might be given to the 
children of Israel. Here, it is recorded, they 
" stood and rose up upon an heap" just as when 
the Israelites passed dryshod through the Red 
Sea, its "waters were a wall unto them on their 
right hand and on their left," Ex. xiv. 22. ; thus 
manifesting the miraculous working of Almighty 
power in their behalf. The whole bed of the 
Jordan, from the city Adam to the head of the 
Salt Sea, a space of about 40 miles, appears 
upon this occasion to have been left dry for the 
passage of the Israelites; although the actual 
point of their passage would seem to have been 
in front of Gilgal and Jericho, Josh. iv. 13. 19, 20. 
Some commentators place the city Adam close 
to the borders of the Salt Sea, making it and 
Zaretan the two extremities of the dry gi-ound ; 
but there are many reasons against such an 
arrangement. The name of the city Adam is 
thought, and not improbably, to have been de- 
rived from the red colom- of the clay in its 
B 4 



8 



ADAMA. 



ADMAH. 



neighbourliood, whicli was made use of by So- 
lomon for casting vessels for the temple service, 
1 Kgs. vii. 46. Cf. 2 Chron. iv. 17. 

ADAMA. .S'eeADMAH. 

AD AMAH, one of the fenced cities of the 
children of Naphtali, Josh. xix. 36. The Sep- 
tuagint writes the name Armath, the Vulgate 
Edema. 

AD AMI, another city in the tribe of Naph- 
tali, different from the foregoing, Josh. xix. 33., 
probably in the N. extremity of the country. 
Some authors add to its name that of the city 
Nekeb, which follows next in the text, writing 
the whole name Adami-Nekeb ; but there is no 
good authority for the union of the two words. 

ADAR, a place in the S. borders of the tribe 
of Judah, Josh. xv. 3., and consequently of the 
land of Canaan, touching upon Edom and the 
wilderness of Zin. In a later division of the 
country. Josh. xix. 1. 9., it probably fell within 
the limits of the tribe of Simeon, although it 
must have been close upon the borders of both 
tribes. It is called Hazar-Addar, Num. xxxiv. 
4. (i. e. the Court or Dwelling of Addar), by 
Moses, when declaring to the children of Israel 
what were to be the borders of their promised 
land. Eusebius places a town of this name in 
the neighbourhood of Diospolis or Lydda. 

AD ASA, the marginal reading for Gaza, 1 
Chron. vii. 28., described as one of the limits of 
Ephraim's habitations. It is supposed by some 
(but improbably) to be the same with 

AD AS A, a town mentioned 1 Mace. vii. 40. 
45., as the place near which Judas Maccabseus, 
with a force of only 3000 men, conquered 
the Syrian general Mcanor, with an army of 
35,000 men, chasing them hence to Gazera ; after 
which Nicanor was taken, and put to death. 
Josephus places Adasa 30 stadia from Bethoron, 
and Eusebius at no great distance from Gophna. 
From 1 Mace. vii. 39. 45., it would appear to be 
near Bethoron, and about a day's journey E. of 
Gazera, and so its situation would fall within 
the then limits of the land of Judah, and the old 
limits of the tribe of Ephraim. The name is also 
written Adarsa, Adazer, Adaco, and Acedosa by 
Josephus ; and is by some thought to be the same 
with Eleasa or Alasa, mentioned 1 Mace. ix. 5., 
and in the Vulgate called Laisa. Josephus in- 
forms us, that, in another war, Judas Maccabteus 
was killed at this place. 

ADD AN" or Addon, a place in Chaldjea or Me- 
sopotamia mentioned in Ezra ii. 59., Neh. vii. 61., 



as having been the residence of certain Israelites^ 
descendants of some of the Ten Tribes. These 
people, having been carried away captive long 
before the captivity of Judah, had lost the ge- 
nealogy of their families, and so, not being able 
to prove they were Israelites, they could not 
claim a settlement and particular possessions in 
the Land of Promise on the return from the Baby- 
lonish captivity, as the other Israelites did ; but 
still returned with them, from a desire of living 
amongst them, and of seeing the worship of 
God restored. Some critics make Addan the 
name of a Hebrew family, and not of a place. 

ADIDA, a town in the district of Sephela, in 
the land of J uda, probably not far from Bethel, 
on the declivity of the Hill Country in front of 
the BlediterraDcan' Sea. It was fortified by Si- 
mon, 1 Mace. xii. 38., and here he pitched his 
tents, xiii. 13., that he might dispute the entrance 
into the country with Tryphon, who had trea- 
cherously seized Jonathan and shut him up in 
Ptolemais. It is sometimes written Addida and 
Addus, and may have been the place called 
Adi or Aditha by Eusebius and Jerome. It 
is not unlikely to have been one and the same 
with Hadid, mentioned Ezra ii. 33.; Neh. vii. 
37., xi. 34. : others suppose it to have been called 
Adithaim in the time of Joshua, Josh. xv. 36. 

ADIN, whether the name of a place or family, 
uncertain. The children of Adin, Ezra ii. 15., 
Neh. vii. 20., mentioned along with many others 
as returning to the Promised Land from Babylon, 
belonged chiefly to the tribes of Judah and Ben- 
jamin, and probably derived their name from 
the place which they inhabited prior to the cap- 
tivity. 

ADITHAIM, a town in the inheritance of the 
tribe of Judah, probably in its N. W. part, towards 
Adullam and Azekah, Josh. xv. 36. Eusebius 
mentions two places called Aditha or Adatha 
(one towards Gaza, and the other near Lydda), 
one of which may have been the town here 
spoken of Adithaim is supposed by some to 
have been called Adida in the time of the Macca- 
bees. See Adida. 

ADMAH, one of the Five Cities of the Plain, 
which, for its wickedness, was destroyed by fire 
from heaven, and afterwards overwhelmed by 
the waters of the Salt Sea, b.c. 1898, together 
with Sodom, Gomorrah, and Zeboim, Gen. xix. 
21. 24, 25. ; Deut. xxix. 23. ; Hos. xi. 8. It was 
situated in the plain called formerly the Vale 
of Siddim, probably between Gomorrah and 
Zeboim, and is mentioned Gen. x. 19., as one of 



ADONIKAM. 



ADUMMIM. 



9 



the boundary cities of the Canaanites in this di- 
rection. It was governed by its own king, and 
■was in alliance with the four other Cities of the 
Plain. All the five had been conquered by Che- 
dorlaomer, king of Elam, and were in subjection 
to him 12 years, but then rebelled; whereupon 
four kings leagued together against these five ; 
viz. Amraphel, king of Shinar, Arioch, king of 
Ellasar, Chedorlaomer, king of Elam, and Tidal, 
king of Nations. The battle was fought in the 
Vale of Siddim, and the five Canaanitish kings 
were beaten. Lot was taken prisoner, but was 
eventually rescued by Abram, Gen. xiv. 2. 8. 
It has been supposed that Admah was not en- 
tirely destroyed, or else that the inhabitants built 
another town of the same name on the E. shores 
of the Salt Sea. The ground of this most unte- 
nable supposition is the following passage, which 
is found at the conclusion of the xv. chapter of 
Isa. as given in the Septuagint, though it does 
not occur in our translation : " I will destroy the 
oflPspring of Moab and the remnant of Adama." 

ADONIKAM, whether the name of a family 
or place is not known. The children of Ado- 
nikam, Ezra ii. 13., Neh. vii. 18., mentioned 
along with many others as returning after the 
Babylonish captivity to the promised land, be- 
longed chiefly to the two tribes of the kingdom of 
Judah. 

ADORA, 1 Mace. xiii. 20. ; or, 

ADORAIM, a city towards the centre of the 
tribe of Judah. It was fortified by Rehoboam 
2 Chron. xi. 9., and was probably situated be- 
tween Ziph and Lachish. It is probably the 
same with Adora, 1 Mace. xiii. 20., mentioned 
as the place near which Simon and Tryphon had 
some skirmishing, and which Josephus reckons 
to be what in his days was called Idumaea. 
It was probably the same with Ador and Dora. 

ADRAMYTTIUM, a maritime city of the 
province Mysia in Asia Minor, at the foot of 
Mt. Ida, and opposite the island of Lesbos : it is 
now called Adramyti. It was in a ship of Adra- 
myttium that St. Paul, Acts xxvii. 2., under 
the charge of a centurion, set sail from Caesarea 
for Rome, but was wrecked at Melita. Adra- 
myttium was an Athenian colony, and a place 
of considerable commercial importance. The 
name is variously spelled. The Adramyttium 
mentioned in the Acts has been placed by 
some, erroneously, at Hadrumetum on the N. 
coast of Africa, near Tunis. Others as wrongly 
have supposed it to be the same city ydth. that 
built by Alexander the Great at the Canopic 
mouth of the Nile in Egypt. 



ADRIA, the name applied. Acts xxvii. 27., to 
the sea in which St. Paul and his company 
were driven up and down for many days and 
nights. In a general way, the whole of the 
Adriatic, Ionian, and Sicilian Seas, was thus de- 
signated ; i.e. not only that arm of the Mediter- 
ranean which is now called the Gulf of Venice, 
but the adjacent tract of sea to the S. between 
Italy and Sicily on the W., and Greece and 
Crete on the E. Hence Ptolemy says that 
Sicily was bathed on the E. by the Adriatic ; and 
again that the same sea broke upon the W. shores 
of Crete. Strabo informs us that the Ionian 
Gulf was apart of that sea which in his time was 
called the Adriatic. This does away with the 
supposed necessity for placing the scene of St. 
Paul's shipwreck at the island now called 3Iele- 
da, some distance up the Adriatic Gulf, in order 
to reconcile the expression of his being driven 
up and down Adria, and thence to Melita. 

ADULLAM, a royal city in the S. of Canaan, 
the king of which was killed by the Israelites 
under Joshua, Josh. xii. 15. It fell within the 
limits of the tribe of Judah, and was in the 
Valley or Plain country, Josh. xv. 33. 35., near 
Makkedah and Eglon, and towards the springs 
of the Brook Eshcol. From the history of 
Judah and the Adullamite, we learn that it was 
an ancient city, Gen. xxxviii. 1. 12. 20. There 
was a famous cave in the rocks near it, called 
The Cave, or The Rock, or the Cave Adullajm, 
where David took refuge from Saul, and where 
his friends resorted to him, 1 Sam. xxii. 1. ; Ps. 
Ivii. title, cxlii. title. Here also he lay in wait 
for the Philistines, when they were encamped 
in the Valley of Rephaim, 2 Sara, xxiii 13. ; 1 
Chron. xi. 15. Adullam was fortified by Reho- 
boam, 2 Chron. xi. 7., and appears from Mic. i. 
15., to have been a place of considerable con- 
sequence, from some cause or other. It was 
sacked by the army of Sennacherib, in the reign 
of Hezekiah. It survived the Babylonian cap- 
tivity, and, together with its villages, is men- 
tioned, Neh. xi. 30., as having been inhabited by 
the children of Judah. It is called Odollam, 
2 Mace. xii. 38., and was the place whither Judas 
Maccabseus retired with his troops after the 
fight with Gorgias. Josephus likewise speaks 
of it under the name Odolam and Adullame; 
Eusebius and Jerome place it 10 nules E. of 
Eleutheropolis. 

ADULLAMITE. See Ajdulla^i. 

ADUMMIM, or Adummon (the Motnitain of 
Blood), a place in the S. pai-t of Canaan, near 
the head of the Salt Sea, whether a hiU only 



10 



AHCTADAB. 



or a town on a hill, is not known. The Going 
UP TO Adummevi, or Going up of Adummim, 
is mentioned, Josh. xv. 7., xviii. 17., as forming 
part of the common boundary between the tribes 
of Judah and Benjamin. It was evidently be- 
tween Jerusalem, and the entrance of the R. 
Jordan into the Salt Sea; probably only a few 
miles to the S.W. of Jericho, as the road from 
Jerusalem to Jericho passed through it. Jerome 
mentions a place in the wilderness of Jericho, 
called in his days Maledomim, i. e. the Red 
Ascent, on account of the blood which was there 
so frequently shed by robbers. It was on the 
main road between Jerusalem and Jericho, with 
a military post by way of affording more security 
to travellers. Our blessed Saviom-'s parable of 
the Good Samaritan is thought to point at this 
spot. It is still described as a narrow and diffi- 
cult pass, infested by sanguinary robbers. 

-^NON or Enon (i. e. the Place of Springs), 
a town or village not far from Salim, where 
John was baptizing after he left the neighbour- 
hood of Bethabara, Jo. iii. 23. That it was on 
this side Jordan, in Samaria, is manifest from 
Jo. iii. 26. ; if we may believe the report of 
Eusebius and Jerome, it was 8 miles to the S. of 
Scythopolis, and 53 N.E. of Jerusalem. It stood 
on the banks of R. Jordan, which may account 
for the expression concerning the abundance of 
water there. It is called Ain-yon, i.e. the 
Dove's Fountain, in the Persian and Syriac ver- 
sions ; and in the Arabic, the Fountain of N"un. 

AGAGITE, an appellative given in the book 
of Esther to Haman as well as to his progenitor 
Hammedatha, Esth. iii. 1. 10., viii. .3. 5., ix. 
24, owing, as it is thought, to Haman having 
been by descent an Amalekite, of the posterity 
of Agag, who was king of Amalek in the time 
of Saul, 1 Sam. xv. 8. ; excepting, indeed, Agag 
and Amalek were convertible names, Num. 
xxiv. 7. It is probable that Mordecai refused 
to do reverence to Haman on account of the 
curse under which he lay as being an Amalekite, 
Ex. xvii. 14. ; 1 Sam. xv. 2, 3. ; and it is proba- 
ble, Ukewise, that all the Jews did the same, 
otherwise there would have been no ground, even 
in the most malicious mind, for such a design of 
destro}dng the entire people. 

AGAG is thought by some to be another name 
for Amalek or the Amalekites, in the prediction 
of Balaam, Num. xxiv. 7., as Jacob was for the 
Israelites, and Esau for the Edomites ; and that 
Haman is called an Agagite in the book of 
Esther from his having been descended from 
this nation. Others think that Agag, Avho was 



put to death by Samuel, was in this passage pro- 
phesied of by name particularly, as Cyinis and 
Josiah were long before they were born; and 
others again, that Agag was the general name 
of the kings of Amalek, as Pharaoh was of the 
kings of Egypt, and Abimelech of the kings of 
the Philistines. 

AGARENES, Bar. iii. 23. See Hagaeenes. 

AHAVA, whether a river, a district, a city, or 
all these, be meant in the account of Ezra, is not 
known with any certainty. We read of "the 
river that runneth to Ahava," Ezra, viii. 15., 
and also of the River of Ahava, viii. 21. 31. It 
was here, that Ezra assembled the Jews who 
were about to return to their own land ; and here, 
having kept a solemn fast, they commenced 
their journey towards Jerusalem. Ahava is 
identified by some authors with the district 
Adiabene, in the N. part of Assyria; and the 
river with the R. Adiava, or Diava, running 
through that district, on which Ptolemy places 
a town called Aavane, or Abane. The Ava 
mentioned 2 Kgs. xvii. 24., is placed by some 
in this neighbourhood, but, as it would appear, 
without good reason, although it is evident that 
there were many Jews in this region, from the 
history of Izates, king of Adiabene, and Helena 
his mother, who were converted to Judaism 
some years after the death of our Lord Jesus 
Christ. In the apocryphal book of 1 Esd. viii. 
41. 61., this river is called Theras. 

AHAZ, UPPER CHAMBER OF, 2 Kgs. 
xxiii. 12., is supposed to signify the topmost 
room in the palace of Ahaz. The wicked 
Israelites were not satisfied with the public 
altars they had made in a vast number of high 
places; but the roofs of the houses being flat, 
they made altars there to Baal and the host of 
heaven, Jer. xix. 13., xxxii. 29. But such altars 
were not spared by Josiah, even on the king's 
palace; and Ahaz is known to have been one 
of those kings who in many ways copied the 
abominations and idolatries of the neighbouring 
heathen nations, 2 Kgs. xvi. 3, 4. 12—16. 

AHIMAAZ. The government or purveyor- 
ship of Ahimaaz was in Naphtali, 1 Kgs. iv. 15., 
in the N. part of the land of Judah. It was 
one of the twelve provinces into which Solomon 
divided his whole kingdom, the governors of 
which were to provide victuals for the king and 
his household, each man his month every year. 

AHINADAB. The purveyorship or govern- 
ment of Ahinadab, one of the twelve officers 
set over Israel by Solomon to provide for the 



AHIRAMITES. 



AIJA. 



11 



royal household, was round about Mahanaim, 

1 Kgs. iv. 14., in the central part of J iidsea be- 
yond Jordan. 

AHIRAMITES, a division of the tribe of 
Benjamin, enumerated Num. xxvi. 38., when 
the sum of all Israel was taken in the plains 
of Moab. They seem to have obtained their 
name from their chief Ahiram, or Ehi, as he is 
called Gen. xlvi. 21. ; or Aher, as in 1 Chron. 
vii. 12. 

AHLAB, a town in the territory of the tribe 
of Asher, from which the Israelites did not drive 
out the original inhabitants, Judg. i. 31. It 
seems to have been on the sea-coast to the S. of 
Zidon, but its situation is not known. 

AHOHITE, a name given to certain Ben- 
jamites descendants of Ahoah, the grandson of 
Benjamin, 1 Chron. viii. 4. Such were two of 
David's mighty men, Eleazar, the son of Dodo, 

2 Sam. xxiii. 9., 1 Chron. xi. 12. ; xxvii. 4 ; and 
Zalmon, 2 Sam. xxiii. 28. ; 1 Chron. xi, 29. 

AHOLAH, a symbolical name applied in 
Ezek. xxiii, 4, 5. 36, 44., to the kingdom of Sa- 
maria (as Aholibah was to that of Judah), sig- 
"nifying that she had a tent or tabernacle of her 
own ; i, e. her religion and worship were human 
inventions, devised by herself, 1 Kgs. xii, 33., 
2 Chron. xi, 15., to draw away worshippers 
from the tabernacle of God. Samaria and 
Judah are in this chapter described as two 
lewd sisters of Egyptian extraction ; the former 
being called the elder, probably from her taking 
the lead in wickedness, and including ten out 
of the twelve tribes. See Ezek. xvi, 46., where 
Sodom, for similar reasons as it would appear, 
is called Jerusalem's younger sister, the mother 
of Jerusalem being represented as an Hittite 
and her father as an Amorite. Judah and 
Samaria both prostituted themselves to the 
Egyptians and Assyrians, in imitating their 
abominations and idolatries, Ezek. viii. ; where- 
fore the Lord gave them into the power of those 
very nations, for whose impious rites they dis- 
played such excessive and impure affection. 
They were carried into captivity, and reduced 
to the severest slavery. The name is sometimes 
spelled Ahala and Ohola, 

AHOLIBAH (that is. Mi/ tabernacle in her'), 
a symbolical name apphed in Ezek, xxiii. 4. 11, 
22. 36. 44. to the kingdom of Judah, signifying 
that God had given to her a tabernacle and 
rehgious service, in contradistinction to the 
human devices of the Samaritan worship. The 
name is likewise written Ahaliba and Oholiba. 



It has been supposed that Aholah and Aholibah 
were well-known names of abandoned women. 
See Aholah. 

AT, one of the royal cities of Canaan, Josh, 
viii. 29., xii. 9., and of considerable antiquity, 
for near it Abram pitched his tent both before 
and after his going into Egypt, Gen, xii, 8., 
xiii, 3. It was situated to the E. of Bethel and 
beside Bethaven, Gen. xiii. 3. ; Josh. vii. 2., xii. 
9., and to the K W. of Jericho, in the tribe of 
Benjamin. Its name is likewise written Hai, 
Gen. xii. 8., xiii, 3., Vulg. ; Aith, Isa. x, 28, ; 
Aija, Neh. xi. 31, ; Gai or Angai, Sept. ; and 
Aina by Josephus. Joshua having detached 
about 3000 men against Ai, God permitted them 
to be repulsed on account of the trespass of 
Achan in the accursed thing, Josh, vii, 2, 3, 4, 5. 
But after the expiation of this offence, Joshua 
sent by night 30,000 men to lie in ambush 
behind Ai, and early the next morning marched 
upon it with the remainder of his army. The 
king of Ai, flushed with his former success, 
sallied hastily out of the city with his troops, 
and attacked the Israelites, who fled as if under 
great terror, and by this feint drew the enemy 
into the plain. When Joshua saw that the 
whole of them had come out of the gates, he ele- 
vated his spear as a signal to the ambuscade, 
which immediately entered the place, now with- 
out defence, and set it on fire. The people of 
Ai perceiving the rising smoke, endeavoui'ed 
to return, but found the ambuscade in their rear, 
whilst Joshua and his army were advancing 
upon them in front. Thus they were aU de- 
stroyed ; their king was taken and hanged, and 
their city made a desolation, b.c, 1451,, Josh, 
viii., X. 1, 2., xii, 9, Ai was afterwards rebuilt, 
and is spoken of by Isa. x, 28., under the 
name of Aiath, It was destroyed by Senna- 
cherib, but after the return from the Babylonian 
captivity, the men of Ai, its old inhabitants, of 
the stock of Benjamin, came back to their own 
homes, Ezra ii. 28., Neh. vii. 32,, and once 
again took up their residence in Aija (as ^it 
was then called) and its villages, Neh. xi. 31. 

AI, a city of the Ammonites, mentioned in 
connection with Heshbon and Eabbah of the 
Ammonites, Jer. xlix. 3., and probably near 
both. Some authors, however, render the name 
merely by an appellative. It must not be con- 
founded with the preceding, 

AIATH, another name for Ai, given Isa. s. 
28., where the prophet is describing the con- 
quest of Judtea by the king of Assyria, See Ai. 

AIJA appears to have been the name by 



12 



AJALON. 



Am, 



which the Israelitish city Ai was called after 
the return of the Jews fi'om their captivity in 
Babylon, when the Benjamites once again took 
up their residence in it, Neh. xi. 31. Some 
commentators make it a different town, but yet 
in the tribe of Benjamin, near Michmash and 
Bethel. 

AJALON or Aijalon (for the name is written 
both ways in our version) was one of the old 
Canaanitish cities, situated in a valley of the 
same name near Gibeon, Josh. x. 12. ; probably 
not far from Bethshemesh and Timnah, 2 Chron. 
xxviii. 18., and, as some think, on one of the 
declivities of Mt. Heres, Judg. i. 35. It has been 
rendered for ever famous from the sun and moon 
having there stood still at the command of Joshua, 
whilst Israel avenged themselves upon their ene- 
mies, Josh. X. 12. ; Hab. iii. 11. Though the 
Benjamites appear to have been connected with 
Ajalon, 1 Chron. viii. 13., yet in the division of 
the land it fell to the tribe of Dan, Josh. xix. 
42., and as a Levitical city was given with its 
suburbs for a possession to the sons of Kohath, 
Josh. xxi. 24. ; 1 Chron. vi. 69. ; but the Amo- 
rites, its old inhabitants, were never driven out, 
Judg. i. 35. It was the scene of a defeat given 
by Israel to the Philistines, when Saul's un- 
advised adjuration hindered the completion of 
the victory, 1 Sam. xiv. 31. Ajalon was for- 
tified by Eehoboam soon after the defection 
of the ten tribes, 2 Chron. xi. 10. ; but it was 
taken by the Philistines during the reign of 
Ahaz, king of Judah, 2 Chron. xxviii. 18. ; and, 
probably, it remained in their possession until the 
reformation effected by his son and successor 
Hezekiah. Some critics consider the city which 
was rebuilt by Eehoboam to have been a differ- 
ent one from that rendered famous under Joshua, 
and to have been situated nearer the Jordan; 
as Eusebius mentions an Ajalon 3 miles E. of 
Bethel, near Gabaa and Rama, and so within 
the bounds of Benjamin; and he distinguishes 
it from the Ajalon mentioned first in this article, 
and which is placed by Jerome 2 miles S.E. from 
Kicopolis. There appears, however, some con- 
fusion in the direction; and there are many 
reasons for believing that the places are one and 
the same. Ajalon is called iElon in the Septua- 
gint, iElom by Eusebius, and Elom by Josephus. 

AJALON, VALLEY OF, Josh. x. 12., in 
which stood the town of the same name. It 
was here that the sun and moon stood still at 
the command of Joshua, as a token to the Is- 
raelites that God was fighting with them against 
the five kings of the Amorites (viz. the kings 



of Jerusalem, Hebron, Jarmuth, Lachish, and 
Eglon) ; and, also, in order that they might have 
light to pursue and destroy their enemies. This 
valley appears to have been situated betwixt 
Mt. Heres, Mt. Baalah, and Mt. Seir, on each 
side of a little stream which communicates with 
the Brook Sorek; and travellers still speak of 
a valley in this neighbourhood, sufiiciently ex- 
tensive to allow the manoeuvring of a large army. 
Some critics, however, place the scene of this 
victoiy at one of the other Ajalons mentioned 
below. 

AIJALON", Josh. xxi. 24. ; Judg. i. 35. ; 1 Sam. 
xiv. 31. ; 1 Chron. vi. 69., viii. 13. ; 2 Chron. xi. 10. ; 
the same with Ajalon, in the tribe of Dan. See 
Ajalon. 

AIJALON, another city of the same name in 
the tribe of Zebulun, Judg. xii. 12., mentioned 
as the burying-place of Elon the Zebulonite, 
who was one of the Judges of Israel. 

Aijalon, spoken of Judg. i. 35., is thought by 
some to be the name of the district round the 
city so called, which included its suburbs and 
the neighbouring mount Heres; but this is 
doubtful. It appears in the subdivision of the 
land to have fallen to the lot of the tribe of 
Ephraim or Joseph; for though they could not 
drive the Amorites out of Aijalon, yet they made 
them tributaries. 

AIN or AEN (i.e. the spring), a prefix found 
combined with the proper names of several 
cities, as En-dor, En-gedi, En-rimmon, En- 
shemesh, En-rogel, En-eglaim, En-mishpat, &c. ; 
which see. 

AIN, a town in the S.W. part of Canaan, 
which at first was allotted to the tribe of Judah, 
Josh. XV. 32., but was afterwards assigned to the 
inheritance of Simeon, Josh. xix. 7. ; 1 Chron. iv. 
32. ; being close upon the common limits of these 
two tribes. It was eventually made over, as a 
Levitical city, to the children of Aaron, Josh. xxi. 
16. ; 1 Chron. vi. 59., in which latter place it is 
called Ashan. This was the only one out of the 
thirteen Levitical cities given to the priests, the 
children of Aaron, which did not fall within the 
limits of the tribes Judah and Benjamin, but, 
upon the revolt of the ten tribes, in the days of 
Eehoboam, Ain went over to the kingdom of 
Judah, and so by the special providence of God 
all the cities of the priests were kept in the 
true worship of Jehovah. As for the other 
Levitical cities, the Levites left them and came 
to Judah and Jerusalem ; for Jeroboam and his 
sons had cast them off from executing the priest's 
office unto the Lord, 2 Chron. xi. l3 — 17. Euse- 



AIN. 



ALEXANDRIA. 



13 



bius identifies Ain with a town which in his 
time was called Bethanin, 4 miles from Hebron, 
and which some suppose to be the Betane men- 
tioned Judith i. 9. ; but Ain was probably fur- 
ther K, towards the Brook Eshcol and the con- 
fines of Dan. It has likewise been supposed by 
some commentators, that the town called En- 
rimmon, ISTeh. xi. 29., and said to have been 
inhabited by the children of Judah after their 
return from Babylon, was none other than the 
old Ain : it was either the same place, or else it 
closely adjoined it. 

AIN", another city of the same name with the 
foregoing, described jS'um. xxxiv. 11. as lying on 
the N.E. frontiers of the Promised Land, between 
Mt, Hor and the Sea of Chinnereth. Blany 
interpreters think it denotes the springs of the 
Jordan, near Paneas; but, as this seems to 
overstep the general line of the boundary men- 
tioned Num. xxxiv. 9 — 12., others place this 
Ain farther south upon the shores of the Waters 
of Merom, and so within the line of demarcation. 
Jerome and the Vulgate make Ain to be the 
same with Daphne by Antioch, towards the K 
extremity of Syria ; but this position is wholly 
irreconcilable with the descriptions of Moses and 
the prophets. Others, again, think Ain desig- 
nates the source of the R. Orontes, now known 
as the Aaszy. 

AKKUB, CHILDREN OF, mentioned 
amongst the porters and Nethinims, as return- 
ing to Judah after the Babylonian captivity, 
Ezra ii. 42. 45, ; Neh. vii. 45. Whether they 
derived their name from the founder of their 
family, or from the city in Judah they formerly 
inhabited, is not known. 

AKRABBIM, ASCENT OF, Num. xxxiv. 4., 
called the going up to Akrabbim, Judg. i. 36., 
and Maaleh-Akrabbim, Josh. xv. 3. This last 
signifies the Ascent of Scorpions, and is supposed 
to have derived its name from the many scor- 
pions by which it was infested, and which are 
still found there by modern travellers. The name 
was applied to the whole or a part of the range 
of hills, between the Salt Sea and the Torrent 
of Egypt, and which, in the above-mentioned 
texts, is recorded to have formed the S. bor- 
ders of Judsea, separating it from Edom, and 
the Wilderness of Zin or Kadesh. It gave name 
to a neighbouring district, called Akrabettine 
or Akrabattene by Josephus, which in his time 
was inhabited by Edomites or Idumseans, and 
was the scene of some of Simon's military opera- 
tions ; and the same region appears to be spoken 
of 1 Mace. V, 3., under the name Arabattine, as 



the place where Judas fought against the chil- 
dren of Esau. This district must not be con- 
founded with another of the same name, farther 
N. towards Sichem, which is also mentioned by 
Josephus. See Arabattine. 

ALAMMELECH, a toAvn in the N.W. ex- 
tremity of the Promised Land, belonging to the 
tribe of Asher, Josh. xix. 26. ; probably at the 
foot of Anti-Lebanon and Mt. Carmel, not far 
from Accho or the modern Acre. 

ALEMA, a city beyond Jordan, in the land of 
Gilead or Galaad, where many of the heathen 
took post to harass the Jews, until they were 
driven out or destroyed by Judas Maccabseus, 
1 Mace. V. 26. It has been supposed, but appa- 
rently without foundation, to be the same place 
called Almondiblathaim, Num. xxxiii. 46., or 
else perhaps Beer-Elim, Isa. xv. 8. ; but these 
two places are in the regions of Moab, whereas 
Alema is in Gilead. 

ALEMETH, a Levitical city in the tribe of 
Benjamin, given with its suburbs for a dwell- 
ing-place to the sons of Aaron, 1 Chron. vi. 
60. In the parallel passage of Josh. xxi. 18.j 
it appears to be called Almon. 

ALEXANDRIA is mentioned in the Acts of 
the Apostles, xviii. 24,, as the birth-place of 
Apollos. In the same book, xxvii. 6,, we read 
that it was in a ship of Alexandria, which 
touched at Myra, St, Paul embarked when a 
prisoner, under the care of the Roman centu- 
rion Julius; and which being wrecked on the 
island Mehta, he and his companions were put 
on board another ship from the same city, Acts 
xxviii. 11., which had been wintering in the isle. 
The commerce of Alexandria being so great, 
especially in corn (for Egypt was considered the 
granary of Rome), the centurion might easily 
find a ship belonging to that city laden with 
com, sailing into Italy, at both of the above- 
mentioned places. Their landing place was 
usually Puteoli, Acts xxviii. 13. — Alexandria 
was situated on the N.W. coast of Egj^pt, on 
a tongue of land between the Mediterranean 
Sea and the Lake Mareotis. It was founded 
by Alexander the Great, B.C. 332, on the shores 
of the haven of Pharos, Alexander died at Ba- 
bylon, whence his body, having been enclosed in 
a golden cofiin and brought to Alexandria in a 
splendid car, was placed in a temple dedicated 
to his memory. What became of his remains is 
not known, farther than that Seleucus Cibyo- 
factes is said to have carried oft' the golden 
cofiin and put a glass one in its room. Alex- 
andria was first inhabited by colonies of Greeks 



14 ALEXANDEIA. 



ALLON-BACHUTH. 



and Jews. The latter people assembled there 
by degrees in great numbers, in consequence of 
the declension of their own state; enjoying, by 
Alexander's permission, not only ample religious 
freedom, but being allowed their own tribunals, 
a particular quarter of the city, and many other 
privileges, so as entirely to have equal rights 
with the Greeks, Philo, who himself lived there 
in the time of our blessed Saviour, affirms that 
the Jews inhabited two-fifths of the whole city ; 
and in the year a,d. 67, whilst the feud was 
raging between the Eomans and the Jews which 
ended in the destruction of Jerusalem, 50,000 
Jews are said to have been put to death at 
one time in Alexandria. Alexandria rose rapidly 
into importance and dignity, and became the 
metropolis of Egypt, and the residence of the 
Ptolemies. Its admirable situation caused it to be 
the centre of commercial intercourse between the 
East and the West, and both in magnitude and 
•wealth it yielded at last only to Rome itself. 
The city was about 15 miles in circuit, contain- 
ing a free population of 300,000, and as many 
more slaves. Its palaces, temples, theatres, &c., 
•were most numerous and splendid, and the cele- 
brated light-house or watch-tower of Pharos 
(built on the island of Pharos), on the top of 
which fires were kept constantly burning for the 
direction of mariners, was reckoned one of the 
seven wonders of the world. During the reigns of 
the earlier Ptolemies, the most celebrated philo- 
sophers, both of Greece and Pome, resorted to 
Alexandria for instruction, and eminent men 
in every department of knowledge were found 
within its walls. Ptolemy Soter founded a famous 
library of 700,000 volumes, and added to the 
glory of the city in many ways. It was under 
Ptolemy Philadelphus, according to Aristseus, 
that the Greek or Alexandrine version of the 
Old Testament Scriptures was made here by 72 
learned Jews; and hence it is called the 
Septuagint, or Version of the Seventy. The 
marvellous matters with which the narration of 
Aristseus is adorned, are probably worthy of but 
little credit; but of the fact that certain Jews 
here collected together Greek translations of the 
Old Testament, or else translated them them- 
selves into that universal language, there is no 
doubt ; and that this translation was not only 
used in, but actually recognised by, the earlier 
Christian churches, as well as by some of the 
Apostles, has been repeatedly proved. At the 
death of Cleopatra, b.c. 26, Alexandria passed 
into the hands of the Eomans, under whom it 
became the scene of many memorable events. 
We learn from Eusebius, that the Gospel was 



first introduced into Alexandria by St. Mark, 
who, according to less authentic accounts, suf- 
fered martyrdom here about a.d. 68. The 
Jewish and Christian schools in this city were 
long held in the highest esteem; and there 
is reason to believe that the latter, besides pro- 
ducing many eloquent preachers, paid much 
attention to multiplying copies of the Holy 
Scriptures. The famous Alexandrine Manu- 
script, now deposited in the British Museum, is 
well known. For many years Christianity con- 
tinued to flourish at this seat of learning, but 
at length it became the source, and for some 
time continued the stronghold of the Arian 
heresy, which took its name from its founder, 
Arius, a presbyter of the church of Alexandria 
about A.D. 315, whose evil doctrines were con- 
demned by the general council held at Nice, 
A.D. 325. At length, a.d. 646, weakened by 
intestine divisions, Alexandria submitted to the 
arms of the Caliph Omar, who, with ruthless 
barbarism, employed its splendid library as fuel 
for the baths. With this event, the sun of 
Alexandria may be said to have set; but it 
continued to languish, until, in the 15th centur}'-, 
the passage round the Cape of Good Hope fur- 
nished a new channel for the trade which had 
been so long its support, and then it sank into 
apparently hopeless ruin. It ^is now somewhat 
re^dving. Alexandria still preserves its old 
name, although, according to the pronunciation 
of the inhabitants, it is written Iskenderieh or 
Scanderia. It occupies only about one-eighth 
part of the old city, and contains a mixed popula- 
tion of Copts, Turks, Jews, Armenians, and Arabs, 
in all about 12,000 souls. — In the Vulgate, the 
Hebrew No-Ammon is often rendered Alexan- 
dria, ex. gr. Jer. xlvi. 25.; Ezek. xxx. 14.; 
Nah. iii. 8. ; but this is manifestly an error. 

ALEXANDRIANS, THE, are mentioned 
Acts vi. 9., in connection with the Libertines, 
Cyrenians, and others, as having had a separate 
synagogue at Jerusalem, and as having been 
concerned in the disputation' with Stephen, 
which ended in the protomartyr's death. They 
were Alexandrian Jews great numbers of whom 
inhabited that celebrated capital of Egypt. See 
Alexandria. 

ALLON, a town in the N. part of the Land of 
Promise, belonging to the tribe of Naphtali, Josh, 
xix. 33., and apparently close on the confines of 
Syria. 

ALLON-BACHUTH (i.e. the Oak of Weep- 
ing), Gen. XXXV. 8., a place in the tribe of 
Benjamin, beneath Bethel, where, under an oak. 



ALMOl:^'. 



AMALEKITES. 



15 



Deborah, Eebekah's nurse, was buried. What 
is here called an oak is supposed by critics to 
have been the terebinth, a high tree with ever- 
green leaves, and bearing a kind of fruit which 
is commonly found in Palestine. Such trees, 
standing singly by themselves, appear from the 
earliest times to have marked out well-known 
localities: Gen. xxxv. 4. 8.; Judg. vi. 11. 19.; 
1 Chron. x. 12., &c. 

ALMON, a city of the tribe of Benjamin, 
given with her suburbs to the priests, the sons of 
Aaron, Josh. xxi. 18. It is called Alemeth in 
the parallel passage at 1 Chron. vi. 60. ; where, 
in the margin, our translation has Almon. 
Some identify it with Bahurim, but this is 
doubtful. 

ALMON-DIBLATHAIM, one of the stations 
where the Israelites encamped on their way to 
Canaan, in the land of the Amorites, close to 
the mountains of Abarim, before Nebo, Num. 
xxxiii. 46, 47., and to the N. of the station 
Dibon-gad. It was probably close to the banks 
of the R. Arnon ; and near it some suppose the 
small town of Beth-diblathaim to have stood, 
Jer. xlviii. 22. 

ALOTH, a place mentioned 1 Kgs. iv. 16., as 
being in the government of Baanah, the son of 
Hushai. It was probably either near, or in, the 
tribe of Asher ;' but whether a district or a city is 
unknown. Cf. Bealoth. 

ALUSH, a station of the Israelites between 
Dophkah and Rephidim, Gen. xxxiii. 13, 14., 
likewise written Allush. It has been identified 
by some authors with Chellus, Judith i. 9., from 
its being mentioned together with Kades and 
the River of Egypt ; but this position of Chellus 
may be questioned. Eusebius and Jerome fix 
Alush in Idumasa, about Petra or Gabala, as they 
appear to call the capital of Arabia Petrsea: 
and in the Notitia, Eluza or Chaluza (which 
some fancy is Alush) is placed in Palsestina 
Tertia ; thus agreeing with Ptolemy's position of 
the same town, viz. in the region of Idumcea. 
But notwithstanding all this, Alush must be very 
differently situated; for, from the account of 
Moses, it lay about midway E. and W. between 
the Red Sea and Mt. Sinai, and so far to the 
S. of Petra and Idumaja. The Jerusalem Tar- 
gum on Gen. xxv. 18., Ex. xv. 22., translates the 
Desert of Shur by Allush. 

AMAD, a town in the K of Canaan, which, 
in the division of the land under Joshua, fell 
to the lot of the tribe of Asher, Josh. xix. 26. 
Its situation is not known. 



AMALEK, Ex. xvii. 8, 9, 10, 11. 13, 14. 16. ; 
Numb. xxiv. 20. ; Deut. xxv. 17. 19. ; Judg. v. 
14. ; 1 Sam. xv. 2, 3. 5. 20., xxviii. 18. ; 2 Sam. 
viii. 12., 1 Chron. xviii. 11.; Ps. Ixxxiii. 7. ; 
otherwise 

AMALEK, CHILDREN OF, Judg. lii. 13. ; 

the same with the 

AMALEKITES, an ancient and powerful 
people in Arabia Petrsea, bounded by the Ca- 
naanites on the N. ; the Moabites, Kenites, Ish- 
maelites, and Midianites, on the E. ; Egypt on 
the W. ; and the Red Sea on the S. They 
appear at one time or other to have inhabited 
the whole peninsula of Bit. Sinai, living pro- 
bably a roving and predatory life, like their suc- 
cessors the Bedouin Arabs. We find them 
mentioned as dwelling near the S. limits of the 
Promised Land, Num. xiii. 29., and as opposing 
Israel at Bit. Horeb, Ex. xvii. 8 — 16., conse- 
quently occupying the whole region between 
Canaan and the Red Sea ; and again, as inha- 
biting the country between Havilah and Shur, 
over against Egypt, 1 Sam. xv. 7., i.e. the 
whole region between Moab and Midian on the 
E. and Egypt on the W. : thus occupying a 
country greater in extent than the old land of 
Canaan. 

They were in alliance with the Bloabites and 
Ammonites, Judg. iii. 13.; with the Blidianites, 
Judg. vi. 1 — 3. ; with the Kenites, 1 Sam. xv. 6., 
in the neighbourhood of the Philistines and 
Egypt, 1 Sam. xv. 7., xxvii. 7, 8. 10. ; and in 
the neighbourhood of Mt. Seir, 1 Chron. iv. 42, 
43. They are thought, likewise, to have at one 
time possessed a territory within the limits of 
the tribe of Ephraim Judg. v. 14., xii. 15., and 
that, having been driven thence, or destroyed, 
their old place of abode came to be called the 
Mt. of the Amalekites. The Septuagint renders 
Maachathi, Deut. iii. 14., Josh. xii. 5., xiii. 11. 
13., in the land of Bashan by the "kings of the 
Amalekites ; " which at least shows how exten- 
sively the authors of that translation believed 
this nation to be scattered about. Josephus 
reckons Amalekitis to Idumsea, and speaks of 
it as the environs of Petra; yet Eusebius de- 
scribes it as lying to the S. of Judaaa and Petra, 
towards Aila ; but the Amalekitis of their days 
was doubtless only the relic of the old and 
much more extensive region. The Amalekites 
were governed by a king, whose name seems 
to have been Agag, Num. xxiv. 7.; 1 Sam. 
XV. 9., as Pharaoh was the name of the kings 
of Egypt ; and some critics have supposed that 
Agag was used as another name for Amalek, 



16 



AMALEKITES. 



as Jacob was for the Israelites, and Esau for the 
Edomites. It does not appear that they pos- 
sessed any regularly built cities, although one 
is mentioned 1 Sam. xv. 5. ; but that they had 
congregated dwelling-places, there is no doubt. 

The origin of the Amalekites is a subject much 
disputed. Some are disposed to make Amalek, 
the grandson of Esau, the founder of the na- 
tion ; but, if by this is meant that he was the 
great progenitor of the race, as Jacob was of 
the Israelites, or Ishmael of the Ishmaelites, it 
would appear that the supposition cannot be 
sustained ; for we know, from Ex. xvii., that 
notwithstanding the vast number of the Israel- 
ites, the power of the Amalekites was so great 
as to render the battle at Eephidim apparently 
doubtful for many hours, and to last until the 
going down of the sun; and again, Balaam, 
Num. xxiv. 20., calls Amalek the Jirst [Heb. 
the head'] of the nations : " both which particu- 
lars vender improbable so modern a derivation 
of the Amalekites, when it is considered that 
the generation then living was only the third 
in descent from Amalek himself, as appears by 
the following comparative genealogy: — 

1. Esau. 1. Jacob. 

2. Eliphaz. 2. Levi, 

3. Amalek. 3. Kohath. 

4. 4. Amram. 

5. 5. Aaron. 

(Gen. xxxvi. 9—12. ; (Ex. vi.l6— 20. ; 

1 Chron. i. 35, 36.) 1 Chrom vi. 1—3.) 

Added to which, it may be stated, that in Gen. 
xiv. 7., the four confederate kings are recorded 
to have smitten all the country of the Amale- 
kites; that is to say, about three generations 
before this Amalek was born. But if, on the 
other hand, by Amalek's being the founder of 
the nation, it is only meant that he communi- 
cated his name to a people already of consider- 
able importance (a circumstance which finds 
many a parallel in the history of nations), 
there is nothing in Holy Scripture that would 
seem to contradict this: indeed, "the country" 
of the Amalekites being mentioned. Gen. xiv. 7., 
as having been smitten, and not the people 
themselves, whereas all the other nations that 
were conquered are mentioned by name, would 
appear to favour the conjecture. 

Against this supposition, however, three 
things are usually brought forward : — 1. That 
Moses never reproaches the Amalekites as at- 
tacking their brethren the Israelites ; an aggra- 
vating circumstance, which, it is presumed, he 
would not have omitted if they had been really 



descended from Esau, and by consequence bre- 
thren to the Israelites. 2. The Amalekites are 
almost always joined in Scripture with the 
Canaanites, Philistines, and other native tribes, 
but never with the Edomites ; and when Saul 
destroyed Amalek, the Edomites do not ap- 
pear either to have assisted or avenged them. 
3. The Arabians have a constant tradition, that 
Amalek was a son of Ham, and count the Ama- 
lekites to have been of pure Arab blood, whilst 
they 'include the posterity of Ishmael amongst 
those of mixed descent. From all of which it is 
argued, that Ham is far more likely to have 
been the father of the Amalekites, than the 
grandson of Esau ; and that their thorough ex- 
tirpation, in this view of their descent, accords 
with the curse pronounced upon Canaan, Gen. 
ix. 25., and with what is recorded^ concerning 
the seven devoted tribes that formed the bulk 
of this nation. Moreover, it has been supposed, 
from 1 Chron. iv. 40., that the Amalekites are 
the people actually pointed at in the expression, 
" they of Ham ; " as the land which the Simeon- 
ites are there said to have taken in possession, 
must have been either a part of, or closely bor- 
dering on, Amalek's territory. 

The Amalekites are first mentioned in the 
Bible, Gen. xiv. 7., on the occasion of their 
country having been smitten by the four con- 
federate kings, Amraphel, king of Shinar, Arioch, 
king of Ellasar, Chedorlaomer, king of Elam, 
and Tidal, king of Nations, B.C. 1917; in con- 
sequence, possibly, of their taking part with the 
Five Cities of the Plain, or encouraging them 
in their rebellion against Elam. The next time 
they appear in Sacred History, is when they 
attacked the Israelites, b.c. 1491, very soon 
after they had passed the Red Sea. The battle 
took place in Eephidim, close to Mt. Sinai, Ex. 
xvii. 8 — 16., when Joshua, at the command af 
Moses, went out against Amalek, and after a 
severe contest, which lasted until the going down 
of the sun, defeated them. Moses was upon the 
mountain with Aaron and Hur, holding up his 
hands to heaven for the success of Israel against 
their enemy ; " and it came to pass so long as he 
held up his hand Israel prevailed, and when he 
let down his hand Amalek prevailed. But 
Moses' hands were heavy ; and Aaron and Hur 
stayed up his hands, the one on the one side, the 
other on the other side; and his hands were 
steady until the going down of the sun." So 
that if God had not specially interfered on be- 
half of his people, the great strength of the 
Amalekites would have prevailed against Israel. 
After the conquest of Joshua the Lord com- 



AMALEKITES. 



AMANA. 



17 



manded Moses to write the whole transaction 
in a book, and rehearse it in the ears of Joshua, 
with this denunciation against the Amalekites, 
that He would utterly put out their remem- 
brance from under heaven. During the follow- 
ing year, the twelve spies on their return to 
Moses from Canaan, Num. xiii. 29., mentioned 
the Amalekites as dwelling in the land of the 
South (or, as it is said Num. xiv. 25., " in the 
Valley ") ; and upon the Israelites further trans- 
gressing after they had murmured against God, 
by endeavouring to force their way into Canaan, 
contrary to His express command, they wero 
driven from its borders by the Amalekites even 
to Hormah, Num. xiv. 43. 45. About forty 
years afterwards (b.c. 1452), when Balaam had 
been hired by Balak, king of Moab, to curse 
Israel, that wicked prophet is represented as 
looking downi from his hill altar upon Amalek, 
Num. xxiv. 20., and prophesying that he should 
perish for ever ; and Moses, the following year, 
repeats this prediction in the ears of the Israel- 
ites, not long before his death, Deut. xxv. 17. 19. 

The Amalekites are often spoken of in the 
book of Judges. They united A?ith Egion, king 
of Moab, Judg. iii. 13., in oppressing Israel for 
many years (b.c. 1354), until the latter regained 
their liberty under Ehud; and are likewise 
spoken of by Deborah, Judg. v. 14,, as having 
been opposed by the tribe of Ephraim. In the 
time of Gideon (b.c. 1256) they leagued with 
the Midianites and the Children of the East, 
Judg. vi. 3. 33,, vii. 12., x. 12., for the spoil and 
destruction of the Israelites ; until, on the re- 
pentance of the latter people, God was mercifully 
pleased to raise them up 'a deliverer in Gideon. 

After this, we hear nothing about the Amalek- 
ites until the time of Saul (b.c. 1087), when 
he defeated them in battle, 1 Sam. xiv. 48., as 
well as all the neighbouring nations that for 
years before had been harassing Israel. Eight 
years after this, he was specially sent by Samuel, 
at the command of God, to destroy Amalek 
utterly, " man and woman, infant and suckling, 
ox and sheep, camel and ass," 1 Sam. xv. 2, 3. 5, 
6, 7, 8. 15. 18. 20, 32. He accordingly marched 
against them with a great arniy, smote them 
from Havilah to Shur, and took Agag their king 
prisoner ; but, contrary to the express command 
that had been given him, spared the best of the 
cattle and moveables, for which sin he was 
rejected by God from being king over Israel, 
1 Sam. xxviii. 18. It is evident too, that he 
must have spared some of the people, or else 
that many of them escaped the doom denounced 
against them ; for twenty years afterwards, we 



find David, 1 Sam. xxvii. 8. 12., marching from 
Ziklag against them, and destroying all the 
Amalekites to the S. of the Promised Land with 
whom he could meet. This brought about a 
retaliation; for only a few months afterwards, 
shortly before Saul's death, when David was 
marching along with the Philistines to the battle 
in Gilboa, the Amalekites came and burned 
Ziklag, 1 Sam. xxx. 1. 13. 18. ; 2 Sam. i. 1. ; 
upon which they were once more attacked and 
smitten by him. It is remarkable that it was 
by the hand of an Amalekite that Saul finally 
met his death, 2 Sam, i. 8. 10. Whether the 
spoils of Amalek, mentioned 2 Sam. viii. 12., 1 
Chron. xviii. 11., as having been dedicated to 
the Lord by David, were those obtained by him 
in the atfair of Ziklag or in a subsequent battle, 
is not known with any certainty ; although, from 
a comparison of Ps. Ixxxiii. 7. with David's his- 
tory, the latter has been thought to be the case. 

The last time we meet with any account of 
the Amalekites in the inspired volume, is in the 
days of Hezekiah, king of Judah, about b.c. 
720, when certain of the Simeonites are recorded 
to have gone to Mt. Seir, 1 Chron. iv. 43., and 
to have smitten "the rest of the Amalekites 
that had escaped and dwelt there " — when, as 
it wou.ld appear, the fearful wrath denounced 
against them was fulfilled. 

^ AMALEKITES, MOUNT OF THE, men- 
tioned, Judg. xii. 15., as the buiying-place of 
Abdon, one of the Judges of Israel. It was in 
the land of Ephraim, near the town of Pirathon, 
in the neighbourhood of Shechem and Mt. 
Gerizim, about midway between the Jordan and 
the Mediterranean Sea. 

AMAM, a town in the S. part of the territory 
originally assigned to the tribe of Judah, Josh. 
XV. 27. ; but which is thought to have been after- 
wards transferred to the tribe of Simeon. Cf. 
Josh. XV. 1—4. 27., xix. 9. 

AMANA, the marginal reading at 2 Kgs. 
V. 12. for Abana, one of the rivers of Damascus, 
spoken of by Naaman the Sji-ian, when he 
refused to wash in Jordan. See Ab^usta. 

AMANA, a mountain mentioned by Solomon, 
So. of Sol. iv. 8., in connection with Lebanon, 
Shenir, and Hermon; all which being in the 
N. extremity of the Land of Promise towards the 
springs of the Jordan, Amana is thought to be 
in that neighbourhood likewise. It was probablv 
a name given to a spur of the Anti-Lebanon, 
joining Mt. Hermon, which contains the source 
of the Jordan, and was subsequently called 
C 



18 AMATHIS, LAND OF. 



AMMONITES. 



Pauenin, now Gehel Sheikh. But some com- 
mentators identify it with Lit. Amanus, now 
called Almadaghy, which forms the N". frontier 
of Syiia, and separates it from the province of 
Cilicia in Asia Minor; urgir'; that Solomon's 
dominions extended as far N. as this, and that 
the Jewish writers count the whole territory to 
the S. of Amana to be Avithin the limits of Israel. 
There is, however, no reason to suppose that a 
mountain so very remote as the Amanus, is 
alluded to in the Canticles; or that the Jewish 
description of the IST. limits of the land of Israel 
tallies with the Syrian mountain; for in fact 
it was more than 200 miles to the N. of the land 
of Israel. Eather as the Lebanon and Anti- 
Lebanon are known to have then borne, as they 
still bear, various names, Amana may have been 
peculiar to a spur or peak of what was latterly 
named Mt. Paneum, between Hermon, Shenu', 
and Lebanon. 

AMATHIS, LAND OF, or At^iathitis, a name 
apphed to the district or territory round Hamath, 
a famous city of Syria, on the K. Orontes. It 
was hither that Jonathan withdrew from Jeru- 
salem, 1 Mace. xii. 25., when about to engage 
with the forces of Demetrius. 

AMI or AMON, THE CHILDREN OF, Ezra 
ii. 57.; Neh. vii. 59.; certain of the children of 
Solomon's servants, so called, who returned to 
Jerusalem after the edict of Cyrus. Whether 
they obtained this name from the founder of 
their family, or from some town in Judfea which 
they inhabited prior to the captivity, is not 
known. 

AMMAH, HILL OF, 2 Sam. ii. 24., a hill in 
the ]Sr. part of the tribe of Benjamin, before Giah, 
and towards the Wilderness of Gibeon. Here 
probably Asahel was killed by Abner. It was 
to this place that Joab and Abishai pursued 
Abner, after the mortal skirmish at the foot of 
Gibeon, between twelve of David's servants and 
twelve of the followers of Ishbosheth; and it 
was here that the truce was entered into between 
Abner and Joab. 

AMIMI {my People), an appellation given to 
the Ten Tribes after their rejection by God, 
signifying their restoration to His favour and 
blessing, Hos. ii. 1. 

AMMIDOI, 1 Esd. v. 20., mentioned in the 
apocryphal catalogue of those who returned 
home to Jerusalem after the Babylonian cap- 
tivity. What place is meant by it is not known. 

AMMON, Ps. Ixxxiii. 7. ; Neh. xiii. 23.; or 
mor frequently 



AMMON, CHILDREN OF, otherwise the 

AMMONITES, a powerful nation descended 
from Ammon or Ben-ammi, the younger son of 
Lot, through his incestuous intercourse with his 
own daughter, Gen. xix. 30—38. After the 
destruction of the Cities of the Plain (b.c. 1898) 
Lot and his two daughters left Zoar, and dwelt 
in the neighbouring mountain, probably fearing 
the vengeance of the people, or lest their wicked- 
ness should eventually draw down upon them a 
similar catastrophe to that which had befallen 
the four other cities. Here his two sons, Moab 
and Ammon, were bora, who, as their posterity 
increased, began to occupy the whole country 
to the N.E. ; Moab settling in the more S., and 
Ammon in the more N. part. This region was 
open to their possession, as it would appear from 
the slaughter made of its old inhabitants, the 
Zuzims and Zamzummims, about twenty years 
before by Chedorlaomer, king of Elam, and the 
three other kings in league with him, Gen. xiv. 
5. ; whom it is expressly said Deut. ii. 19, 20, 
21., the Lord destroyed, giving their land for a 
possession to the Ammonites. 

The land of the children of Ammon appears 
to have been originally bounded on the S. by the 
R. Arnon, on the W. by the R. Jordan, on the 
N. by the R. Jabbok, and on the E. by the 
deserts of Arabia, Judg. xi. 13. 22. ; but they 
were subsequently compelled to retreat from the 
neighbom"hood of the Jordan by the Amorites, 
giving up the larger and richer portion of their 
territory and retiring to the E. of that range 
of mountains which connects Mt. Gilead with 
Mt. Abarim, and which eventually formed their 
W. frontiers ; hence at Num. xxi. 24. it is said, 
"the border of the children of Ammon was 
strong." It is this reduced dominion which is 
usually described in the Scriptures as the king- 
dom of Ammon, or rather the land of the 
children of Ammon ; the R. Jabbok in some 
part of its course still forming part of their N.W. 
border, Deut. iii. 16. ; Josh. xii. 2., xiii. 10. ; as 
Avell as Gilead and Bashan, whilst the deserts of 
Arabia continued to be their iiTegular line of 
demarcation on the E. They thus touched upon 
the possessions of the three trans -Jordanic tribes, 
Reuben, Gad, and Manasseh, after the conquest 
of the country under Moses. They were governed 
by a king, Judg. xi. 12. ; 2 Sam. xii. 30. ; and 
their chief city was Rabbath or Rabbah, Deut. 
iii. 11. ; 2 Sam. xii. 26., situated on one of the 
branches of the R. Jabbok. They were gross 
idolaters, Judg. x. 6., their chief idol being 
Milcom or Blolech. Solomon, having married an 



AMMONITES. 



19 



Ammonitess, by whom he had Rehoboam, 1 Kgs. 
xiv. 21. 31., 2 Chron. xii. 13., built a high place 
to this idol on the hill before Jerusalem, and to 
it his people offered sacrifice, 1 Kgs. xi. 1 — 7. 38. ; 
2 Kgs. xxiii. 13. ; Amos v. 26. ; Acts vii. 43. 

The Ammonites not only refused giving as- 
sistance to the Israelites, as the latter people ad- 
vanced to the possession of the Promised Land, 
but hkewise joined Moab in hiring Balaam to 
cm-se Israel ; and for this, both Ammonites and 
Moabites were not permitted to enter into the 
congregation of the Lord even to the tenth 
generation, Deut. xxiii. 3, 4, ; Neh. xiii. 1. 2. 
When the Israelites, under the conduct of Moses 
(B.C. 1451), were drawing near to the li. Ar- 
non, they were forbidden by God to distress or 
meddle with the children of Ammon, because 
He had given to the latter the country they 
then occupied for a possession, Deut. ii. 19, 20. 
87. ; 2 Chron. xs. 10. But through that larger 
portion of territory from which they had been 
recently driven by the Amorites, and which 
then formed a part of the kingdom of Sihon, 
Israel asked Sihon's leave to pass, promising to 
go by the highway, and to pay for all that they 
needed on their march ; which permission being 
refused by Sihon, he and the Amorites were 
attacked and conqviered by Israel, and his do- 
minions divided between the two tribes of Reuben 
and Gad, Num. xxi. 21. 24. 32. ; Josh. xiii. 25. ; 
Deut. iii. 16. The Ammonites were thus ex- 
cluded for ever from the rightful possession of 
this portion of countiy, by the Almighty's direc- 
tion ; but still they did not give up their claim 
to it, or abstain from open violence against the 
Israelites. For, about 100 years afterwards, 
when Othniel had died, they joined their 
brethren the Moabites, under Eglon, Judg. iii. 
13., and, leagued with them, they smote Israel, 
took the City of Palm Trees, and committed 
other oppressions until they were put down by 
Ehud. The}'- appear to have then refrained 
from open violence, until the days of Jephthah 
(B.C. 1161), when they made their former pos- 
session of Sihon's kingdom a plea for attacking 
Israel, as though the latter people had usiu'ped 
what really belonged to the Ammonites: they 
accordingly invaded Gilead, passed the Jordan, 
and falling upon Judah, Benjamin, and Ephraim, 
kept the children of Israel more or less in sub- 
jection for eighteen j'ears, Judg. x. 6, 7. 9. 11. 
17, 18. But Jephthah the Gileadite convicted 
them of wrong, and finally repulsed them with 
great slaughter, Judg. xi. 4, 5, 6. 8, 9. 12, 13, 14, 
15. 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33. 36., xii. 1, 2, 3. It 
was this campaign which led to his extra- 



ordinary vow in regard to his daughter; and 
also to the feud between the Ephraimitcs and 
Gileadites, which ended in 42,000 of the former 
being slain, when detected by the Shibboleth. 

About fifty years from this time, on the acces- 
sion of Saul to the throne of Judah, 1 Sam. xii. 
12., the Ammonites under Nahash their king 
made another attack upon the country E. of 
Jordan, and besieged Jabesh-Gilead. The in- 
habitants of this city offered to become his 
servants, but Nahash would only accept their 
capitulation upon the condition that he might 
thrust out all their right eyes, which cruel 
demand called up Saul and all Israel, when the 
Ammonites were routed with great slaughter, 
and so dispersed that of those who remained no 
two of them were left together, 1 Sam. xi. 1, 2. 11. 
It is thought, likewise, that Saul had another 
engagement with them, and completely broke 
their strength, 1 Sam. xiv. 47. ; and that this 
advantage was followed up by David about fifty 
years afterwards, when he reduced them to 
further subjection, 2 Sam. viii. 12.; 1 Chron. 
xviii. 11. At length, b.c. 1037, upon the death 
of the king of the children of Ammon, with 
whom David had been upon friendly terms (one 
of David's seven and thirt}' valiants was an Am- 
monite, 2 Sam. xxiii. 37. ; 1 Chron. xi. 39.), he 
sent a message of condolence to Hanun, his son 
and successor ; but the latter, at the instigation 
of his princes, affecting to regard the ambassa- 
dors as spies, treated them in a most degrading 
manner. David avenged the afiront, and though 
the Ammonites hired the Syrians to assist them, 
they and their allies were subdued, their city 
Kabbah pillaged, and the people tortured. It 
was during this siege of Kabbah that David's sin 
was committed in the matter of Uriah, 2 Sam. 
X., xi. ; 1 Chron. xix., xx. 1 — 3. 

From this time until the death of Ahab, an 
interval of abou.t 140 years, the Ammonites 
appear to have continued tributary to the Israel- 
ites; but Moab rebelling against them about 
that time, 2 Kgs. i. 1., iii. 7., Ammon seems to 
have followed the example, 2 Chron. xx. 1. 
They unitedly made an irruption into Judah, 
and with their alhes were so strong that though 
Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, Jehoram, king of 
Israel, and the king of Edom, leagued together 
against them, yet they were brought into great 
straits, 2 Kgs. iii. 9, 10. But according to the 
word of the Lord revealed to Jahaziel, the com- 
bined army of the Moabites and Ammonites was 
defeated hy mutual slaughter, 2 Chron. xx. 
X_10— 22, 23—25. Whether this led to a more 
friendly feeling between Judah and Amnion, is 
c 2 



20 AMMONITES. 



AMORITES. 



not known ; but it is remarkable, that of the two 
conspirators who murdered King Joash for his 
cruelty to the house of Jehoiada, one was de- 
scended from an Ammonitess and the other from 
a Moabitess. 2 Chvon. xxiv. 26. Their spirit 
was, however, only broken foi- a time ; as we find 
them about eighty years afterwards, forced to 
give presents to Uzziah, king of Judah, 2 Chron. 
xxvi. 8., and also to Joiham his son, after they 
had been subdued by him, 2 Chron. xxvii. 5. 
Notwithstanding this, they appear to have more 
or less shaken off the yoke in the days of Isaiah, 
xi. 14.; and after the captivity of the trans- 
Jordanic tribes by Tiglath-Pileser, B.C. 740, took 
possession of many cities in Gilead and Gad; for 
which they were threatened with the Almighty's 
vengeance by the prophets Amos, i. 13 — 15. ; 
Jeremiah, ix. 26., xxv. 21., xlix. 1, 2. 6.; and 
Zephaniah, ii. 8. 9. 11. Compare, likewise, Ju- 
dith i. 12. 

From this almost inextinguishable hatred to 
the Israelites, it is not to be wondered at, that 
the Ammonites should join Nebuchadnezzar in 
making war upon them, and exult at the de- 
struction of their temple, and what probably 
appeared almost the eradication of the Jewish 
name, 2 Kgs. xxiv. 2. ; Jer. xxvii. 3. ; Ezek. xxi. 
28., XXV. 2, 3. 5 — 7. It was only when pressed 
by the direst necessity, that any Jews took refuge 
from their Babylonian or other oppressors in the 
territory of the Ammonites; and from it they 
made their escape again on the first opportunity, 
Jer. xl. 11., xli. 15.; 2 Mace. iv. 26. And so 
bitter was the hatred of the Ammonites to the 
Jews, that, urged on by their king Baalis, they 
murdered Gedaliah, whom Nebuchadnezzar had 
appointed governor of Judaea, Jer. xl. 13, 14,, 
xli. 1^10. 15. ; 2 Kgs. xxv. 25. In consequence 
of all these cruelties, Ezekiel was commissioned 
by God to declare, that as the reward for their 
unfeeling and profane triumph, they themselves 
should be delivered to the Men of the East for 
a possession, and be cut off so as to perish out of 
the countries, Ezek. xxv. 1 — 7. 10. The former 
part of this prediction is thought to have been 
fulfilled about four years afterwards, when 
Nebuchadnezzar is stated by Josephus to have 
invaded all the countries round about Judtea, 
and carried the people captive: the fulfilment 
of the latter part of the prediction being deferred 
for many generations. 

Cyrus (B.C. 536), it is probable, gave per- 
mission to the Ammonites and Moabites to retm-n 
into their OAvn country, Ezra i. 3., in accordance 
with the prophecies of Jeremiah, xlix. 6., and 
Daniel, xi. 41., in which it was foretold that they 



should be for a time restored : and it may per- 
haps have been now that many of the Israelites 
and Ammonites intermari'ied, Ezra ix. 1. ; Neh. 
xiii. 23 — 28. But the calamities to which these 
people had been themselves exposed, did not 
allay their animosities towards their neighbours ; 
for we find them, e.c. 445, read}' to hinder the 
Jews from building again the walls of Jerusalem, 
Neh. ii. 10. 19., iv. 3. 7 — 23., and joining with the 
Arabians, Ashdodites, and others in harassing 
Nehemiah and his companions. They seem, after 
this, to have been exposed in their own terri- 
tories to those revolutions by which the people 
of Syria and Palestine were visited ; being some- 
times subject to the king of Egypt, and at 
others to the rulers of Assyria. At length when 
the Jews were exposed to the cruel ravages of 
Antiochus Epiphanes, another opportunity pre- 
sented itself to the Ammonites to renew their 
oppression of Israel ; and they accordingly joined 
with remorseless readiness in the attacks of 
that sanguinary foe to the house of Israel. But 
Judas Maccabseus visited them with the just 
reward of their conduct, 1 Mace. v. 6., their 
power was broken, their hostility seems to have 
ceased, and, in agreement with the prophecy 
already cited, they appear to have soon after- 
wards become extinct as a nation. They 
gradually blended with their old Ishmaelite 
allies, and though their name as a people sur- 
vived for many years, yet that of their territory 
was swallowed up and lost in the common appel- 
lation of Arabia. 

AMMON. See Rabbath-Ammon. 

AMORITES, the descendants of the fourth 
son of Canaan, the son of Ham, Gen. x. 16. ; 1 
Chron. i. 14.; whose name, in the opinion of 
some commentators, was Hamor or Emmor, and 
hence a certain tribe of the Amorites (apparently 
Hivites, Gen. xxxiv. 2.) dwelling round She- 
chem, was called the children of Hamor or 
Emmor, Gen. xxxiii. 19. ; Acts vii. 16. It was 
from these last that Jacob bought the parcel 
of land which he gave to his son Joseph; and 
it was possibly in allusion to the revenge taken 
by Dinah's brethren upon Hamor and the She- 
chemites, or rather some victorious conflict with 
them, in which his own sons' cruelty involved 
Jacob, Gen. xxxiv. 25 — 31., that the venerable 
patriarch, in giving Joseph one portion above his 
brethren, said he had taken it out of the hand 
of the Amorite with his sword and his bow. Gen. 
xlviii. 22. 

The name of the Amorites is used with various 
extent in the Bible, and it is necessary to bear 



AMORITES. 



21 



this in mind to avoid confusion. — I. It is often 
employed to designate all the tribes of Canaan 
on both sides of the Jordan, collectively, Gen. 
XV. 16. ; Josh. V. 1., vii. 7., xxiv. 15. 18. ; Judg. 
vi. 10., X. 11. ; 1 Kgs. xxi. 26. ; 2 Kgs. xxi. 11. ; 
Ezek. xvi. 3. 45. ; Amos ii. 9, 10. ; and hence 
the Philistines seem to be called Amorites, 1 
Sam. vii. 14. ; as also the Jebusites or inha- 
bitants of Jerusalem, Josh. x. 5. ; the Gibeonites, 
2 Sam. xxi. 2. ; and another tribe close on the 
borders of Sidon, Josh. xiii. 4. 

II. The name of Amorites is frequently applied 
by way of distinction to all the Canaanites who 
dwelled heyond Jordan; and who, generally 
speaking, msij be said to have composed the 
two kingdoms of Sihon and Og, or as they are 
occasionally termed the kingdoms of the Amo- 
rites, Num. xxii. 2., xxxii. 39. ; Deut. iii. 9., 
xxsi. 4.; Josh. ii. 10., ix. 10., x. 8., xxiv. 8. 12. 
15. 

III. By the name Amorites, is continually 
meant only that body of the Canaanites who, 
migrating into the S. part of the trans- Jor- 
danic territory (Heshbon and half Gilead) seized 
upon the possessions of the Ammonites, as is 
inferred from the Ammonite king's assertion 
in the days of Jephthah, that the Israelites 
had taken away his dominions from him, when 
they took possession of the dominions of Sihon, 
Judg. xi. 13. In the days of Moses they were 
governed by Sihon ; their limits were the rivers 
Arnon on the S., which parted them from 
Moab, Jordan on the W., and Jabbok on the 
N., which parted them from the kingdom of 
Bashan ; whilst the territory of the Ammonites 
and the great desert of Arabia bounded them on 
the E. : Num. xxi. 13. 21. 25, 26—29—31, 32. 34., 
xxxii. 33. ; Deut. 1. 4. ; Josh. xii. 2., xiii. 10. 
21. ; Judg. xi. 19. 21, 22, 23. ; 1 Kgs. iv. 19. ; 
Ps. cxxxv. 11., cxxxvi. 19. 

IV. But the original seat of the Amorites, 
strictly so called, was in the S. part of J udaja, 
between the Salt Sea on the E., the Mt. Akrab- 
bim on the S., and the parallel of Jerusalem 
on the N. They seem to be distinguished Num. 
xiii. 29., Josh. x. 6., as "the Amorites that dwell 
in the mountains.'" They were in the neigh- 
bourhood of Mamre or Hebron ; indeed, Mamre 
was himself an Amorite, Gen. xiv. 13. They 
dwelt in Hazeron-tamar (i. e. Engedi), a town 
near the N. extremity of the Salt Sea and 
towards Gilgal, Gen. xiv. 7. ; Josh. v. 1. They 
occupied the neighbourhood of Maalek-Akrab- 
bim, or that range of mountains by which Canaan 
was separated from Arabia on the S., Deut. i. 27. 
44. ; Josh. i. 36.; and which from them appears 



to have been called the Mountain of the Amor- 
ites, Deut. i. 7. 19, 20. They possessed the 
cities of Jerusalem, Hebron, Jarmuth, Lachish, 
and Eglon, whose kings are therefore called the 
five kings of the Amorites, Josh. x. 5, 0. 12. 
They had possession of Mt. Heres, as well as 
the towns of Aijalou and Shaalbira, towards the 
Mediterranean Sea, in those parts where the 
children of Dan were afterwards settled, Judg. i. 
34, 35. It is this division of the Amorites strictly 
so called, that is so frequently included amongst 
the seven Canaanitish nations devoted to de- 
struction. Gen. XV. 21. ; Ex. iii. 8. 17., xiii. 5., 
xxiii. 23., xxxiii. 2., xxxiv. 11. ; Num. xiii. 
29. ; Deut. vii. 1., xx. 17. ; Josh. iii. 10., ix. 1., 
xi. 3., xii. 8., xxiv. 11. ; Judg. iii. 5. ; 1 Kgs. ix. 

20. ; 2 Chron. viii. 7. ; Ezra ix.l. ; Neh. ix. 8. 
The Amorites were gross idolaters, the chief 

object of their worship being the idol Chemosh, 
Gen, XV. 16.; Ex. xxxiv. 13.; Deut. xx. 18.; 
Judg. xi. 24. ; hence Ahab's idolatrous wicked- 
ness is said to have equalled that of the Amorites, 
1 Kgs. xxi. 26., and Manasseli's to have exceeded 
it, 2 Kgs. xxi. 11.; and hence Ezekiel, xvi. 3. 
45,, when exposing the iniquity of Jerusalem, 
says her father was an Amorite. Amos, ii, 9., 
describes the Amorites (alluding especially to the 
Eephaim), in figurative language, as being tall 
like the cedar, and strong like the oak ; indeed, 
each one of the seven devoted nations seems to 
have been greater and mightier than Israel, 
Deut. vii. 1. 

The Amorites shared in the misfortunes of 
the neighbouring nations, B.C. 1913, when Che- 
dorlaomer, king of Elam, and the three other con- 
federate kings attacked the Five Cities of the 
Plain, Tfith the surrounding places. Gen. xiv. 7. ; 
very soon after which, the country of the Amor- 
ites is promised by name to Abram, Gen. xv. 

21. The conflict of Jacob with the Amorites, 
Gen. xlviii. 22., has been already noticed, as 
probably alluding to the slaughter of the 
Shechemites by Simeon and Levi in the matter 
of their sister Dinah, or to some battle which 
Jacob and his family had with them in conse- 
quence of this treachery. It was not, howevex', 
imtil the spies had returned from the Land of 
Promise (b.c. 1490) that the Israelites as a 
nation fought with the Amorites, when, for their 
rebellious murmurings against God, and their 
disobedience to Him and His servant Moses, they 
were overcome and chased back into the desert 
from the mountain of Akrabbim, by the Amor- 
ites (in conjunction -with the Amalekit:s) 
Num. xiv. 45. ; Deut. i. 44. About forty yeiU-s 
after this, when the period of their wandering in 

c 3 



22 



AMORITES. 



AMPHIPOLIS. 



the desert was drawing to a close, when Miriam 
and Aaron were dead, and the people lay en- 
camped near Mt. lior, this very same tribe of the 
Amorites, under the direction of King Arad the 
Canaanite, " which dwelt in the South," appears 
to have again attacked the Israelites, whom 
they found once more approaching their borders ; 
but the Israelites eventually gained the victory, 
and destroyed them and their cities, Num. xxi. 
1—3. 

A few months after this, when the Israelites 
had come to Mt. Pisgah, they sent messengers 
to Sihon, king of those Amorites who dwelled 
beyond Jordan, asking permission to pass through 
his land, and promising to pay for all that they 
consumed, Num. xxi. 21. 25, 26. 29. 31, 32. ; Deut. 
ii. 26—37. ; Judg. xi. 19. 21, 22, 23. ; Judith v. 
15. ; but Sihon refusing, and coming out to fight 
against Israel at Jahaz, he and his people were 
subdued by Moses, his cities taken, and his land 
given for a possession to the two tribes Reuben 
and Gad, Num. xxxii. 1 — 5. 33. ; Deut. iii. 12. 
The kingdom of Og, the other Amorite kingdom 
beyond Jordan, was soon afterwards taken pos- 
session of by the children of Israel in the same 
way, and was allotted to the half tribe of Ma- 
nasseh. Num. xxi. 33, 34, 35. ; xxxii. 33. 39. ; 
Deut. iii. 1, 2. 8, 9—17. ; Josh. xxiv. 8. 12. 

The other great division of the Amorites that 
inhabited the S. part of Canaan from Jeru- 
salem to Maaleh-Akrabbim, including the king- 
doms of Gibeon, Jerusalem, Hebron, Jarmuth, 
Lachish, and Eglon, was brought into subjec- 
tion, a few months after the death of Moses, 
by Joshua, Josh. ix. 1. 10—27. ; x. 1. 5, 6. 12—43. ; 
2 Sara. xxi. 2. . The first of these by craft ob- 
tained a league, owing to which they were made 
hewers of wood and drawers of water for the 
congregation ; the others were beaten by Joshua, 
and slain in great numbers, upon which occasion 
the sun and moon stood still at his word. Not- 
withstanding this the Amorites were not utterly 
destroyed; for we find them, Judg. i. 34, 35, 
36., prevailing against the children of Dan ; and 
again, Judg. iii. 5 — 7., intermarrying with the 
Israelites and seducing them into idolatry. Saul, 
in his zeal for the children of Israel and Judah, 
broke through the national covenant which had 
been made with the Amorites of Gibeon, and 
sought to slay them, a breach of faith which was 
severely visited by God upon his house, 2 Sam. 
xxi. 1. 2 — 9. The last mention of the Amorites 
is made 1 Kgs. ix. 20, 21. ; 2 Chron. viii. 7, 8. ; 
when the children of Israel, not being able ut- 
terly to destroy them, Solomon levied upon 
them a tribute of bond-service ; and this con- 



nection of the tAvo nations seems to have existed 
in some shape, in the days of Ezra, ix. 1, 2,, 
who deplores the intermarriages between his 
people and the idolaters. 

AMORITES, MOUNT OF THE, Deut. i. 17„ 
19, 20., supposed to be the same with Maaleh- 
Akrabbim, or that range of hills which bounds 
Canaan on the S. It may have derived its name 
from its being the frontier of the Amorites 
in this direction; at all events, it is evident 
from Deut. i. 19., that it was close to Kadesh- 
barnea, and from i. 44., that they dwelt in that 
mountain. The Israelites waited on the S. side 
of this hill, whilst the twelve spies crossed it, 
i. 24., and went unto the Valley of Eshcol; 
but after the return of the spies, though at first 
the people murmured against God, and would 
not go up to possess the land, yet subsequently^ 
in spite of the positive prohibition of MoseSy 
they went presumptuously unto the hill, and 
were chased down again by the Amorites to 
Seir and Hormah, Deut. i. 41—44—46. ^ee Ak- 
rabbim. 

AMORITES, RIVER OF TFIE, mentioned 
2 Esd. i. 22., appears to be put for the bitter 
waters of Marah, described at Ex. xv. 25. ; but 
most critics suppose that the R. Arnon, Num. 
xxi. 16., is here meant, and that the apocryphal 
writer has confounded different historical facts, in 
alluding to the miracle of Moses' sweetening the 
water as having occurred at the R. Arnon, though 
in reality it was wrought at Marah. 

AMPHIPOLIS, a city in the E. part of Mace- 
donia, not far from the borders of Thrace, and 
near the entrance of the R. Strymon into the 
^gsean Sea. It obtained its name from being 
surrounded by the river, and was originally built 
by the Athenians'under the conduct of Cimon, 
on a spot where nine ways met, and hence called 
" The Nine Ways." It was here that Xerxes 
and his army crossed the Strymon on bridges, 
after having offered a sacrifice of white horses to 
the river, and buried alive nine youths with as 
many maidens, natives of the country, on the 
spot where the nine ways met. Amphipolis was 
the cause of much contention between Philip of 
Macedon and the Athenians, as well as between 
the latter people and the Spartans. When it fell 
into the hands of the Romans, they made it the 
metropolis of the province which they called 
Macedonia Prima. Paul and Silas, after having 
been shamefully entreated at Philippi, passed 
through Amphipolis on their way to Thessalo- 
nica, Acts xvii. 1. Amphipolis is now called Je- 
nikeni, and the R. Strymon, Stroma. 



AMKAMITES. 



ANATHOTH. 23 



AMRAMITES, the name of a family of tbe 
Kohathites so called after tbeir progenitor Am- 
ram, the son of Kohath, the son of Levi, and the 
father of Aaron, Moses, and Mu-iam, Xum. 
ilL 27. ; 1 Chron. xxvi. 23. 

AJfAB, a to-vvn in the mountains of Judah, 
in the neighbourhood of Hebron, Debir, and 
Eshtemoh, The Anakims were driven from it, 
and many of them there cut off, by Joshua, and 
it was subsequently assigned to the tribe of 
Judah, Josh. xi. 21., xv. 50. Jerome identifies 
it ydth a town called in his days Betoannab, 4 
miles E. from Diospolis or Lydda ; others make 
it the same with Bethannaba, 8 miles E. from 
Diospolis ; but neither of these situations seems 
to accord with that of Anab, as given above. 

ANAHARATH, a town in the N, part of 
Canaan, not far from Jezreel, assigned by Joshua 
to the tribe of Issachar, Josh. xix. 19. 

AXAK, SONS OF, or 

ANAKIMS (a branch of the Eephaim), fa- 
mous giants in Palestine, descended from Anak, 
the son of Arba, who gave name to Kiijath- 
Arba (i. e. Hebron), Josh. xiv. 15., xv. 13. 
Soon after the Canaanitish kings had been 
beaten by Joshua at Merom, he cut off the 
Anakims from the mountains fi'om Hebron, from 
Debir, from Anab, and from all the mountains of 
Judah, and from all the mountains of Israel, de- 
stroying them utterly with their cities, so that 
none remained except in Gaza, Gath, and Ashdod, 
Josh. xi. 21, 22. The three sons of Anak, She- 
shai, Ahiman, and Talmai, were di'iven out of 
Hebron by Caleb, assisted by the tribe of Judah, 
Num. xiii. 22. ; Josh. xiv. 12., xv. 14. ; Judg. i. 10. 
20. ; andQthniel, his nephew, drove the Anakims 
out of Debir, for which service Caleb gave him 
Achsah his daughter to wife. Josh. xv. 16, 17.; 
Judg. i. 12. 13. The Anakims appear to have 
terrified the IsraeKtes by their fierceness and 
stature. The spies who had been sent by Moses 
to examine the land reported that, in com- 
parison with these monstrous men, they were 
but as grasshoppers ; a terror which seems to 
have been communicated to nearly the whole na- 
tion, and which, together with the circumstance 
of their being the first giants the Hebrews had 
heard of or encountered, led them to compare all 
the other branches of the Eephaim mth the 
Anakim, Xum. xiii. 22. 28. 31—33. ; Deut. i. 28., 
ii. 10, 11. 21., ix. 2. It has been supposed by 
]\Iichaelis and other critics that the Anakims were 
Troglodytes, or dwellers in caves, a presumption 
whichharmonises very well with their mountain- 
ous holds as given Josh. xi. 21. ; and also, that 



they were of the same stock with the Phoeni- 
cians, the Philistines, and the Egyptian shep- 
herd-kings. 

AXAMIM are mentioned, Gen. x. 13., 1 Chron. 
i. 11., as the descendants of Mizraim, the son of 
Ham. Nothing is known with certainty con- 
cerning them ; but from the people in company 
with whom they are named, it seems highly pro- 
bable that they settled to the W. of Egypt, and 
in the N. part of Africa. Some critics think that 
Ammon or Hammonium, to the W. of Egypt, 
in N. Africa, where was the temple of Jupiter 
Ammon, derived its name from the Anamim ; 
and this the rather, as Herodotus expressly as- 
serts the Ammonians to be the descendants of 
the Egyptians and Ethiopians ; and also, as the 
Jewish paraphrasts place the Anamim in the 
neighbom-hood of L. Mareotis and Cyrene. 
Traces of their name likewise appear in the ap- 
pellations of the Nasamones and Garamantes, two 
powerful neighbouring tribes. The Septuagint 
writes the name Enemetieim or iEuemetieim, and 
Anamieim. 

AXAXIAH, a town apparently within the 
limits of the tribe of Benjamin, where the 
children of Benjamin took up their abode after 
returning from their captivity in Babylon, Neh . 
xi. 32. 

AXATHOTH, a city in the tribe of Ben- 
jamin, which probably derived its name from 
Anathoth, the grandson of, Benjamin, 1 Chron. 
vii. 8. ; it was given, with its suburbs, for a 
possession to the children of Aaron, Josh. xxi. 
18. ; 1 Chron. vi. 60. It lay a little to the X. of 
Jerusalem, as may be inferred from Isa. x. 30., 
where we read a description of the march of Sen- 
nacherib's army, as well as of the terror and 
confusion spreading through the several places 
in the neighbourhood of the holy city. Josephus 
informs us it was 20 stadia from Jerasalem; 
Eusebius and Jerome say 3 miles, the latter 
adding that it lies to the K of the metropolis. 
Abiezer the Benjamite, one of David's valiants, 
was probably bom at Anathoth, and hence he is 
called an Anethothite 2 Sam. xxiii. 27., or Aneto- 
thite 1 Chron. xxvii. 12., or Antothite 1 Chron. xi. 
28. Aaiathoth was the city of Abiathar the priest, 
and hither he was banished, after having been de- 
prived of the priesthood by Solomon, for attaching 
himself to the cause of Adouijah and to fulfil the 
prediction concerning the house of Eli, 1 Kgs. ii. 
26. It was like-wise the bulh-place of the prophet 
Jeremiah, i. 19., xxix. 27., against whose life the 
men of Anathoth conspiredj and were threatened 
by God with His vengeance for their iniquity, J er. 
C 4 



24 



ANEM. 



ANTIOCH. 



xi. 21. 23. ; and it was his inheritance in this 
place which, when shut up by King Zedekiah 
in the prison of Jerusalem, he purchased of his 
uncle Hanameel, as a testimony that, though 
Jerusalem was to be trodden under foot of 
the Gentiles, houses, and fields, and vineyards 
should again be possessed in that land, Jer. xxxii. 
7, 8, 9 — 15. The men of Anathoth are men- 
tioned as returning with their countrymen from 
Babylon, Ezra ii. 23. ; Neh. vii. 27. ; and they 
appear from Neh. xi. 32. ; to have taken up their 
residence in their old city. 

ANEM (i.e. tlie Two Fountains), a city belonging 
to the tribe of Issachar, which, with its suburbs, 
was given to the sons of Gershom, 1 Chron. vi. 73 . 
In the parallel passage, Josh. xxi. 29., xix. 
21., it appears to be called En-gannim, i.e. 
Fountain of the Gardens. 

ANER, a city of Manasseh, on this side Jor- 
dan, which, with its suburbs, was given for a 
possession to the Koathites, 1 Chron. vi. 70. In 
the parallel passage, Josh. xxi. 25., it seems to 
be called Tanach. 

ANETHOTHITE, 2 Sam. xxiii. 27., or 

ANETOTHITE, 1 Chron. xxvii. 12., the sur- 
name of Abiezer, one of David's seven and thirty 
valiants, given him probably from his having 
been born at Anathoth in the inheritance of the 
tribe of Benjamin, for he was a Benjamite. The 
name is also wiitten Antothite 1 Chron. xi. 28. 

ANIM, a town in the mountains of Judah, 
near Eshtemoh, assigned by Joshua to the tribe of 
Judah, J osh. XV. 50. It is thought by some to be 
the same with Anasa mentioned by Eusebius as 
lying about 9 miles to the S. of Hebron. 

ANTI-LIBANUS, or Anti-Lebanon (i.e. oppo- 
site Lebanon), Judith i. 7., is the name of a range 
of mountains which, generally speaking, runs 
between Palestine, Phoenice, Coele-Syria, and 
Syria, and appears to be often spoken of under 
the common name of Lebanon or Libanus, both 
in Holy Writ and by profane authors (Sept. in 
Deut. i. 7., iii. 25., xi. 24. ; Josh. i. 4., ix. 1.), which 
is occasionally the cause of obscurity. The name 
has been handed down from the Greeks, but is 
wholly unknown to the natives, who distinguish 
the whole ridge of the Anti-Lebanon by the 
general name Gebel Es-sharke, or the Eastern 
Mountains. It separates from the main range 
of the Lebanon between the sources of the Es. 
Orontes and Leontes, skirting the latter on the 
E. and forming with Mt. Lebanon on the W. a 
large and beautiful valley anciently called Aulon, 
now El-Behaa. At the source of the Jordan, 



Anti-Libanus divides into two ridges, one of which 
passes to the S. through the covmtries to the 
E. of Jordan, till it enters Ai-abia ; the other (now 
called Gehel-Heish) directs its course W. of the 
Jordan, and joins the mountains of Galilee and 
Judea. The mountains of Hermou, Sirion, Shenir, 
Paneum, Hor and Amana (if the last name be 
applied to any hill immediately to the N. of 
Palestine) are all spurs or branches of Anti-Li- 
banus. It seems to have produced some of the 
famous cedars, and is lofty enough to be 
covered with snow during by far the greater 
part of the year, some of its peaks being 12,000 
feet above the level of the sea. Cf. Lebanon. 

ANTIOCH, now called Antakia, derived its 
name from Antiochus, the father of Seleucus 
Nicanor, who founded it b.c 301. Of the sixteen 
cities called Antioch, and reputed to have been 
founded by him, this and Antioch in Pisidia seem 
to be the only two mentioned in Holy Scripture. 
It was built on the banks of the beautiful 
Orontes, now called Aaszy, about 20 miles from 
its mouth in the Mediterranean Sea, on the 
shores of which was its port Seleucia ad Mare ; 
and hence it was called Antiochia ad Orontem. 
It was likewise named Antiochia ad Daphnen, or 
Antiochia Epidaphnes, from its proximity to 
the neighbouring grove of Daphne, 2 Mace, iv. 3. 
It was also known as Antiochia Tetrapolis, from 
its four quarters, which had been built at 
various times. It was styled Theopolis by the 
Emperor Justinian, when he rebuilt and beau- 
tified it. 

Antioch, from its admirable situation mid- 
way between Constantinople and Alexandria, 
as well as from other causes, soon became a 
flourishing and most important city, the capital of 
Syria, the residence of the Syrian kings, 1 Mace, 
iii. 37., vii. 2., x. 68., xi. 13. 44. 56. ; 2 Mace. 
V. 21., viii. 35., xiii. 23. ; and, after the Roman con- 
quest, the seat of the prefect or governor of the 
Eastern provinces, with municipal rights. The in- 
habitants were partly Syrians and partly Greeks ; 
the latter having been invited by Seleucus to his 
new city. Arts and sciences floimshed at Antioch 
in no common degree, and although its inhabitants 
had a bad character for effeminacy and dissolute 
habits, yet Strabo describes it as being in power 
and dignity not much inferior to Seleucia or 
Alexandria; and Josephus characterises it as 
the third city of the Roman provinces. It was 
long, indeed, the most powerful city of the East, 
and was resorted to by many Jews, who were 
governed by their own ethnarchs, and pos- 
sessed the right of citizenship in common with 
the Macedonians and Greeks. These privileges, 



ANTIOCH. 



ANTIOCH IN PISIDIA. 25 



no doubt, contributed to render Antiocli so 
desirable to the Christians, who were every- 
Avhere considered as a sect of the Jews, since here, 
without molestation, they could perform their 
worship in their own way. This may also con- 
tribute to accoimt for the importance attached 
by the Apostles to the introduction of the gospel 
into Antioch ; and for the interest taken by them 
in its promotion and extension in a city so distant 
from Jerusalem. 

The first mention of Antioch in the Bible is in 
Acts vi. 5., where Nicholas, one of the seven 
Gentile deacons, is called a proselyte of Antioch ; 
but it was very soon after this (if indeed it had 
not been established before), that a Christian com- 
munity was formed here ; occasioned, as it would 
appear, by those who were scattered abroad after 
the persecution which arose about Stephen tra- 
velling as far as, and preaching the gospel in, this 
dissolute city, Acts xi. 19, 20. This seemed an 
unpromising city for Christianity to take root 
in, but yet we find that a great number believed, 
and tm-ned unto the Lord," Acts xi. 21. When 
the governors of the church at J erusalem heard of 
this success, they sent Barnabas to Antioch, who 
encouraged the new disciples and added many 
to their number; and finding how great were 
both the field and the harvest, he w^ent to Tarsus 
to obtain the assistance of Saul, Acts xi. 19, 20. 
22 — 26. According to popular tradition, Saul was 
here baptized in the li. Orontes. Over this young 
community Barnabas seems to have presided as 
a teacher for a time. Acts xi. 22. 26., in com- 
pany with Paul, Acts xi. 25, 26. 30., xiii. 1., xiv. 
26., XV. 22. 35., xviii. 22. ; Gal. ii. 11. ; to whom 
also were joined Simeon, surnamed Niger, Lucius 
of Cyrene, and Manaen, Acts xiii. 1. ; and like- 
wise for some time Judas, sm-named Barsabas, 
and Silas, Acts xv. 22. 32. 34. ; and finally Peter, 
Gal. ii. 11. It was here that Peter was re- 
proved by Paul for his dissimulation, and his con- 
cession to the Jews respecting the observance of 
their ceremonial law. It was, here, likewise, that 
the disciples of our Lord Jesus Christ were first 
called Christians, Acts xi. 26. ; and hence, An- 
tioch has been erroneously considered by some 
as the Mother Church of the Gentile Christians, 
as Jerusalem was of the Jewish converts ; a sup- 
position, as it appears, not in accordance with 
Scripture, Jo. x. 16. ; Gal. iv. 26. ; Eph. ii. 14. 
The connection between the churches of Jerusalem 
and Antioch was closely preserved. Acts xi. 
22. 27—30. ; XV. 22, 28. 30. It was from this 
place that Barnabas and Saul were sent forth by 
the command of God the Holy Ghost to preach 
the gospel amongst the Gentiles, Acts xiii. 2. ; 



and the church in this place distinguished itself 
at an early period by sending relief to their 
suffering fellow-believers in Judaja and Jerusalem, 
Acts xi. 27. 30. ; xii. 25. 

Antioch is the reputed birthplace of St. Luke 
and Theophilus, as also of Chrysostom and Am- 
mianus Marcellinus, and is famed as having been 
the see of the martyr Ignatius. It abounded with 
great men, and its church was long governed by 
illustrious prelates; but it likewise suffered much 
on several occasions, sometimes being exposed to 
the violence of heretics, and at other times being 
rent by deplorable schisms. The bishop of An- 
tioch had the title of patriarch, and held the same 
rank amongst the churches of Asia as the bishops 
of Alexandria are said to have done amongst 
the churches of Africa. The brightest period in 
the history of the church of Antioch svibse- 
quent to apostolic times, was probably in the days 
of Chrysostom, towards the close of the fourth 
century; and from it we may date its fall. 
Though it appeared to continue outw^ardly pros- 
perous, yet real religion began rapidly to dis- 
appear; and the foundations were laid of that 
great apostasy which, in about two centuries 
from this time threatened to overspread the whole 
Christian world. No city perhaps (Jerusalem ex- 
cepted) has experienced more frequent revolu- 
tions, or suffered more numerovis and dii"eful 
calamities than Antioch ; as, besides the common 
plagues of Eastern cities — pestilence, famine, fire, 
and sword — it has several times been overthrown 
by earthquakes. It is now but little known to 
the Western nations, and occupies (or rather did 
till lately occupy) a remote corner of its ancient 
area. Its splendid buildings are reduced to hovels ; 
and its population of half a million is diminished 
to less than 10,000 souls, living in the usual 
wretched debasement, oppression, and insecurity 
of Turkish subjects. Antioch has been thought 
by many to have been built on the ruins of 
Hamath the Great, Amos vi. 2., which appears to 
have been desolated by one of the kings of As- 
syria, according to the boasting of Sennacherib to 
Hezekiah, 2 Kgs. xviii. 34., xix. 13. ; Isa. xxx^i. 
19. See Hemath. Jerome, however, supposes 
that the Eiblah spoken of Num. xxxiv. 11., 2 
Kgs. xxiii. 33., Jer. xxxix. 5., &c., is the same as 
Antioch ; but the situation of the latter city does 
not appear at all to agree with that assigned to 
Riblah. 

ANTIOCH IN PISIDIA, a city in Pisidia, a 
pro^^ace of Asia JMinor, was close on the S. 
borders of Phrygia, to which province it formerly 
belonged. It is said to have been orignially 



M ANTIOCHIA. 



APHARSATHCHITES. 



founded by the Magnetes, but it probably re- 
ceived this name from Seleucus Nicanor, in 
honour of his father Antiochus. It was sub- 
sequently colonised by the Eomans under 
Augustus, who made it the metropolis of their 
province Pisidia, and called it Csesarea. Ptolemy 
reckons it to Pamphyha, Strabo to Phiygia. 
Many Jews had here taken up their abode, Acts 
xiii. 14, 15. 50., xiv. 19. ; to whom Barnabas and 
Paul, as was their custom, first preached the 
gospel; but the Jews, jealous of its reception by 
the Gentiles, raised a persecution against them, 
expelled them from the city. Acts xiii. 44 — 50., 
2 Tim. iii. 11., and even followed them to Lystra, 
Acts xiv. 19., where they persuaded the people to 
stone Paul. Notwithstanding this the two 
Apostles revisited their converts at Antioch 
shortly afterwards, confirming them and ordaining 
elders in the chm'ch. Acts xiv. 21 — 23. According 
to the Notitia it became afterwards the capital 
of the metropolitan see. Its situation is not 
known with any certainty, although some fancy 
its ruins are found in a place now called Ak- 
shehr. But anyhow, the rejection of the gospel 
has been visited upon the city in a signal manner ; 
for where the Apostles shook ofi" the dust of their 
feet, is only a mass of ruins, without a church, or 
a priest, or even a solitary Christian, to tell what 
once was there. 

ANTIOCHIA, another way of writing the 
name Antioch, which occurs 1 Mace. vi. 63. ; 
2 Mace. iv. 33. The district round the city was 
likewise thus named 1 Mace. iv. 35. ; 2 Mace. v. 
21. ; and as appears from the profane authors. 

ANTIPATRIS, a town of Judasa, in the pro- 
vince of Samaria, on the borders of the Plain of 
Sharon, about midway between Jerusalem and 
Cfiesarea, now probably called Kafr-Saba. It was 
through this place that St. Paul passed. Acts 
xxiii. 31., when he had been rescued from the 
murderous designs of the Jews by Claudius 
Lysias, who sent him by night under a strong 
escort to Pelixthe governor, then at Csesarea. 
It appears from the J ewish authors to have been 
on the high road fi'om Judasa to Galilee, and a 
frontier town of the former province towards 
the N"., although the Romans seem afterwards 
to have included it within the limits of Samaria. 
It was anciently called Capharsabe or Cha- 
pharzaba ; which was also the name of the fruit- 
ful and well-watered plain wherein it was situ- 
ate. Herod the Great improved it considerably, 
and changed its name to Antipatris, in honour 
of his father Antipater. In the time of the 
Maccabseau troubles, by way of defence against 



the Seleucid£e, a deep trench and a high wall 
were run across the Plam of Capharsabe, from 
the foot of the hUls above Antipatris to the 
shores of the Mediterranean near Joppa. Anti- 
patris was 80 stadia from Lydda,150 from Joppa, 
and 208 from Casarea. When under the Roman 
power, it seems to have been a considerable mili- 
tary point. It was here that Vespasian halted 
for two days whilst prosecuting the Jewish war ; 
and hence he proceeded in his destructive career 
of desolation upon the neighbourhood. In the 
time of Jerome it was a mean little place, lying 
in the midst of ruins. — Some authors make 
Antipatris to be the same with Capharsalama, 
mentioned 1 Mace. vii. 31.; but this latter 
place would appear to have been situated in 
quite another direction. Others, again, fancy it 
to have been on the sea-coast near the modem 
Arsoof ; but this locality does not seem re- 
concileable with the descriptions given of it. 

ANTOTHITE, an appellation given to two of 
David's mighty men, 1 Chron. xi. 28., xii. 3., 
probably from their native place, the name of 
which, however, does not appear. 

APHARSITES, Ezra iv. 9., one of the many 
nations whom Asnapper (probably the same 
as Esarhaddon, or, according to others, Shalma- 
neser) brought over from Assyria, and set in the 
cities of Samaria. When their assistance in 
building the second temple was refused by 
Zenibbabel and the Jews, they combined with 
their idolatrous countrymen and neighbours to 
hinder its erection, by writing a letter of accusa- 
tion against the Jews to Ahasuerus. In con- 
sequence of this the work ceased for several 
years, until the reign of Darius, king of Persia, 
when at the instigation of the prophets Haggai 
and Zechariah, it was recommenced, and in spite 
of much opposition, finally completed, Ezra v., 
vi. 

APHARSACHITES, or 

APHARSATHCHITES, another of the nine 
Assyrian nations mentioned by Ezra, iv. 9., as 
having been transplanted with others by As- 
napper from Assyria to the cities of Samaria. 
They were likewise engaged in the conspiracy 
to hinder the building of the second temple under 
Zerubbabel. See Apharsites. When it was 
recommenced in the second year of Darius, 
king of Persia, the Apharsachites, imder the 
direction of their companions Tatnai and She- 
thar-boznai, wrote to that monarch, in order 
once more to hinder the Jews from proceeding 
with the work; but he finding the decree of 
Cyrus, Tnade a new decree for the advancement 



APHEK. 



APOLLONIA. 27 



of the bmlding, which he sent to the Apharsa- 
chites, commanding them to give to the Jews 
such things as they required. Soon after this, 
it was finished and dedicated to God (b.c. 515), 
Ezra V. 6., vi. 6. The Apharsachites have been 
supposed by some authors to be the same with 
the Paraetaceni of profane geograpliy, who appear 
to have been cantoned in the N. part of Persia. 

APHEK. There appear to have been two 
famous cities of this name, though some would 
endeavour to make out four. (1.) One lay 
towards the N. extremity of Canaan, near the 
Sidouians and the borders of the Amorites, Josh, 
xiii. 4., and within the limits of the tribe of 
Asher, Josh. xix. 30. It was originally one of 
the royal cities of Canaan, and was taken, and 
its king smitten by Joshua (xii. 18.), b.c. 1451. 
It is probably the same with Aphik mentioned 
Judg. i. 31., as one of the places from which the 
children of Israel did not drive out the inha- 
bitants of the land. It appears to have pre- 
served some of its original consequence; as it 
was here that Ben-hadad, Idng of Syria, after 
his defeat at Samaria by Ahab (b.c. 901) con- 
centrated his forces the following year, when 
he was again conquered, and surrendered himself 
to the king of Israel, 1 Kgs. xx. 26. 30., upon 
which Ahab made a wicked covenant with Ben- 
hadad, whom God, in His judgment, had doomed 
to utter destruction ; for this Ahab was accord- 
ingly appointed by God to give his life for Ben- 
hadad's, and the life of his people for that of 
the Syrians. It is likewise mentioned 2 Kgs. 
xiii. 17., as the place in which the dying prophet 
Elisha, having first caused Joash, king of Israel, 
to shoot an arrow out of the window, declared 
that he should smite the Syrians until he 
consumed them. The situation of this Aphek 
is placed by some near Hippos, to the E. of 
the Sea of Galilee ; by others between the latter 
place and Damascus ; others, again, identify it 
with an Apheca, still called Afha, which lay 100 
miles to the N. of the limits of Canaan, near the 
springs of the R. Adonis, and was noted for its 
temple to Yenus. There are many reasons, 
however, against these three localities; and 
that of Josephus is rather to be chosen, who 
places it in the Great Plain. 

APHEK (2.) The other or second Aphek 
was in the S. part of the country, towards the 
borders of the Philistines, near Ebenezer. It is 
sometimes thought to have been one and the 
same place with that mentioned by Joshua, xv. 
63,, under the name of Aphekah, as within the 
limits of the tribe of Judah. It was here that 



the Philistines encamped, prior to their victory- 
over the Israelites, B.C. 1141, when the ark of 
God was taken, and Eli's sons were slain, 1 Sam. 
iv. 1. Here likewise they gathered together all 
their armies, when they were going out to battle 
against Saul in Mt. Gilboa, 1 Sam. xxix. 1., 
when Saul and his sons were slain ; upon which 
occasion David, who was in the rereward with 
Achish, being suspected by the other Philistine 
lords, was dismissed, B.C. 1056. This Aphek 
is placed by some in the Valley of Jezreel. 

APHEKAH, a town within the limits of 
the tribe of Judah, in the hill-countr}'', Josh. 
XV. 53. Some make it the same with the second 
Aphek mentioned above; but the general lo- 
cality assigned it by Joshua is against this. 

APHEZEMA, a government or region ori- 
ginally in the S. part of Samaria, which derived 
its name, as it is said, from being taken away 
from that country. Some suppose it was the 
appellation of the countiy, round that Ephraim 
mentioned Jo. xi. 54. ; or the Eamah of Samuel, 
1 Sam. i. 1., vii. 17. ; or the Arimathsea of the Xew 
Testament; but others refer the district Ka- 
mathem to one of the two latter places. It 
was added to Judaea, together with the two 
other governments of Lydda and Eamathem, 
1 Mace. xi. 34. There were four of these go- 
vernments in all, 1 Mace. xi. 57,, the fourth being 
Ptolemais, as would appear from 1 Mace. x. 39. 

APHIK, a city within the limits of the tribe 
of Asher, from which the Israelites did not drive 
out the people of the land, Judg, i. 31. It was 
probably the same with the first Aphek 
described above, on the borders of the Sidonians. 

APHEAH a place mentioned by the prophet 
Micah, i, 10,, the situation of which is not 
known; but from the localities mentioned in 
connection with it, it was probably between the 
Philistine frontier and Jerusalem. Many suppose 
it to be merely a prophetic appellative for some 
well-known town (the word Aphrah signifying 
dust), given in regard to its present and future 
condition. Others think it an accommodated 
name for Ophrah, in the tribe of Benjamin, and 
possibly the same place said by Jerome to be 
5 miles E. of Bethel. 

APOLLOXIA, a city in the S.E. part of Ma- 
cedonia, in the Chalcidic peninsula, not far from 
the shores of the jEgean Sea, and on the road 
between Amphipolis and Thessalonica, which 
was so called after Apollo, the heathen idol, to 
whom a beautiful temple was here built. There 
are sixteen other cities of the same name men- 



28 APPII FORUM. 



ARABIA. 



tioned by profane writers. Through it St. Paul 
passed in his journey from Philippi to Athens, 
Acts xvii. 1. It was originally a colony of the 
Corinthians and Corcyraeans. Its modern name 
is Laregoli. 

APPII FORUM, now called Borgo Lungo, a 
small tOAvn of Italy within the limits of the an- 
cient province of Latium, near the head of that 
canal which was cut by Augustus to drain the 
Pontine Marshes, and towards its N. extremity. 
It was about 35 miles to the S. of the city of 
Rome, on the Via Appia, which owed its name, 
as did this little town, to Appius Caecus, Avhose 
statue is said to have been erected there. Appii 
Forum and The Three Taverns, a few miles to 
the N. of it, were common resting-places for 
travellers from Rome to the S. Its water was 
very bad. It was here that St. Paul, Avhen going 
as a prisoner to Rome, Avas met by some of the 
Chi-istiaus from Rome, Acts xxAaii. 15. The 
Appian Way, called by Avay of eminence Regina 
Viarum, was originally carried only as far as 
Capua, Avhence it Avas finally continued to Brun- 
dusium, noAV called Brindisi, on the Adriatic 
Gulf. 

AR, now called Babba, the metropolis of 
the Moabites, Deut. ii. 29,, lying to the E. 
of the Dead Sea, about 12 miles from the 
mouth of the Ai-uon, on the S. bank of the river, 
and so, not Avithin the limits of the land of 
Israel. It is sometimes simply called Ar, as in 
Deut. ii. 9. 18. 29. ; in other places, Ar of Moab, 
Num. xxi. 28. ; Isa. xv. 1. ; and again, the Dwell- 
ing of Ar, Num. xxi. 15. That it Avas situated 
at the contiuence of some stream Avith the R. 
Arnon, may be gathered from a comparison of 
Num. XXV. 14, 15. ; which latter verse, and Deut. 
ii. 18., shoAV it to have been a frontier tOAvn in 
this direction. It was anciently given by God 
to the children of Lot for a possession, Deut. ii. 
9. ; and therefore, though the Israelites passed 
through it, or at least through its immediate dis- 
trict, Deut. ii. 18. 29., they were not sutfered to 
distress them, or contend with them in battle. 
Pi'ior to this, it seems to have been taken and 
partially or wholly destroyed by the Amorites, 
Num. xxi. 26 — 29. For its great Avdckedness, 
God threatened it with desolation by the pro- 
phet Isaiah, xv. 1. ; which was possibly carried 
into effect Avhen Shalmaneser invaded the king- 
dom of Israel, and in order to secure everything 
behind him, possessed himself of all the great 
Moabitish cities. The chief idol Avorshipped in 
Ar, was Chemosh, and hence some have been led 
to suppose the city itself is mentioned by J eremiah. 



xlviiL 7. 13., when predicting the ruin of Moab. 
Prophecies to the same effect may likewise be 
found in Ezek. xxv. 8—11., and Amos ii. 1—3. 
Eusebius informs us that the idol of this people 
Avas called Ariel, and Epiphanius distinguishes 
the region round Ar by the name of Arielitis ; 
hence it has been thought that Ar itself was also 
called Ariel, and that the rendering in 1 Chron. 
xi. 22. should be tAvo men of Ariel-Moab, instead 
of " two lion-like men of Moab." The several 
names of Ar, Arnon, and Ariel, appear to have 
been closely connected. The later Greeks called 
the place Areopolis, or the city of Mars, from 
Avhom their usual vanity led them to trace the 
origin of the name ; Eusebius informs us it was 
so called in his time. On ancient coins it seems 
to be styled Rabbath-monia. Under the Roman 
domination, it was included in their province 
of Paltestina Tertia. It is stated by Jerome to 
have been destroyed by an earthquake when he 
Avas young. — Some authors have identified it 
with Kir-hareseth, and Elir-heres, but apparently 
without any foundation ; others aflirm it to have 
been called Rabbath-Moab ; but if it were, this 
name is nowhere found in Holy Writ. 

ARAB, a toAvn belonging to the tribe of Ju- 
dah, probably in the W. part of the hill-country, 
Josh. XV. 52. 

ARAB AH (i. e. the Plain), the name of a 
district and toAvn on the S.E. confines of the 
tribe of Benjamin, where it bordered upon the 
tribe of Judah, Josh, xviii. 18. The tOAvn ap- 
pears to have been also called Beth-arabah, and 
variously assigned to the two tribes of which it 
was the frontier, Josh. xv. 6. 61., xviii. 22. 

ARABATTINE, otherAvise Arabatthane, or 
Arabattan, or Akrabattine, a region on the com- 
mon borders of J udtea and Idumasa, which derived 
its name from the mountainous range of Ak- 
rabbim. It is mentioned 1 Mace. v. 3. as the 
place where Judas Maccabceus fought against 
the children of Esau ; and is stated by Josephus 
to have been the scene of some of Simon's mili- 
tary operations, and to have been inhabited in 
his OAvn time by Edomites or Idumteans. It 
must not be confounded Avith another district, 
of the same name, further N., in the neigh- 
boiirhood of Sichem, which is also mentioned by 
Josephus. 

ARABIA, an enormous peninsula in the W. 
part of Asia, bounded on the E. by the Persian 
Gulf and Babylonia, on the N. by Syria and the 
Promised Land, on the W. by Egypt and the 
Red Sea, and on the S. by the Indian Ocean. 



ARABIA. 



29 



It is separated from Egypt and Africa by the 
naiTow Isthmus of Suez. It still preserves its 
old name, though its peninsular shape has led 
the inhabitants to style it Geriset-el-Arab, i. e. 
the Island of Arabia. It is about 1300 miles long 
from N. to S., and 800 broad from E. to W., and 
is more than nine times as large as the United 
Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. But 
the name of Arabia was originally applied by 
the Hebrews only to a small portion of this 
vast territory, which more immediately joined 
their own possessions. Indeed, in former times, 
they seem to have given to the countries after- 
wards comprehended under this common name, 
the general appellation of The East, or The 
East Country, Gen, xxv. 6. ; Isa. xi. 14. ; and 
to have called its inhabitants the Men of the 
East or the Children of the East, Judg. vi. 3. 
33., vii. 12,, viii, 10.; Job i, 3,; Jer, xlix. 28. 
Arabia is likewise called Cush in Scripture, or 
(as our ti-anslators often render the word) 
Ethiopia. Thus in Num. xii, 1., we read of 
Miriam and Aaron speaking against Moses, be- 
cause of the Cushite (Ethiopian) woman whom 
he had married. But, as it is e\-ident from Ex, ii, 
15 — 22,, that the wife of Moses was a Midian- 
itish woman, and as Midian is known to have 
been a city and country of Arabia, it would 
appear that Zipporah was an Arabian, and the 
word Cushite (Ethiopia) in this passage relates 
to Arabia. The same thing may be noted in 
regard to Hab, iii, 7,, where Cushan and Midian 
are used as parallel terms, or else as general 
and particular ; Midian being in strictness only 
one part of the country of Cush, That by 
Cush in Holy Writ, is often meant Ai-abia, may 
be fm-ther inferred from Ezek. xxix. 10., where 
Egypt is threatened to be made desolate " from 
the Tower of Syene even unto the border of 
Cush " (Ethiopia) ; i.e. from its S. to its N. 
extremity. In like manner we read 2 Kgs. 
xix. 9 , that whilst Sennacherib was besieging 
Libnah, in the tribe of Judah, Tirhakah, king 
of Cush (Ethiopia), was marching with an army 
against him ; and again, 2 Chron. xiv. 9., that 
Zerah the Cushite (Ethiopian) came with a 
mighty host against Asa, king of Judah. Now 
in both these latter places, the African Cush 
cannot be tolerably understood, as it lies at too 
great a distance from Judsea, and had Egypt 
between it. In the book of Esther, i, 1., we read 
that the dominions of Ahasuerus extended from 
India even unto Cush (Ethiopia), i. e. Ai-abia. 

The origin of the name Arabia is a much- 
disputed matter. Its most probable derivation 
seems to be from its inhabitants ha\'ing been 



a mingled people (" the mingled people that dwell 
in the desert," Jer. xxv. 20. 24., 1. 37.; Ezek. 
XXX. 5.), composed of several stocks, as the 
Ishmaelites, Midianites, IMoabites, Ammonites, 
Amalekites, &c. : the word Arab denoting, in 
the Hebrew language, to mix or mingle. Other 
authors derive it from its Western situation in 
regard to the R. Euphrates ; and others again 
from its being generally/?/a2n or desert; both which 
appellations they deduce from the root Ai-ab, 
There are some, likewise, who think it obtained 
its name from Jarab, the son of Joktan or Kah- 
than. 

The earliest inhabitants of Arabia seem to 
have been descendants of Ham. In the patri- 
archal times we find in portions of Arabia im- 
mediately adjoining the Promised Land, the 
Horites, Maonites, Kenites, Kenizzites, Emims 
Rephaims, Kadmonites, Amorites, Zu^ims, Zam- 
zummims, &c. ; but the rest of the peninsula 
seems to have been occupied by the posterity of 
Cush, the son of Ham, whose descendants were 
Seba, Havilah, Sabtah, Raamah, Sabtechah, 
Sheba, and Dedan, Gen, x, 7, ; 1 Chron. i. 9. The 
Arabs of the second race are commonly thought 
to have derived their origin from Joktan and 
Ishmael, and some of the modern Arabs still 
affect to preserve this distinction as to their 
origin : the descendants of Joktan, who consider 
themselves the aboriginal inhabitants, being- 
styled pure Arabs, and the descendants of Ish- 
mael naturalized Arabs. Joktan and Uz (de- 
scended from Aram and Ai-phaxad, the sons of 
Shem) established themselves with their chil- 
dren in various parts of Arabia ; Uz in the J^". 
on the confines of S^Tia; and Joktan in the 
S. on the shores of the Indian Ocean, where one 
of his posterity, Hazannaveth seems to have 
given rise to the Adramitfe of profane authors 
and Hadramant of our own times. On the other 
hand, Ishmael, the son of Abraham and Hagar, 
came with his oflFspring and settled amongst 
the earlier tribes. His sons, the founders of 
twelve nations, were Xebajoth, Kedar, Adbeel, 
Mibsam, ]\Iishma, Dumah, Massa, Hadar, Tema, 
Jetur, Naphish, and Kedemah, Gen, xxv. 
12—16. ; 1 Chron. i. 29—31. Besides these, there 
were the sons of Abraham, by Keturah ; the 
Edomites ; the Moabites and Ammonites, the de- 
scendants of Lot ; and others ; who dwelled in 
the same country, and either mixed with or 
drove out the old inhabitants. They appear 
generally to have lived a roving and pastoral 
life, without any settled habitations, at any rate' 
imtil a late period, and then only in particular 
portions of the country. Hence the many allu- 



30 



AEABIA. 



sions in Scripture to their tents and migrations, 
Isa. xiii. 20., xxi. 13. ; Jer. iii. 2.,'xlix. 29. ; So. 
of Sol. i. 5. Their amazing multitude and preda- 
tory disposition have undeniably fulfilled the 
promises made to Hagar that her seed should 
not be numbered for multitude; and that her 
son should be a wild man, whose hand should 
be against every man, and every man's hand 
against him. Gen. xvi. 10 — 12. They made 
war more like robbers than soldiers, a disposi- 
tion which was rather nourished by their living 
at liberty in the deserts, never troubling them- 
selves with agriculture, and seeking riches only 
in their flocks and herds. They were, on the 
whole, a very powerful nation, and considerable 
cultivators of some kinds of learning which led 
them to value themselves on their wisdom. 
The Sabeans who took away Job's cattle and 
slew his servants, are commonly supposed to 
have been Arabians, Job i. 15. ; indeed, it would 
appear that the term Sabeans is sometimes ap- 
plied as a general name to all the inhabitants 
of this vast peninsula. 

The first mention of Arabia under this appel- 
lation, which is met with in Holy Writ is in the 
description of Solomon's wealth 1 Kgs. x. 15. ; 2 
Chron. ix. 14. ; where it is said that he received 
much gold from the kings of Arabia. The queen 
of Sheba, here mentioned in the context, is 
thought to have come from the S. part of the 
peninsula. The gifts she brought to the king 
of Israel were such as were produced in Ara- 
bia, certain portions of which were peculiarly 
rich in those and similar commodities, Ezek. 
xxvii. 20 — 24., as appears also from abundant 
testimony in the profane authors. During the 
prosperous reign of Jehoshaphat, when the fear 
of the Lord fell upon all the kingdoms round 
about Judah, the Arabians brought him as a 
present 7700 rams, and 7700 he-goats, 2 Chron. 
xvii. 11. But in the days of his son Jehoram, 
God stirred up against this wicked king the 
Arabians that were near the Ethiopians (pro- 
bably the very same that had paid tribute to 
his father), and they, in conjunction with the 
Philistines, came up into Judah, and brake into 
it, and carried away all the substance that was 
found in the king's house, and his sons also, 
and his wives; so that there was never a son 
left him, 2 Chron. xxi. 16, 17., xxii. 1. But in 
the days of Uzziah, the predatory spirit of the 
Arabians was repressed, God being graciously 
pleased to help him against such of them as 
dwelt in Gur-Baal, 2 Chron. xxvi. 7. In due 
time, the prophets were commissioned by the 
Almighty to predict calamities upon them, as 



well as upon his other enemies. Hence' Isaiah, 
xxi. 13 — 17., denounces war against Arabia and 
Kedar ; and Jeremiah, xxv. 20. 24., xlix. 28, 29., 
reiterates the same awful threatenings. 

After the captivitj'- we find the same enmity 
exercised by the Arabians towards the Jews, 
when re-building their city and temple under 
Nehemiah and Zerubbabel ; and Geshem, one of 
their chiefs, is mentioned by name, as combining 
with the Ammonites, Horonites, and Ashdodites, 
to hinder the work, Neh. ii. 19., iv. 7., vi. 1. 

Arabia is likewise mentioned in the conquests 
of Holofernes, Jud. ii. 25., who ravaged Media 
and many of the neighbouring regions. About 
this time also, we find Arabians serving in the 
army of Judas Maccab^eus for hire, 1 Mace. v. 
39. ; and more or less on friendly terms with 
the Syrian monarchs, according to their vary- 
ing interests. Thus Alexander having fled into 
Ai-abia from Ptolemy, Zabdiel the Arabian took 
oflf his head and sent it to the latter king, 1 
Mace. xi. 16, 17., whilst another Arabian chief 
brought up the young son of Alexander, 1 Mace, 
xi. 39. But their general disposition was against 
the Jews, as may be gathered from Jonathan 
attacking a tribe of them, called Zabadeans, 1 
Mace. xii. 31. ; and a large body of them falling 
upon Judas Maccabseus, and when;;' they were 
beaten, suing for peace, 2 Mace. xii. 10, 11. 
See also 2 Mace. v. 8. 

The Arabians are continually spoken of in 
Holy Writ under the names of several of their 
tribes, which appear sometimes to be used in an 
extended sense, as well as in their own proper 
meaning. And again, on the other hand, the 
name seems to be occasionally employed in a 
lax way, when only some of its component tribes 
are meant. In the profane authors, as well as 
in our own times, we find Arabia divided into 
three large provinces; Arabia Petraea, or the 
Rochj Arabia, which was the N.W. portion of 
the country, and touched vtpon Egypt, the Pro- 
mised Land, and Syria; Arabia Felix, or the 
Happy Arabia (so called from the excellency 
of its productions), which was the S.W. part of 
the peninsula, bounded by the Arabian Gulf 
and the Indian Ocean; and Arabia Deserta, or 
the Barren Arabia, which was the E. part of the 
country, and obtained its name from its exces- 
sive sterility. It was the first of these divisions* 
to which in Scripture the name of Arabia was 
chiefly applied; and hence we find St. Paul 
speaking of its two extremities under the one 
commonly received name. When alluding to 
his conversion, he informs the Galatians, i. 17., 
that he went from Damascus into Arabia, and 



ARABIAKS. 



ARAM. 



31 



then returned again to Damascus, in whicli 
passage he refers to the N. extremity of Arabia 
Petraea. But when he remarks, Gal. iv. 25., 
that Mt. Sinai is in Arabia, he speaks of the 
S. part of the same province of Arabia Petraea. 

The name of Arabia is often used by the early 
ecclesiastical writers to denote the trans-Jor- 
danic part of the Promised Land, a custom 
which probably obtained from their being used 
in a more especial manner to apply the name to 
that portion of the peninsula bordering upon 
Canaan. In the same manner, and apparently 
for the same reason, Idumsea is occasionally 
called Arabia, as also a large tract of what the 
Romans named Palsestina Tertia. 

ARABIANS. See above. The gospel was in 
a very early age propagated amongst the Ara- 
bians. We read of some so called who were pre- 
sent on the day of Pentecost, Acts ii. 11.; and 
history has handed down the account of some 
bishops and martyrs of Arabia. There were 
many Arab tribes converted to Christianity, and 
many churches built prior to the fifth century ; 
but the Nestorian heresy seems eventually to 
have spread widely amongst them. It after- 
wards became the cradle of the Mahometan 
imposture, which after a time the Arabs were 
not only themselves led or compelled by fire and 
sword to adopt, but they carried it by force of 
war into some of the finest and most civilised 
countries of the earth ; so that the creed of the 
false prophet is now not only the general creed- 
of all Arabia, but of hundreds of millions of our 
feUow-men. 

ARABIANS, VALLEr OF THE, the mar- 
ginal reading at Isa. xv. 7. for what in the 
text is called the Brook of the Willows. It is 
spoken of "by the prophet, when predicting the 
desolation of Moab, and probably refers to some 
of the streams in the district of Hauran, such as 
the Ras-el-Beder ; or it may be the name of 
some tributary of the R. Arnon. See Arnon. 

ARAD, a royal city of the Canaanites, whose 
king was smitten by Joshua, and his country- 
given for a possession to the Israelites, Josh, 
xii. 14. Eusebius informs us it was 20 miles 
from Hebron, and 4 from the Desert of Kadesh ; 
which description places it in the S. part of 
the possessions of the tribe of Judah. There 
appears to have been also a district of the same 
name ; for we read Judg. i. 16., that the part of 
the Wilderness of Judah was in Arad to which 
the Kenites_retired from the City of Palm Trees. 
Arad is supposed to have received its name 
from that King Arad the Canaanite, who fought 



against Israel whilst wandering in the desert, 
and took some of them prisoners (b. c. 1452) 
during their encampment in the neighbour- 
hood of Mt. Hor. But after that Israel had 
vowed a vow unto the Lord to destroy his cities 
utterly, if the Lord would indeed deliver Arad 
into their hands, God hearkened to their voice 
and gave him into their hands, and they utterly 
destroyed his people and their cities, calling the 
place Hormah, i. e. Utter Destruction, Num. xxi. 
1 — 3., xxxiii. 40. 

ARAD, otherwise 

ARADUS, the name of an island and city 
in Phoenice, of which it was originally one 
of the three principal places. The 'island was 
only 7 furlongs in circuit, and 20 distant from 
the shore of the Mediterranean Sea. It is 
thought to have derived its name from the 
Arvadites, who were the descendants of Canaan, 
Gen. X. 18. ; 1 Chron. i. 16. ; and appears to 
be the same, place called Arvad by the prophet 
Ezekiel, xxviii. 8. 11., who speaks of them as 
great mariners, a character attributed to them 
by the profane historians. It had a monarchy 
of its own, and possessed an extensive com- 
merce, especially after the downfal of Tyre and 
Sidon. Strabo represents the people as colonists 
from Sidon, and says that some of its build- 
ings were even more lofty than those of Rome. 
Aradus is the Greek name of Arvad, and is thus 
given 1 Mace. xv. 23., where it is mentioned 
as one of the places to which the Romans wrote 
in behalf of the Jews. It is now called Eiiad, 
and lies a few miles above the mouth of the 
river anciently named Eleutherus, and about 
20 N. of the modern town Tripoli. Nearly op- 
posite to it, on the mainland, was a town called 
Antaradus, now Tortosa. 

ARAH, CHILDREN OF, Ezra ii. 5.; Neh. 
vii. 10.; the name of a tribe or family that 
returned from the Babylonian captivity after 
the edict of Cyrus. Whether so called from 
some city in Canaan which they had previously 
inhabited, or from their ancestor {cf. 1 Chron. 
vii. 39.), is not known. 

ARAM, the name given to that part of W. 
Asia, which fell to the lot of Aram, the youngest 
son of Shem, after whom, probably, it was thus 
called, Gen. x. 22, 23. It contained the whole 
country lying betAveen Mt. Taurus and Mt. 
Ararat on the N., and Arabia on the S., ex- 
tending from the R. Tigris to the Mediterranean 
Sea. It included not onl}- Spia properly so 
called (i.e. excluding Palestine and Phoenicia, 
which fell to the lot of Canaan), but also the 



32 



AEAM. 



ARAMITE. 



countries known by us as Mesopotamia and 
Armenia, which latter is thought to have re- 
ceived its name from Aram. Mesopotabiia 
was so denominated by the Greeks from its 
lying between the rivers Euphrates and Tigris, 
which was also the reason why the Hebrews 
called it Aram-Naharaisi, i.e. Aram of or 
between the two rivers, Judg. iii. 8. marg. ; Ps. Ix. 
title; but in our version of the Bible this region 
is usually called by the Greek name Mesopo- 
tamia, Gen. xxiv. 10. ; Deut. xxiii. 4. ; Judg, 
iii. 8. 10. ; 1 Chron. xix. 6. ; Acts ii. 9., Vn. 
2.; though Aram or Aram-N^aharaim may be 
occasionally found in the margin. The N". part 
of this region being much more fruitful than 
that S, of it, was called Padan, Gen. xlviii. 7., 
or Padan- Arabi, Gen. xxv. 20., xxviii. 2. 5, 
6, 7., xxxi. 18., xxxiii. 18., xxxv. 9. 26., xlvi. 
15. ; that is to say, fruitful or cultivated Aram, 
which is also the signification of Sedan-Aram, 
by which the same region is distinguished in 
Hos. xii. 12., though rendered in our translation 
the Country of Sj^ria. 

The Hebrew word Aram is frequently rendered 
Syria in our translation, but it must not be 
therefore thought, that the names are equi- 
valent, though, by some ancient authors, the 
woi'd Syria is frequently used to denote not 
only Syria Proper but Mesopotamia also. Hence 
Jacob, who in the Hebrew is called an Aramite, 
is in our version said to be a Syrian, Deut. 
xxvi. 5., either as being descended from the 
Syrians of Mesopotamia, or else as having 
dwelled many years in the country of Syria 
Proper ; and hence also he is said, Hos. xii. 12., 
to have fled into the country of Syria, and 
there for a wife kept sheep, which we know 
was in Mesopotamia. Besides the regions of 
Padan-Aram and Sedan-Aram on the further 
side of the Euphrates, there were many portions 
of Aram to the W. of the river which seem to 
have been for a long time governed in a manner 
independent of each other. Ex. gra., Syria 
of Damascus, 2 Sam. viii. 6. ; 1 Chron. xviii. 
6. ; Isa. vii. 8., xvii. 3. ; Amos i. 5. — Syria- 
Maachah, 2 Sam. x. 6. 8. ; 1 Chron. xix. 6. — 
Gesher in Syria, 2 Sam. xv. 8. — Syria of Beth- 
rehob, 2 Sam. x. 6. — Syria of Zoba, 2 Sam. 
viii. 3., X. 6. 8.— and Syria of Ishtob, 2 Sam. 
X. 8. 

The inhabitants of Syria and Mesopotamia 
are commonly called Aramites in the original, 
but Syrians in our version. From the Hebrew 
name Aram the ancient Greeks seem to have 
distinguished its inhabitants by the appellation 
Aramsei or Arimei, which are met with in Homer 



and Hesiod. The name Syria is of much later 
date, derived, as some think, from Tzor or Sor, 

i. e. Tyre ; though others think it is merely an 
abbreviation of Assyria, handed down to us by 
the Greeks, who at an early period frequented 
the coasts. The prophet Amos, ix. 7., seems to 
say that the Aramites were originally settled in 
the country of Kir (on the borders of the R. 
Cyrus in the ancient province Iberia, or else 
in that region now called Kurdistan on the 
bounds of Persia) ; and that God brought them 
thence, as He did the Hebrews out of Egypt; 
but the date of this migration is not known. 
The Aramites were constantly at war with 
the Jews, with varying success. The most 
powerful of their tribes in the time of Saul 
and David, appears to have been that of Aram- 
Zobah, called 2 Sam. x. 6. 8. the Syrians of 
Zoba, and Aram-Naharaim, whom David sub- 
dued and obliged to pay tribute, 2 Sam. viii. 
3. 13., upon which occasion he is thought to 
have written Ps. Ix. Solomon preserv-ed the 
same authority over these ambitious neigh- 
bours, although the kingdom of Damascus then 
became the conspicuous power, Isa. xii. 8., and 
the Aramites for some time lived on friendly 
terms with the Jews. After the separation of 
the kingdoms of Judah and Israel, the Aramites 
do not seem to have been generally subject 
to the latter power, 1 Kgs. xv. 18—20. ; 2 Kgs. 

vi. 8 — 23., xiii. 22., &c. ; unless, perhaps, under 
Jeroboam II., who restored the kingdom of Is- 
rael to its ancient limits, 2 Kgs. xiv. 25. At 
last they became subject to the Chaldees and 
Persians, until after the death of Alexander the 
Great they were ruled by the Seleucidse. The 
Aramites were idolaters. Josh. xxiv. 2.; Judg. 
X. 6. ; 2 Chron. xxviii. 23. It was from Aram 
that Balak, king of Moab, fetched the prophet 
Balaam, Num. xxiii. 7. Their language was 
different from that of the Jews, to whom it 
was unintelligible, though apparently used by 
the Assyrians, 2 Kgs. xviii. 26. ; Isa. xxxvi. 
11. ; Ezra iv. 7. See Syria and Armenia. 

APiAM, a town or district mentioned 1 Chron. 

ii. 23. as once belonging to the sons of Slachir, 
the father of Gilead. It was taken by Jair 
with many others. It may have been merely 
a settlement or portion of one of the minor 
divisions of Aram on the borders of Gilead, as 
Machir's mother was an Aramitess, 1 Chron, 

vii. 14. 

ARAMITESS, 1 Chron. vii. 14. ; and 
ARAMITE, Deut. xxvi. 5. &c. (in our version 



ARANIAH. 



ARANIAII. 



33 



and the Syrian), the names commonly applied in , 
the Bible to the inhabitants of Aram ; which see. 

ARAXIAH, THRESHIXG-FLOOR OF, marg. 
2 Sam. xxiv. 18. See Arau>'AH. 

ARARAT, MOUXTAIXS OF. Here the ark 
rested after the waters of the Flood had abated, 
Gen. viii. 4. They ai-e conjectured to have 
been so called, from the country in which they 
were situated; and from their relative situation 
in regard to the locality where the Ark is sup- 
posed to have been built, as well as from the con- 
current testimony of the Septuagint,- Josephus, 
and prevailing tradition, they are identified by 
most travellers and writers with two lofty peaks, 
styled the Great and the Little Ararat, which 
overhang the R. Araxes at the X. extremity of 
the modern kingdom of Persia, about 12 leagues j 
S. of the city Erivan. They rise from a vast plain, j 
not like peaks of a high chain, but as it were i 
apart and alone, from the smaller elevations by 
which they are surrounded; the greater Ararat 
to the height of 17,000, and the lesser 13,000 feet 
above the level of the sea, their summits being 
always covered with snow. The Turks call the 
higher mountain Agri Dag, and sometimes Par- 
inak-Dag, because of its straightness resembling 
a finger ; th.Q modern ^rTOe?iians name it Massis 
or the Mother of the "World, and sometimes 
Mere-soussar, because the ark stopped there ; and 
the Persians call it Kuhi-Xuach, i.e. the Moun- 
tain of Xoah.but all the surrounding people vene- 
rate it as the resting-place of the ark which saved 
Xoah and his family from perishing by the waters. 
It is -^-isible 10 days' journey olf, or more than 
200 miles, and when the Armenians first see it, 
they are said to kiss the ground, repeating certain j 
prayers and making the sign of the cross. Their , 
summits Avere long declared to be inaccessible, 
but that of the greater mountain has latterly , 
been ascended, and found to be a convex platform ^ 
about 220 feet in diameter. — Others, however, | 
identify Mt. Ararat ydth. one of the summits of , 
the ridge called in profane authors the Carduchian , 
or Gordia^an Mountains, now Jeudi, to the S.W. of : 
Lake Van, and nearer the R. Tigris, but also in \ 
Armenia. The Chaldaean and Syrian translators ' 
render the above passage in Genesis, " Mountains 
of the Kurds ; " which, together with a tradition 
in the neighbourhood, and the name of an ad- 
Joining Aillage Karje Tamanim, or Tillage of the 
Eight (i.e. those saved with Xoah), has led to the 
suppositionthat the Ark rested here. Others again^ 
more improbably still, fix upon Mt. Caucasus as 
the place ; and the Samaritan translation iden- ' 



tifies it with one of the mountain peaks in the 
island of Ceylon. 

ARARAT, the ancient name of an extensive 
countiy in Asia, lying generally between the 
Black and Caspian Seas, between Assyria and 
Persia on the S. and Cappadocia and Sarmatia on 
the X. It is for the most part an elevated 
country containing the sources of the R. Eu- 
phrates, Tigris, Araxes, and Cyrus. It was di- 
vided into fifteen or twenty provinces, of which 
one called Ararat seems to have been the chief. 
The name occurs three times in the Bible, 2 Kgs. 
xix. 37. ; Isa. xxx\Hi. 38. ; where it is called the 
land of Ararat (in our version the land of Ar- 
menia), and is mentioned as the place into which 
Sennacherib's sons fled after the murder of their 
father; and Jer li. 27., where it is styled a king- 
dom, and mentioned in conjunction with the king- 
doms of Minni and Aschchenaz, from all three of 
which God would stir up an enemy to bring 
severe judgments upon Babylon in revenge 
of Israel. According to Armenian tradition 
their political existence commenced about 2000 
B.C., and continued until about the middle of 
the 11th century. Jerome describes Ararat as 
an extensive and very fertile country at the foot 
of Mt. Taurus, watered by the R. Araxes. 

ARARATH, MOUXTAIXS OF, Tobit i. 21. 
See foregoing. 

ARAUXAH, THE THRESHIXG-FLOOR 
OF, 2 Sara. xxiv. 18. ; otherwise, 

ARAXIAH, and 1 Chron. xxi. 15. 18. 28. ; 2 
Chron. iii. 1. Ok>'an (where Araun is read 
in the margin) was upon Mt. Moriah in Jehus 
or Jerusalem, where the Temple was afterwards 
built. It was bought by David, there to build 
an altar to the Lord, in order to turn away His 
wrath on the occasion of that plague Avhich 
followed his numbei-ing of the people. In the 
book of Samuel we read that David bought the 
threshmg-floor and the oxen of Araunah for 
50 shekels of silver; whilst in the book of 
Chronicles it is written that he paid him 600 
shekels of gold. This ditference is usualfy re- 
conciled by the supposition, that the former 
sum referred only to the purchase of the mere 
piece of ground which formed the threshing- 
floor; the latter to all the ground about it 
(whereon the courts of the Temple were after- 
wards built), if not to the whole Mount of 
Moriah, Avhich Araunah, as the prince of those 
Jebusites who had been spared by Israel, may 
perhaps have sold in their common name. See 
Jebusites and MoraAH. 

D 



34 



ARBA, CITY OF. 



AEEOPAGUS. 



ARBA, CITY OF, Josh. xv. 13. ; xxi. 11., or 

ARBAH, CITY OF, Gen. xxxv. 27., or Kir- 
jatli -Ai'ba, the old name of Hebron, or Mamre, 
and so called from Arba, who was a great man 
among the Anakims, Josh. xiv. 15. It was here 
that Abraham and Isaac sojourned, and here 
Jacob came to his father after his return to 
Canaan. It was taken by the Israelites under 
Joshua, who gave it to the tribe of Judah, and 
transferred the property of it to Caleb, Josh. xv. 
13., by whom the children of Anak were driven 
out. It was eventually assigned, with its 
suburbs, to the sons of Aaron, and constituted 
one of the Cities of Refuge ; its fields and villages 
being still reserved to Caleb, Josh. xxi. 10 — 13. 
The rabbins, imitating the vanity of the old 
Greeks, have a puerile tradition, that Hebron 
was called Arba (i. e. Four) from the /bwr most 
illustrious patriarchs Adam, Abraham, Isaac, and 
Jacob, having been buried there; or, if this 
should be objected to, because the four most 
celebrated matrons of antiquity, Eve, Sarah, 
Rebecca, and Leah, were there interred. 

ARBATHITE, 2 Sam. xxiii. 31. ; 1 Chron. xi. 
82., probably a native of Arba. It is mentioned 
as the title of Abi-albon (or Abiel), one of David's 
mighty men ; perhaps the same as Arbite. 

ARBATTIS, a district or town of Galilee, or 
near it, which was conquered, and the inhabit- 
ants of which were destroyed, by Simon Mac- 
cabaBus, 1 Mace. v. 23. 

ARBELA, the name of a country or district 
in Galgala or Galilee, where, after the defeat 
of Nicanor and his host, Bacchides and Alcimus 
came and pitched their tents before Masaloth, 
which they took, and slew much people, 1 Mace, 
ix. 2. Some have supposed this district of 
Avbela was round Beth-Arbel, Hos. x. 14., which 
was spoiled by Shalman in battle. Masaloth is 
identified by some with Misheal, in the tribe of 
Asher, Josh. xix. 26. Josephus speaks of a town 
of Arbela in Galilee, not far from Sepphoris, near 
Gennesareth and the Jordan, which was fortified 
by him, and the caves round which were infested 
by robbers. Eusebius and Jerome describe an 
Arbela in the Great Plain, about 9 miles from 
Legio, and so, in this neighbourhood ; and 
Eusebius mentions another Arbela, beyond 
Jordan, belonging to Pella. 

ARBITE, 2 Sam. xxiii. 35., the distinguishing 
name given to Paarai, one of David's valiant 
men. 

ARBONAT, THE RIVER, mentioned Judith 
ii. 24. Holofernes after he had crossed the 



Euphrates and gone through Mesopotamia, de- 
stroyed all the high cities that were on the banks 
of this river, till you come to the sea. It may, 
perhaps, be the same with the R. Chaboras, now 
Khabour, a tributary of the Euphrates. 

ARCHEVITES, one of the Samaritan tribes 
or societies, brought with others from Assyria 
by Asnapper, and placed in part of the country 
formerly occupied by the Ten Tribes. Under 
the conduct of Rehum and Shimshai, they did all 
that they could to hinder the building of the 
second temple, but they were eventually foiled 
in their malicious purpose, Ezra iv. 9. 

ARCHI, whether a district or a town is not 
known. It was between Bethel and Ataroth, 
forming part of the limits of the lot of the 
children of Joseph, probably on the fi-ontiers of 
Ephraim and Benjamin, Josh. xvi. 2. Some 
write the name Aixhi-ataroth. 

ARCHITE, the appellation so constantly given 
to Hushai, David's friend, 2 Sam. xv. 32., xvi. 
16., xvii. 5. 14. ; 1 Chron. xxvii. 33. Why, 
is not known. See Archi. 

ARDITES, a family of the tribe of Benjamin, 
so named from Ard, the son of Bela, the son of 
Benjamin, Gen. xlvi. 21., called Addar (marg. 
Ard), 1 Chron. viii. 3. The Ardites ai-e mentioned 
Num. xxvi. 40. m the catalogue of the sum of 
all Israel which Moses took in the Plains of 
Moab. 

ARELITES, a family of the children of Gad, 
so called from their progenitor Areli, numbered 
in the Plains of Moab, Num. xxvi. 17. 

AREOPAGITE, Acts xvii. 34. See Areo- 
pagus. 

AREOPAGUS, or the Hill of Mars, not far 
from the Acropolis or citadel of Athens, in 
Greece. It received its name, according to pro- 
fane tradition, from Mars having been the first 
tried there, for the murder of a son of Neptune ; 
and is said to have been originally instituted 
as a judicial court by Cecrops, who founded 
Athens, B.C. 1556. It was an open space with 
an altar dedicated to Minerva Area, and two 
rude seats of stone for the defendant and his 
accuser. The judges, called Areopagites, con- 
sisted of from thirty to fifty, and Avere professed 
to be chosen from among the most worthy and 
religious of the Athenians, and from such Ar- 
chons (or chief magistrates) as had discharged 
their duty with care and faithfulness. Tlieir 
jurisdiction appears to have been partly of a 
judicial, and jDartly of a censorial nature; and 
their authority exceeded in some cases even 



ARGOB. 



ARIMATILEA. 



35 



that of the popular assembly. They took cog- [ 
nizance of murder, impiety, immoral beha^'iour, , 
and idleness, -u hich they deemed the cause of all j 
\'ice; had the management of the public : 
treasiiry, and the liberty of rewarding the 
■\-irtuous ; and by their authority all parents were : 
compelled to educate their children in a manner j 
suitable to their condition in society. They \ 
heard causes and passed sentence in the night, j 
that they might not be prejudiced by seeing j 
either plaintiff or defendant: hence, their deei- | 
sions were accoujited just and impartial, and j 
were always deemed inviolable. But their con- i 
sequence and power began to lessen shortly after ! 
they refused to admit Pericles among them ; and 
in proportion as the morals of the Athenians be- ' 
came gradually corrupted, the Areopagus ceased 
to be conspicuous for its virtue and justice. ' 
— Before this tribunal, which decided all causes 
relating to their false gods, St. Paul was brought j 
as the setter forth of new deities. He had been 
preaching in their city against the plurality of 
gods, and declaring that he came to reveal to 
them that God whom they ignorantly worshipped i 
as well as procl?-iming the doctrine of the resur- j 
rection. Acts xvii. 19. 22. 34. Here, upon this 
commanding eminence overlooking the whole 
city, surrounded by the splendid monuments of 
pagan pomp and superstition, the disciples of 
Socrates and Plato, the dogmatists of the Porch, 
and the sceptics of the Academy, were addressed 
by a poor and lowly man, rude in speech, 
without the enticing words of man's wisdom, 
upon the most important concerns which cotild 
employ their attention ; and though some mocked 
and others put the matter aside to a more con- 
venient season, yet certain men clave unto Paul, 
amongst ' whom was one of the Areopagites 
themselves, named Dionysius. Whether o"«-iug 
to the prevalence of the Koman power or not, 
the zeal of this great Apostle of the Gentiles 
seems upon this occcision to have set at defiance 
one peculiar privilege of the Areopagus (whether 
he pleaded his cause before the judges or not), 
viz. that of inflicting extreme and exemplary 
punishment upon any who set at nought the 
gods of Greece, 

ARGOB, a region or country beyond Jordan, 
in Bashan, which was called the land of the 
giants. It was formerly a part of the kingdom 
of Og, from whom it was taken by Moses, and 
was given to the half tribe of Manasseh, Xum. 
xxxii. 41, ; Deut. iii. 4. 13, 14. ; Josh, xiii, 30. 
It contained three-score great cities, with walls 
and brazen bars, wliich Jair, the son of IManasseh, 
took, and called them after his own name, 



Eashan-havoth-jair. It aftcrsvards foi-med the 
disti-ict of the son of Geber, one of Solomon'^ 
twelve officers over all Israel, who provided 
victuals for the king and his household, 1 Kgs. 
iv. 13. It was very fertile, particularly in 
olives ; and, Hke the rest of Bashan, was famed 
for its oaks and herds. Some have supposed 
that Argob and Bashan were equivalent names 
for the same country, and others that they were 
quite distinct ; but on comparing the foregoing 
references it would appear, that Argob is spoken 
of as only a part of Bashan, and was given to 
Jair, whilst Gilead was given to Machir, These 
two, therefore, seem to have made up the king- 
dom of Bashan ; Gilead lying round Mt. Gilead, 
and Argob being to the X. of it, towards the 
Sea of Galilee and the upper course of the K. 
Jordan. — In this district there seems to have 
been a city of the same name, Argob, which, 
according to Eusebius, was 15 miles W. of 
Gerasa, and which is supposed to be the same 
•sdth what Josephus calls Ragab or Ragabah. 
The Ai-gob mentioned 2 Kgs, xv. 25., in the 
account of the murder of Pekahiah, king of 
Israel, by Pekah, his captain and successor, is 
supposed by some not to be a man's name, but 
the name of a town in Samaria — if not the 
Argob mentioned above. But this is very 
doubtful, 

ARIEL, a name applied by the prophet 
Isaiah, xxix 1, 2. 7., to the city where David 
dwelt, i,e. the city of Jerusalem (2 Sam. v, 9,), 
when predicting the heavy judgment of God 
upon it, and the insatiabihtv of the enemies He 
would bring upon it for the senselessness and 
deep hypocrisy of the Jews. The appellation 
signifies the lion of God, and is supposed by 
some to point at the heroical spiiit of the popu- 
lation, Gen, xlix, 9., or their self-destruction 
by seditions and factions when shut up and 
besieged. Others, however, think the name 
signifies the fre or fire-hearth of God, and refer 
it to the altar of bmiit-offerings in the Temple of 
Jerusalem, or the sacred fire upon it ; whence, 
by extension, the Temple and Jerusalem itself 
are signified. Camp. Isa, xxix. 1. with Ezelc 
I xliii. 15., marg. 

ARI]\rATHJ]:A, a city of the Jews, Luke 
xxiii. 51., from which Joseph, the rich and 
; honourable counsellor, who was a secret disciple 
of Jesus Christ, derived his name. Matt, xxvii. 
57. ; 31k. XV. 43. ; Jo. xix. 38. This good man 
went boldly to Pilate, and having begged the 
\ Blessed Redeemer's body from the Roman go- 
' vernor, he bmied it in his own new sepulchre 
that was hewn in stone, wherein never man 
D 2 



36 AKIOCII, PLAIJT OF. 



ARMOUEY, THE. 



before was laid. The situation of Arimathsea 
is not known with any certainty. Some identify 
it with one of the cities named Rama; which 
see. But there seems objection to these lo- 
calities for the position of Arimathsea. Eusebius 
and Jerome appear to fix it between Lydda and 
Joppa, and so, far away from the above places. 
Josephus calls it Ramathem and Ramatha, 
which may have lead Eusebius and others to 
confound it with Ramah, Indeed, there may 
have been another Ramah in this direction, 
from which name, with the article prefixed, 
Haramathaim, the form Arimathsea would be 
readily derived. The common situation now- 
assigned for Arimathaja is Ramlah, a small 
town of comparatively modern foundation, a 
few miles S.W. of Lydda, and S.E. of Joppa, on 
the road to Jerusalem. It and Lydda are said 
to have been the first two towns which were 
taken by the Crusaders. 

ARIOCH, PLAIN OF, Judith i. 6., whence 
came some of those who assembled at the 
contest between Arphaxad, who reigned over 
the Medes in Ecbatane, and Nabuchodonosor, 
king of the Assyrians. Modern travellers have 
supposed its site to have been the great plains 
S. of Hara, and between the R. Mendeli and 
the mountains which form the W. boundary of 
Media. 

ARKITE or Architk, the name of one of 
the eleven families of Canaan, the son of Ham, 
who composed the one general nation of the 
Canaanites, Gen. x. 17. ; 1 Chron. i. 15. The}'^ 
appear to have settled towards the N. of Syria, 
between Lebanon and the Mediterranean, a few 
miles to the N. of the modern Tripoli. Ptolemy 
and Pliny mention a town called Area on this 
coast, which may perhaps have derived its name 
from the Arkites, and is now called Murakiah. 

It was the reputed birth-place of Alexander 
Severus, and was hence called Area Cassaria, or, 
according to others, Ca^saria Libani. It is also 
mentioned by Josephus and Jerome as being 
only a few miles distant from Antaradus. 

ARMAGEDDON, a place so called in the 
Hebrew tongue, and mentioned Rev. xvi. 16. 
Here when the sixth angel has poured out his 
vial upon the R. Euphrates, and the way of the 
Kings of the East has been prepared, God will 
gather together his enemies for destruction. The 
name, literally taken, signifies the Mountain of 
Megiddo, and hence some critics think that the 
old Megiddo is alluded to as the scene of the great 
slaughter; for here, by the waters of Megiddo, 
Sisera, with his great army, was conquered 



by Barak, Judg. v. 19. ; and here also Josiali, 
king of Judah, was killed by Pharaoh Nechoh, 
king of Egypt, 2 Kgs. xxiii. 29. See Megiddo. 

ARMENIA, THE COUNTRY OF, is nowhere 
mentioned in the original language of the 
Bible under this name. Where it occurs in our 
version, 2 Kgs. xix. 37., Isa. xxxvii. 38., as the 
place whither Sennacherib's sons fled after the 
murder of their father, it is Ararat in the. 
Hebrew. See Aiiarat. It must not, therefore, 
be confounded with those regions which, in 
later times and by the profane authors, as Avell 
as by Josephus, Eusebius, and Jerome, are de- 
scribed as Armenia. Care should be also taken 
to distinguish it from Aramtea, or Aram, for 
which it is sometimes mistaken. See Aram. 
Under the general name of Armenia was com- 
prehended a large tract of country lying be- 
tween tlte Black and Caspian Seas, to the S. of 
Mt. Caucasus and reaching to Assyria and Media_ 
It was in general very elevated land, containing 
the sources of the four famous rivers Euphrates^ 
Tigris, Araxes, and Cyrus ; and is now, speaking 
generally, known by the modern names of Ar- 
menia, Kourdistan, and Diarbekir, in Asiatic 
Turkey, and Azerbijan, the N.W. province of 
Persia. The ancients divided Armenia into the 
Greater and the Less, the R. Euphrates forming 
the boundary between them, and often described 
the Greater alone when they spoke of Armenia. 

Armenia is supposed by some to have ob- 
tained its name from Aram, the son of Shem, 
the father of the Aramaean or S^^rian race. 
Others derive it from the Hebrew word Har-mini 
{the Mountain of 3Iinni), the name of a country 
in this neighbourhood mentioned by Jeiemiah, 
li. 27., between Ararat and Aschchenaz, from 
which God threatened to stir up enemies against 
Babylon. See Minni. But the Greeks in their 
mythological fancies drew its origin from Ar- 
menus, a Thessalian, and one of the Argonauts. 
The Armenians appear in the earliest times to 
have been successively conquered by the As- 
syrians, the Medes, and the Persians, and after- 
wards to have submitted to Alexander without 
the least resistance. Upon the death of this 
monai-ch their country fell into the hands of the 
Seleucidae, who maintained possession of it till 
the defeat of Antiochus the Great by the Romans, 
when it often became the cause of fierce 'Contests 
between the latter people and the Parthians. 

ARMOURY, THE, a building in Jerusalem 
mentioned in Neh. iii. 19., in the account of the 
re-building the wall of the city after the return 
from the Babylonish captivity. There seems to 
have been a way down froni it to the suburbs, at 



AIHSTON-, THE R. 



AllOER. 



S7 



a spot called the Turning of the Wall. It has 
been thought that this Armoury may have been 
the ruins of the old building referred to in the 
So. of Sol. iv. 4., where some such edifice is 
called the Tower of David, where there hung 
a thousand bucklers; or again, that mentioned 
as the House of the Forest of Lebanon, where 
Solomon put 200 golden targets and 300 golden 
shields, 2 Chron. ix, 16. But the Armoury may 
have been a very different building from these 
places of magnificent ornament; for, from the 
frequent mention of store-cities and store- 
houses, it would appear that the kings of Judah 
laid up large quantities of arms for the purposes 
of war. 

ARNON, THE R., or the Brooks of AKNON,a 
stream on the other side Jordan, now called fVadi 
Marejib, which rises in the Wilderness of Arabia, 
from the heights adjacent to Gilead and Abarim, 
and after a semicircular S. W. course of about 
70 miles, empties itself into the N. part of the 
Dead Sea. It formed the original boundary be- 
tween the Ammonites and the Moabites; but 
after the former were driven E. by the incursions 
of the Amorites, it became the line of demarca- 
tion between these and the Moabites, Num. xxi. 
13. 15. ; Josh. xii. 2. 26. ; Judg. xi. 13. 18. 
22. ; and eventually, upon the conquest of the 
trans -Jordanic territory by the Israelites, it 
formed the common frontier of the Moabites 
and the tribe of Reuben, Deut. iii. 12. 16. ; Josh, 
xiii. 9. 16.; Judg. xi. 26.; 2 Kgs. x. 33.; Jer. 
xlviii. 20. Hence it is called Num. xxi. 15., 
the Stream of the Brooks of Arnon, that goeth 
doAvn to the dwelling of Ar, and lieth upon the 
border of Moab. The whole land of the Amorite 
kings Sihon and Og, is frequently spoken of as 
lying between the R. Arnon and Mt. Hermon ; 
Mt. Gilead and the R. Jabbok dividing the two» 
and then separating them from the Ammonites, 
Num. xxi. 24. ; Deut. ii. 36., iii. 8., iv. 48. ; Josh, 
xii. 1. The Israelites under Moses crossed the R. 
Arnon, probably at the Fords of Arnon, Isa. xvi. 
2., near Dibon-Gad, Num. xxi. 14. 30., xxxiii. 
45. ; Deut. ii. 24. It was upon the borders of 
this river that Balak met Balaam, Num. xxii. 
30. ; and in its neighbourhood the great battle 
was fought between the Amorites and Israel, 
Num. xxi. 24. 28. The banks of the river are 
in some places very precipitous ; and hence some 
of the summits appear to be called the high 
places of Anion, Num. xxi. 28. The river itself 
varies of course with the season, so as to be ford- 
able in some places, which are referred to by 
Isaiah, xvi. 2., when exhorting the Moabites to 
obedience, as the Fords of Arnon. — The Arnon 



is thought by some to have been called the River 
of Gad, or the Va ley of Gad, from its springs 
being in or near the territory of this tribe, 2 
Sam. xxiv. 5. ; 2 Kgs. x. 33. ^ but others identify 
the latter with a branch of the Jabbok, which is 
the chief river of Gad, The Arnon is also iden- 
tified by many with the Waters of Dimou, Isa. 
XV. 9., or Dlbon. It is further supposed by 
others to be the same with the Valley of ilie 
Arabians, or Brook of the Willows, Isa. xv. 7. ; 
but this seems rather to be one of the Arabian 
mountain torrents in the Huouran, or else the 
R. Euphrates itself near Babylon, the banks of 
which were planted with willows, Ps. cxxxvii. 1. 

ARNON, THE FORDS OF, Isa. xvi. 2., 
probably the chief crossing -place of the R. Ar- 
non, on the high road leading from Arabia 
Petrgea into Gilead and Bashan. Here the Pro- 
phet Isaiah foretold, that the Moabites should 
be found in confusion and dismay within three 
years after his prophecj^, " like a wandering 
bird cast out of the nest," when the}' were 
driven from the possessions they had unjustly 
seized in the land of Israel, and their own 
country made desolate, and tliemselves, though 
now a great multitude, then reduced to a feeble 
remnant, Isa. xvi. 8, 9. 14. 

ARODITES, a family of the tribe of Gad, 
numbered by Moses in the Plains of Moab, when 
the sum of all Israel was taken. Num. xxvi. 17. 
They derived their name from Arod or Arodi, 
one of the sons of Gad, Gen. xlvi. 16. 

AROER, the name of a city on the N. side of 
the R. Arnon, nearly opposite Ar of Moab, and 
now called Arair, Deut. ii. 36. It belonged 
originally to the Moabites, but was afterwards 
taken by the Amorites, and became the frontier 
town of Sihon's kingdom in this direction, Deut. 
ii. 36., iv. 48.; Josh. xii. 2. When the Amo- 
rites were conquered by Israel under Moses, Aroer, 
with all the adjoining country, fell to the lot of 
the tribe of Reuben, Deut. iii. 12. ; Josh. xiii. 9. 
16. ; Judg. xi. 26. ; 1 Chron, v. 8. ; which occa- 
sioned it to be mentioned in the Scriptures as 
one of the border tOAvns of trans-Jordanic Israel 
towards the S., 2 Kgs. x. 33, 

AROER seems to have been applied either as 
a distinct appellation for the Reubenitos" country, 
adjacent to the preceding city, 1 Chron. v. 8., or 
else to Moab, Isa. xvii. 2. ; Jer, xhiii. 19. ; if it 
be not rather intended for that part of the Reu- 
benite and Gadite territory, Avhichhad been taken 
from the Moabites and Sihon. Some have sup- 
posed that the whole country of Israel beyond 
Jordan was so named, but this is very doubtful. 
!> 3 



38 



AROER. 



AEUMAH. 



AROER, another city, N.W. (now called Ai- 
reh) of the preceding, towards the bounds of the 
Ammonites, Josh. xiii. 25,, whence it is said to 
lie before Rabbah. It was within the limits of 
the Gadites, who built it, Num. xxxii. 34., and 
to whom it was given by Moses. It was near 
or upon the River of Gad, and seems to have 
been visited by Joab when taking account of 
the population of Israel, 2 Sam. xxiv. 5. 

AROER, another city, belonging to the tribe 
of Judah, mentioned 1 Sam. xxx. 28., from 
David's having sent to his friends who were in 
it some of the spoil taken from those Amale- 
kites who had burned Ziklag. 

AROERITE, an inhabitant of Aroer, such 
as was Hotham, the father of two of David's 
mighty men, 1 Chron. xi. 44. 

ARPAD, or 

ARPHAD, the name of a small maritime 
country, with an independent sovereign, whom 
Sennacherib boasted to Hezekiah that he had 
conquered, 2 Kgs. xix. 13. ; Isa. xxxvii. 13. 
Its inhabitants seem to have been idolaters, 
Isa. x. 9, 10. ; 2 Kgs. xviii. 34. ; Isa. xxxvi. 
19. Its situation is not known with any cer- 
tainty. In the foregoing references it is men- 
tioned in connection with Hamath ; in Jer. xlix. 
23., with Damascus ; to both of which kingdoms 
it, therefore, probably adjoined. Hence it is 
supposed to have lain to the E. of the well-known 
isle Arad or Arvad (called Aradus by the pro- 
fane authors), on the coast of Syria, to the N. 
of Sidon, from Avhich it may have obtained its 
name, and the inhabitants of which seem to 
have been confederate with Tyre, lower down the 
coast, Ezek. xxvii. 11. Some critics have thought 
that there was a city called Arpad ; if so, it was 
probably the city Arvad or Aradus itself, on the 
little island above named. But others identify 
it with Raphanete, now called Rqfineh, about 
midway between Epiphania and Ti'ipolis. 

ARPHAXAD or Arpachshad, Gen. x. 22. 
24. ; 1 Chron. i. 17, 18. ; the third son of Shem, 
who, like many of the older patriarchs, is con- 
jectured to have founded and given name to 
one of the nations of antiquity. According to 
Josephus, he was the progenitor of the Chald^e- 
ans, who were hence called Arphaxadeans ; but 
whether this be so or not, it appears most pro- 
bable that his descendants originally settled in 
the neighbourhood where this people latterly 
dwelt. The district of Arrapachitis, in the E. 
part of the province of Assyria, is thought to 
have obtained its name from Arphaxad. 



ARSARETH, the name of a countiy bordering 
upon the R. Euphrates, mentioned 2 Esd. xiii. 
45. Through it in his vision Esdras speaks of 
the Ten Tribes wandering for a year and a half 
(after they left their captivit}' in Assyria), into 
a further country, where never mankind dwelt. 
The apocryphal writer may perhaps mean Ar- 
menia; but the name, it is believed, appears 
nowhere else. 

ARVAD may possibly be the same with the 
Arpad mentioned above, although it is gene- 
rally taken for the city called Aradus by the 
Greeks, and now Ruad. This was the most 
X. city of Phoenicia, and was situated on an 
island only 7 stadia in circuit, and 20 distant 
from the coast ; but it Avas so strong as to have 
resisted for a long time a siege by the Romans. 
It is said to have been originally founded by 
fugitives from Sidon. The landing-place on 
the mainland was named Carnos, a little K, 
of which stood Antaradus, now Tortosa. Aradus 
was about 20 miles N. of Tripolis, now well 
known as Tripoli, which was so called from 
its having been built by the people of the three 
cities Sidon, Tyre, and Aradus, for the con- 
venience of assembling in this place the several 
federal bodies of Phoenice. Ezekiel, when pre- 
dicting the great and irrecoverable fall of Tyi'e, 
speaks of the inhabitants of Arvad and Zidon 
being her mariners, and the men of Arvad 
being with its army on the walls, Ezek. xxvii. 
8. 11. See Aradus. 

ARVADITES, the descendants of Arvad, one 
of the sons of Canaan, Gen. x. 18 ; 1 Chron. i. 
16. They appear to have settled in the country 
named Arpad or Arphad, which, as well as 
the strong island Aradus, probably derived its 
name from them. 

ARUBOTH or Araboth, a town or district 
supposed to be partly in the tribes of Judah 
and Ephraim, but its situation is not certainly 
knowm. It formed one of the twelve pur- 
veyorships of Solomon, for providing the king 
and his household with victuals, and was under 
the charge of Benhesed, 1 Kgs. iv. 10., to whom 
pertained Sochoh and all the land of Hepher. 

ARUMAH, the place where Abimelech, 
Gideon's son, dwelt, Judg. ix. 41. It seems to 
have been at the foot of Mt. Gerizim, and 
not far from Shechem. Eusebius states that 
it was afterwards called Remphin, and was not 
far from Lydda; but he probably alludes to 
Ramah, in the tribe of Benjamin, which some 
say was also called Arumah. The Rumah men- 



ASAPH, CHILDREN OF. 



ASHDOD. 39 



tioned 2 Kgs. xxiii. 36., in connection with 
Jelioiakini, king of Judah, is supposed by some 
to Lave been one and the same place with 
Arumah. 

ASAPH, CHILDREN OF, mentioned Ezra 
ii, 41., Neh. vii. 44,, in the register of those 
Israelites who returned at the first out of 
Babylon to Jerusalem, They were probably 
the chief singers in the Temple, and descend- 
ants of Asaph, whom David appointed over 
the musical services of the sanctuary. 

ASCALON, Judith ii. 28.; 1 Mace. x. 8o., 
xi. 60. See Askelon. 

ASCENT OF MT. OLIVET, up which the 
road wound from Jerusalem towards Bahurim 
and the Wilderness of Judah, 2 Sam. xv. 28., 
xvi. 0. It was here that David, when driven 
out of Jerusalem by Absalom, went up weepmg 
and barefoot, with his head covered, 2 Sam. 
XV. 30. 

ASER, the Greek form of Asher, of which 
tribe St. John, in his visions, saw twelve 
thousand sealed. Rev. vii. 6. Tobit came from 
Tbisbe, not far from its borders, Tobit i. 2. See 
Asher. 

ASH AN or Asan, one of a group of nine 
cities near Libnah, which, with their villages, 
were assigned to the tribe of Judah, Josh. xv. 
42. 44. In the parallel passage, 1 Chron. vi. 59., 
it is called Ain, and described as a Levitical 
city belonging to the sons of Aaron. See Am. 
This Ashan is generally supposed to be the 
same with Ashan mentioned Josh. xix. 7., 1 
Chron. iv. 32., as belonging to the Simeonites, 
to which tribe it may have been eventually 
transferred; if they were not the same, they 
were most likely very near to each other. It is 
likewise thought to be the Chorashan men- 
tioned in 1 Sam. xxx. 30. 

ASHBELITES, a family of the tribe of Ben- 
jamin, registered by Moses when the sum of 
all Israel was taken in the Plains of Moab, 
Num. xxvi. 38. They obtained their name from 
Ashbel, Benjamin's son, Gen. xha. 21, ; 1 Chron. 
viii. 1. 

ASHCHENAZ, or Ashkenaz, Kingdom of. 
spoken of by Jeremiah, H. 27., in connection 
with the kingdoms of Ararat and Minni, when 
denouncing God's severe judgment against 
Babylon in revenge of Israel. It probably de- 
rived its name from Ashchenaz, a son of Gomer, 
and grandson of Japbeth, Gen. x. 3. ; 1 Chron. 
i. 6. ; whose descendants seem to have settled 
in the N. part of Asia Minor, soinewhcvc be- 



tween the R. Euphrates and the iEgcan Sea, on 
the S. coast of the Black Sea. This last was 
called by the earlier Greeks Ponlus Axonus, 
probably from Ashchenaz ; but this derivation 
being foi'gotten in course of time, the Greeks 
explained the teim by Axeinus, inhospitable, in 
which they were favoured by the stormy 
nature of the sea itself, and by the savage 
manners of the dwellers on its shores. When, 
however, their alleged ferocity had been softened 
by mtercourse with foreign nations and the 
planting of colonies amongst them, the name 
of the sea was said to have been changed to 
Euxeinus, hospitable. Further traces of the 
name Ashchenaz appear in that of L. Ascania, 
noAv Iznik, at the W. end of the old province 
Bithynia, towards the Propontis, where were 
also a region and town bearing the same ap- 
pellation; and it is not unlikely that the 
name Ascanius, which both Homer and Virgil 
adopted for two of their heroes in these regions, 
was a corruption of the older form Ashchenaz. 
If the kingdom of Ashchenaz lay in this part 
of Bithynia and Phrygia, then we appear ttf 
have proof of the literal fulfilment of Jere- 
miah's prophecy; for Xenophon informs us, 
that Cyrus, on taking Sardis and the neigh- 
bouring places in the Hellespontine Phrygia, 
marched the inhabitants against Babylon. Jo- 
sephus writes that the Aschanazi were called 
Rhegines by the Greeks. The modern Jews 
apply the name Ashkenazim to the Germans. 

ASHDOD, called by the Greeks and Latins 
AzoTUS, was one of the five capital cities of the 
Philistines, Josh. xiii. 3. ; 1 Sam. vi. 17. ; but is 
now a mean place, named Asclud. It was about 3 
miles from the shore of the Mediterranean, 5 
miles S.W. from Ekron, and 20 miles N.E. from 
Askelon. It was originally inhabited by the 
Anakims, and was the place where they dwelled 
in Joshua's days, Josh. xi. 22., and probably till 
after the reign of Da%id. It was also the 
principal seat of the worship of Dagon, whose 
chief temple was here, and whose image fell 
down before the ark of the Lord, after the Phi- 
listines had brought the latter into their idol- 
temple, when they had conquered the Israelites- 
For their sin in this matter, the people of 
x^shdod were smitten with pestilence, 1 Sam. 
V. 1. 3. 5, 6, 7. ; and after seven months, joined 
with the four other Philistine lordships, in re- 
turning the ark to Israel, with golden and other 
ofl'erings, 1 Sam. y\. 17. Ashdod was allotted to 
the tribe of Judah, Josb. xv. 46, 47., but it seems 
to have been eventually included within the limits 
of Dan ((/. Josh. xix. 1.), though not mentioned 
d4 



40 ASHDODITES. 



ASIIER. 



by name. It was probably only made tributary, 
and never completely possessed by the Israelites 
for a long continuance, as we find it so frequently 
mentioned as a Philistine city, and its inhabit- 
ants so often at war with them. Owing to its 
strength and situation (from 1 Mace. ix. 15., it 
appears to have stood on an elevation), it seems 
to have been the key of Egypt in this direc- 
tion, Amos iii. 9., and was therefore many a time 
the scene of war. Uzziah, king of Judah, dis- 
mantled its forts (B.C. 810), and built cities about 
it to check the Philistines, 2 Chron. xxvi. 6. 
Tartan, the Assyrian general, afterwards reduced 
it (b.c 714), took many of the people captive, 
and left a garrison in it, Isa. xx. 1. ; 2 Kgs. 
xviii. 17. ; which according to Herodotus held 
out for twenty-nine years against Psammetichus, 
king of Egypt. According to the book of Judith, 
ii. 28., it was reduced to subjection by Holo- 
fernes, the general of the Assyrian king Na- 
buchodonosor, whilst Jerusalem was yet standing, 
iv. 1, 2., probably therefore about the year 654 
B.C. Its abasement and subjection on account 
of its wicked conduct towards the people of 
God, were repeatedly predicted by Amos, i. 8. ; 
by Zephaniah, ii. 4. ; Jeremiah, xxv. 20. ; and 
by Zechariah, ix. 6 Though it was taken and 
plundered by the troops of Nebuchadnezzar, it re- 
covered from its fall ; and when the Jews re- 
turned from the Babylonish captivity, it was 
strong enough to join with their other foes in 
hindering the re-building of Jerusalem, Neh. iv. 
7. Many of the Jews, also, on their return, 
married wives of Ashdod; which led Nehe- 
miah to rebuke them sharply, and make them 
swear they would contract no more such heathen 
alliances, Neh. xiii. 23, 24. Ashdod appears to 
have been reduced to subjection by Judas 
Maccabseus, who destroyed it and its temple^ 1 I 
Mace. iv. 15,, v. 68., and was himself killed, not i 
far from the Mt. Azotus, 1 Mace. ix. 15. It j 
was again taken and sacked by Jonathan, who ' 
burned it, 1 Mace. x. 77. 83, 84., xi. 4. It was I 
afterwards fortified by Simeon, 1 Mace. xiv. j 
34. ; but burned by his sons, 1 Mace. xvi. 10, j 
Azotus was restored and strengthened by the | 
Romans under Gabinius, after which, according j 
to Josephus, it was annexed to the kingdom of | 
Herod, It was here, at Azotus, that Philip was 
found after he baptized the eunuch of Ethiopia, 
and was caught away from him by the Spirit, and 
here he appears to have been amongst the first 
to preach the gospel. Acts viii. 40. 
ASHDODITES, Neh. iv. 7., or, 

ASHDOTHITES, Josh. xiii. 3., the inhabit- 
ants of Ashdod : which see. 



ASHDOTH-PISGAH (Springs of Plsgah, or 
the Hill), the name of a town beyond Jordan, near 
the E. shores of the Dead Sea, at the S. foot 
of Mt. Pisgah. It belonged originally to the 
Amorites, but was taken from them by the 
Israelites under Moses, and allotted to the 
tribe of Reuben, Deut. iii. 17. ; Josh. xii. 3., xiii, 
20. 

ASHES, VALLEY OF THE, Jer. xxxi, 40. 
See Valley of the Dead Bodies, 

ASHER (i.e. Happy'), one of the twelve tribes 
of Israel, whose name was derived from Asher, 
a son of Jacob and Zilpah, Gen, xxx. 13. ; 1 
Chron. vii. 30. 40., in which last passage their 
number is set doAvn as 26,000 men apt to the 
war. At the Exodus, only 200 years after the 
birth of Asher, the number of the children of 
Asher was 41,500 fighting men, Num. i. 40. ; 
thirty-eight years afterwards, when they were 
again numbered in the Piains of Moab, there 
were 63,400 fighting men, Num. xxvi. 44 — 47. 
They marched under the standard of the tribe of 
Dan, being the eleventh tribe in order. Num. 
ii. 27,, X, 26., whence their offerings for the 
Tabernacle were made on the eleventh day. 
Num. vii. 72. ; and when encamped, they were on 
the N. side of the Tabernacle, One of the tribe 
of Asher was sent by Moses to spy out the land 
of Canaan, together with a man out of every 
other tribe, Num. xiii. 13. ; and one of its princes 
was afterwards appointed by Moses, together 
with a prince out of all the nine other tribes 
whom it concerned, to divide the land, toge- 
ther with Eleazar the priest, and Joshua, Num, 
xxxiv. 27. 

And upon the division of Canaan by them, the 
children of Asher had their lot in its N. W. 
part, in the S. parts of Phoenice, from Mt. Carmel 
to Zidon, being bounded on the W. by the Medi- 
terranean, Judg. V. 17., on the S. by the half 
tribe of Manasseh, Josh. xvii. 7. 10. 11., on the 
E, by Zebulun and Naphtali, Josh, xix. 34., on 
the N. by Syria, Josh. xix. 24 — 31. It con- 
tained four Levitical cities given to the Gershon- 
ites, viz. Mishal, Abdon, Helkath and Rehob, 
with their suburbs. Josh. xxi. 6. 30. It was 
one of the six tribes who, when the Israelites 
had crossed the Jordan, were commanded to 
stand upon Mt. Ebal at the reading of the law to 
curse, Deut. xxvii. 13. The Asherites, like some 
of the other tribes, were unable to drive out the 
Canaanites from all their cities, but dwelled 
among them, Judg. i. 31, 32. Though they did 
not join Deborah and Barak against Sisera, Judg. 
V. 17., the}' took part with Gideon against the 



ASHER. 



ASIITAROTII. 41 



Midianites, Judg. vi. 35., vii. 23. Aslier is not 
mentioned in tlie catalogue of those tribes over 
whom David appointed rulers, probably in civil 
matters, 1 Chron. xxvii. 16—22. ; whence it has 
been surmised that for these purposes, it was at 
that time united to one of the neighbouring 
tiibes. Their territory, which was not only fer- 
tile, but from bordering on Lebanon and Carmel, 
was a very plentiful country, yielded, as Jacob 
had foretold, Gen. xix. 20., royal dainties for 
himself and others. It abounded likewise with 
productive mines of iron and brass; and its 
people, according to the prediction of Moses, 
Deut. xxxiii. 24, 25., were not only to become 
very numerous, but to gain the love and friend- 
ship of their brethren, and to possess that strength 
and fortitude which were necessarj'- to bear 
their sharpest conflicts with their enemies ; for 
Asher and Naphtali were the two tribes most 
exposed to foreign invaders from this quarter. 
The territory of Asher was erected by Solomon 
into one of his twelve purveyorships, 1 Kgs, 
iv. 16, When Hezekiah on his reformation of 
the kingdom proclaimed a solemn passover for 
Judah and Israel, many of the Asherites came 
to Jerusalem, 2 Chron. xxx. 11, ; but about five 
years afterwards (b, c. 721) the whole tribe was 
carried captive, with the rest of the kingdom of 
Israel, by Shalmaneser,' king of Assyria, 2 Kgs. 
xvii. 6. 18. In the prophetical division of the 
land by Ezekiel (xlviii. 2, 3.), the portion of 
Asher is placed the second in order from the 
N. between Dan and Naphtali ; and one of the 
gates of the new city on the W. side is named 
the Gate of Asher, Ezek, xlviii, 34. St. John 
in his vision, beheld twelve thovisand of the tribe 
of Asher sealed, Kev, vii. 6. 

ASHER, It is thought by some that there 
were two towns of this name in Canaan. One 
mentioned Josh, xvii. 7, (where, however, only 
the limits of the tribe of Asher may be meant), 
in the tribe of Manasseh, which the Jerusalem 
Itinerary places between Shechem and Scytho- 
polis, and Eusebius states to have been in that 
tribe, 15 miles from the former city, on the road 
to Scythopolis, The other apparently not no- 
ticed in the Bible, Eusebius places between 
Ashdod and Ashkelon. 

ASHER, GATE OF, Ezek, xlviii, 34. -See 
Asher, 

ASHERITES, Judg, i. 32,, the descendants of 
Asher, See Asher and Ashurites. 

ASHKELON, or Askelon, or Eshkalon, 
a city on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea, 
near the mouth of the Brook or Valley of Eshcol 



(from which possibly it derived its name), Jer. 
xlvii. 5. 7,, between Ashdod and Gaza, now 
called Ascalaan. It was one of the five cities of 
the Philistines, Josh, xiii, 3.; 1 Sam. vi. 17.; 
and was taken by the tribe of Judah, Judg. i. 
18.; but afterwards it appears to have fallen 
within the lot of Simeon. It is doubtful, how- 
ever, whether the Israelites ever fully held it 
for a long time together until the time of Solo- 
mon, Judg. xiv. 19. ; 2 Sam. i. 20.; 1 Kgs. iv. 
24. It was here that Samson slew thirty Phi- 
listines, and gave their garments to them who 
had expounded his riddle after it had been be- 
traj^ed by his wife. The chief idol of Ascalon, 
was Ashtoreth, otherwise called Astarte and 
Derceto by the profane writers, in whose honour 
there was here a famous temple, and who was 
worshipped under the figure of a mermaid. It 
was probably in this house of Ashtaroth that 
the Philistines put the armour of King Saul 
after he had been slain in Mt, Gilboa, 1 Sam, 
xxxi. 10, The city is mentioned in the apo- 
cryphal book of Judith, ii, 28., as one of those 
that were greatly alarmed at the progress of 
Holofernes, the Assyrian general, when he in- 
vaded Syi'ia and the land of Israel, The heavy 
judgments of God were denounced upon Ash- 
kelon for its wickedness by many of the pro- 
phets, Jeremiah, xxv. 20,, xlvii. 5. 7, ; Amos, 
i. 8. ; Zephaniah, iii, 4, 7, ; Zechariah, ix, 5. 
These were fulfilled to the letter during the days 
of Alexander the Great and his successors, when 
it suffered much, and was often the subject of 
contention between the kings of Egypt and Syria, 
1 Mace. X. 86., xi. 60., xii. 33. It was beautified 
by Herod the Great, but was severely handled 
afterwards during the Jewish wars. The people 
are called Eshkalonites in Josh. xiii. 3. 

ASHKENAZ, Gen. x. 3. See Ashciiexa;^. 

ASHNAH. There appear to have been two 
towns of this name in the tribe of Judah, one 
among the fourteen cities in the valle}^ towards 
Eshtaol, Josh, xv, S3. ; and one, probably further 
S., among the nine cities connected with Libnah, 
Josh. XV, 43, The children of Asnah men- 
tioned among the Nethinims as returning from 
the Babylonian captivity, Ezra ii. 50., may have 
formerly dwelled at one or both of these places. 

ASHTAROTH, or Astaroth, or Ash- 
teroth-Karnaiji, a city beyond Jordan, for- 
merly inhabited b}^ the Rephaims, who were 
here smitten by Chedorlaomer, king of Elam, 
and the three other kings in his league, Gen. 
xiv. 5. It was in the country of Bashan, in 
Edrci, and was the dwelling-place of Og, one of 



42 ASHTEEATHITE. 



ASIA, SEVE^q- CHURCHES OF. 



the remnant of the giants, Deut. i. 4.; Josh, 
ix. 10., xii. 4., xiii. 12. ; who was conquered 
by Moses, and whose land was given to the 
half tribe of Manasseh, Josh. xiii. 31. Ashtaroth, 
with its suburbs, was eventually constituted 
a Levitical city, and assigned to the sons of 
Gershom, 1 Chron. vi. 71.; though in Josh, 
xxi. 27., it seems to be called Beeshterah. 
Uzzia the Ashterathite, 1 Chron. xi. 44,, one of 
David's mighty men, may perhaps have come 
from this city. It is supposed to have derived 
its name from the Phoenician idol Ashtaroth, 
otherwise Astarte, here worshipped and repre- 
sented with horns or a crescent upon the 
head (Karnaim signifying horns), and which 
appears to have been also called Atargatis, 
2 Mace. xii. 26. It was the same with the 
Ashtaroth or Derceto of Ashkelon, represented 
frequently as a mermaid. This citj appears to 
be the same with Carnaim, 1 Mace. v. 26. 43, 
44., where many Jews were shut up until Judas 
Maccabeeus took it, and burned both it and 
the temple of Atargatis there. It is called 
Carnion 2 Mace, xii, 21. 26,, where Judas is said 
to have killed 25,000 of his enemies. It was a 
strong place, and according to Eusebius was 6 
miles from Adraa or Edrei, and 25 from Bostra, 
Its position is not now known with any certainty, 
but it is thought to have been near a village 
called M Mazdrib. 

ASHTERATHITE was the patronymic of 
Uzzia, one of David's mighty men, 1 Chron. xi. 
44. See Ashtaroth. 

ASHUPJTES, 2 Sam. ii. 9,, over whom Abner 
made Ishbosheth king. They appear to be the 
tribe of Asher ; as do also those Ashurites men- 
tioned by the Prophet Ezekiel, xxvii, 6,, as 
having made ivory benches for the Tyrian ships. 
Some critics, however, understand the Assyrians 
in the latter passage. 

ASIA. This name is never employed in 
the Holy Scriptures to designate one of . the 
quarters of the Avorld ; nor yet as a distinctive 
appellation for the whole of that portion of it 
which has long been described under the title 
Asia Minor, and is now known in the East as 
Anatolia. In the apocryphal books, the appel- 
lation seems to be used to define the possessions 
of the Persian and the S3^rian monarchs in 
the W. parts of Asia Minor, 2 Esd. xv. 46,, xvi, 
L ; 2 Mace, x. 24, ; and frequently designates 
what there and in other ancient writings is 
termed the Kingdom of Asia, 1 Mace. viii. 6., 
xi. 13., xii. 39,, xiii. 32. ; 2 Mace. iii. 3,, x. 24. 



But generally speaking, the sacred writers by 
Asia mean Proconsular Asia, either wholly or 
partially taken. 

After the Romans had contrived to entangle 
themselves in the affairs of the East, and had 
driven Antiochus, king of Syria, to the S. of 
Mt. Taurus (B.C. 189), they named the conquered 
country Asia intra Tauram, and divided it 
between their allies, Eumenes, king of Per- 
gamos, and the Rhodians ; the former obtaining 
the nominal sovereignty of Mysia, Lydia, and 
Phrygia, with the title of king of Asia; the 
latter that of Caria and Lycia. Afterwards, 
when they felt dissatisfied with the Rhodians, 
they declared Lycia a free republic, and placed 
Caria under their own immediate protection ; 
shortly after which they seized upon the 
kingdom of Asia, thus obtaining actual posses- 
sion of Mysia, Lydia, Caria, and Phrygia, which 
they erected into a praetor's province under the 
name of Asia. Augustus gave it many immu- 
nities, and raised it to the dignity of a pro- 
consular province, which is frequently alluded 
to by profane authors under the name of Asia 
Proper, and Proconsular Asia. 

The name of Asia, therefore, is used by 
ancient historians, with various limitations ; but 
in the Bible, it seems to be applied always (1.) 
to Proconsular Asia, i.e. the W. provinces of Asia 
Minor, Acts X'sd. 6., xix. 26, 27. 31., xxvii. 2. ; 

1 Pet. i. 1. ; or else (2,) to the province of 
Lydia, which included Ephesus, the chief city 
of the whole country, and embraced parts of 
those maritime tracts so well loaown as Ionia 
and ^ohs. Acts xix. 22., xx. 4. 16. 18. ; Rev. 

4. 11. Some of the dwellers in Asia were 
present in Jerusalem on the Great Day of Pen- 
tecost, Acts ii. 9. ; and some were engaged in 
the disputation of Stephen, Avhich ended in his 
martyrdom. Acts vi, 9,, as well as in that 
uproar against St. Paul in Jerusalem which 
led him to appeal to Csesar, Acts xxi. 27., 
xxiv. 18. Asia was very early one of the 
scenes of the Apostle Paul's labours. Acts xix. 
10,, where with varied success. Acts xix. 23, ; 

2 Cor, i. 8, ; 2 Tim. i. 15,, he planted many 
churches, 1 Cor. xvi 19. St. Peter's first epistle 
is addressed to the strangers scattered through- 
out Asia and other places ; and it was also in 
this region that the seven churches were situated 
to whom St. John was commanded to write the 
epistles. Rev. i. 4. 11. 

ASIA, SEVEN CHURCHES OF. These 
were Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamos, Thyatira, 
Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea, Rev. i. 4. 
11. They were all within the limits of the old 



ASKELON. 



ASSYRIA. 



43 



province of Lydia, excepting Laoilicea and 
Pergamos, wliich were close upon its borders. 
ASKELOK See Ashkelon. 

ASNAH, CHILDREN OF, Ezra ii. 50., 
mentioned amongst the Netliinims, who at the 
command of Cyrus returned from Babylon to 
Jerusalem and Judah, every one to his own city. 
They may have belonged to_ one of the two 
cities mentioned by Joshua, xv. 33. 43., in the 
dominions of the tribe of Judah. 

ASPHAR, THE POOL, a water in the 
Wilderness of Tekoa, whither Jonathan and 
Simon fled from Bacchides, 1 Mace. ix. 33. It 
was probably a lake between Tekoa and the 
Dead Sea, although some suppose it is the Dead 
Sea itself. 

ASRIEL, CHILDREN OF, one of the fa- 
milies of Manassah, whose lot was cast on this 
side Jordan, Josh. xvii. 2. 

ASRIELITES, the descendants of Asriel, a 
family of the tribe of Manasseh, who were 
uu.mbered when the sum of all Israel was taken 
by Moses in the Plains of Moab, Num. xxvi. 31. 

ASSIDEANS, an appellation occurring in the 
books of the Maccabees, derived, as some sup- 
pose, from the Hebrew word Chasidim, merciful, 
pious. After the captivity, the J ews are said to 
have been divided into the Zadikim, or Righteous, 
who observed only the written law of Moses ; and 
the Chasidim, who superadded the traditions of 
the elders, and are supposed to have been the 
same with these Assideans. These last were a 
powerful and numerous body, and probably at 
first a truly pious and zealous part of the 
nation, though eventually they became very su- 
perstitious. They were always very punctilious 
in their external rites. Their chief devotion is 
stated to have been the keeping up all the 
edifices belonging to the Temple, for which 
purpose they not only paid the usual half- 
shekel, but voluntarily imposed on themselves 
other taxes, 1 Mace. ii. 42., vii. 13. They swore 
by the Temple ; they offered a lamb in sacrifice 
every day except that of the great expiation, 
and from them is said to have sprung the sect of 
the Pharisees, who adopted many of their bad cus- 
toms, and were reproved by the Blessed Redeemer 
for them. Matt, xxiii. 16. ; and from the Phari- 
sees sprang again, according to some writers, the 
sect of the Essenes. Judas Maccabceus was at 
one time their captain, and they were accused by 
their enemies of being seditious and troublers of 
the peace of their country, 2 Mace. xiv. 6. 

ASSHUR, the name given to the infant 



kingdom of Assyria, which it derived from 
Asshur, the son of Shem, Gen. x. 11, 22.; 1 
Chron. i. 17. It is also employed b}- Balaam to 
designate the great empire of Assyria in its 
successes and afflictions. Num. xxiv. 22. 24., 
and by the prophet Ezekiel, xxvii. 23., xxxii. 22., 
when predicting its downfal. See Assyria. 

ASSHURIM, the descendants of Dedan, tlie 
son of Jokshan, who settled in Arabia, Gen. xxv. 
3. 

ASSOS, a maritime city of Asia Minor, on 
the W. coast of the province Mysia, situated 
on a bay of the JEgs^an Sea, now called the 
Gulf of Adramyti. It was naturally strong, 
and well fortified, and its grain so good that it 
had the credit of supplying bread for the Persian 
kings. After the Apostle Paul had been preaching 
at Troas, he went afoot to Assos ; whilst the ship 
in which Luke and his companions were, doubled 
the promontory called Lectum, and then em- 
barked Paul at Assos, whence they sailed to 
Mitylene, on his way to Jerusalem, Acts xx. 
13, 14. It is now called Beria. 

ASSUR, Ezra iv. 2., Ps. Ixxxiii. 8., a form 
of the name Assyria ; which see. 

ASSYRIA, a very famous country and empire 
of Asia, on the banks of the R. Tigi is, Avhich de- 
rived its name from Asshur, a son of Shem, Gen. 
X. 22. ; 1 Chron. i. 17. Its limits varied very 
widely according to its success in arms, and 
much confusion has arisen from not distin- 
guishing between Assyria, strictW so called, and 
the Ass}'rian Empire inclusive of its conquests. 
Assyria, in the proper sense of the term, was 
bounded generally on the N. by Armenia, on the 
E. by Media, on the S. by Susiana, and on 
the W. by the R. Tigris, Gen. ii. 14., xxv. 18., 
and c(nTespOnded pretty much with what is 
now called Kourdistan ; but the Assyrian Empire 
included (according to Strabo) all the Asir.tic 
countries S. of Mt. Tam-us, except Ariaua, Ara- 
bia, and Palestine. 

The empire of Assyria is generally believed 
to have been founded by Asshui-, the second son 
of Shem, who appears to have been driven from 
it by Nimrod, Gen. x. 11. marg., b. c. 2218 ; and 
hence probably Assyria (or the Land of Shinar, 
which it contained) is called by the prophet 
Micah, V. 6., the Land of Nimrod. The native 
accounts, as given by profane historians, call 
the founder of the Assyrian Empire, Ninus ; but 
whether he or his successor Bclus (its first two 
monarchs according to profcine history), is the 
same Avith Nimrod, or else with Asshm- ; or 
wlicther they were foreign invaders, who 



44 



ASSYRIA. 



wrested this country from its old possessors, 
is a matter, as it would appear, unknown. Usher 
fixes the commencement of the reign of Ninus 
B.C. 1267. The doings of this monarch and his 
queen Semiramis are full of the exaggerations 
of pagan tradition. But that the Assyrians 
were a formidable people in the days of Moses 
(b. c. 1452) appears evident from Balaam's pre- 
dicting that they should carry the Kenites cap- 
tive. Num. xxiv. 22. David also mentions them 
among his enemies, Ps. Ixxxiii. 8. 

After this the Scriptures appear to supply 
no information concerning this mighty empire 
until the days of the prophet Jonah (b.c. 862), 
when he was sent against Nineveh its capital 
city, and of vast extent, Jonah iii. 3., which 
repented at his preaching. About seventy-five 
years afterwards, Amos, vi. 14., was commis- 
sioned to threaten Israel, that God would 
grievously afflict their whole country by a 
foreign nation ; which events proved to be the 
Assyrian, under the conduct of Pul, who ap- 
pears to have been the first of the Assyrian 
monai'chs that is mentioned in Holy Writ as 
afflicting Israel, Neh. ix. 32. He seems to 
have been invited by some of the contending 
factions to help them, Amos v. 13. ; but at any 
rate he compelled Menahem, king of Israel, to 
pay him 1000 talents of silver (b.c. 771) to 
spare him and confirm him in his usurpation, 
2 Kgs. XV. 19, 20. ; 1 Chron. v. 26. His son 
and successor Tiglath-Pileser was applied to 
by Ahaz, king of Judah, for assistance against 
Pekah, king of Israel, and Rezin, king of Syria, 
who had joined in alliance against him ; offering 
to become his ally, and sending him the silver 
and gold of the Temple as a present. He 
thereupon advanced with a numerous army, 
put Rezin to death, took Damascus (where 
Ahaz met him), and carried the inhabitants 
captive to Kir, 2 Kgs. xvi. 7. 9, 10. 18. ; 2 Chron. 
xxviii. 16. 20, 21. ; thus putting an end to 
the Syrian kingdom, as had been foretold by 
Amos, i. 5., and by Isaiah, viii. 4. He then at- 
tacked the kingdom of Israel, defeated Pekah, 
and carried away the N. and E. portions of 
the Ten Tribes captive to Kir, 2 Kgs. xv. 29. ; 
1 Chron. v. 6. 26. But Ahaz soon smarted for 
this wicked confederacy and for the idolatrous 
practices he had learned at Damascus ; being so 
distressed by the Assyrian monarch, that he 
exhausted his own treasures, and pillaged the 
Temple, to buy him off", but, as it would appear, 
in vain, 2 Kgs. xviii. 7. ; Isa. vii. 17, 18. 20., 
viii. 7. 

Tiglath-Pileser was succeeded by Shalman- 



eser (thought to be the same with Enemassar, 
Tobit i. 2, 3.). He attacked Israel under King 
Hoshea, who for a time paid him tribute, and 
became his servant, 2 Kgs. xvii. 3. But upon 
Hoshea's making an alliance vith Egypt, and 
refusing to pay the tribute, Shalmaneser invaded 
the kingdom of Israel, shut up Hoshea in prison, 
besieged Samaria three years, and when he had 
taken it, carried away captive into Assyria and 
into the cities of the Medes those of the Ten 
Tribes Avhom Tiglath-Pileser had not removed. 
The kingdom then became an Assyrian province, 
into which Shalmaneser introduced colonists 
from other parts of his kingdom and also from 
Babylon, 2 Kgs. xvii. 6. 23, 24. 26, 27., xviii. 
9. 11. ; and thus, after an interval of a very few 
years, the predictions of Hosea, vii. 11., viii. 9., 
ix. 3., X. 6., xi. 11., and the other prophets, 
were literally fulfilled, and the captivit}^ of the 
Ten Tribes was completed (b.c. 721), by that 
very nation whose idolatries they had copied, 
Ezek. xxiii. 5. 7. 23. A few of the people, how- 
ever, were still left behind, 2 Chron. xxx. 6. 
Shalmaneser then desolated Moab, as had been 
foretold by Isaiah, xvi. 1. 14. ; overran Syria 
and Phoenicia ; and for five years besieged Tyre, 
which was only relieved -by his death. 

The Assyrian Empire seems now to have ar- 
rived at the height of its power. Its next 
monarch Sennacherib (supposed by some to be 
the same as Sargon, Isa. xx. 1.), either provoked 
by Hezekiah's refusing to pay him tribute, or 
jealous of the alliance with Egypt so much 
desired hy the Jews, Isa. xx. 6., xxx. 2., xxxi. 
1.; 2 Kgs. xviii. 21. 24.; Isa. xxxvi. 6. 9.; in- 
vaded Judah with a mighty army ; took Ashdod 
through his general Tartan, penetrated Egypt 
as far as No (Thebes), the metropolis of Upper 
Egypt, Nahum iii. 8., captured the principal cities 
of Judasa, and demanded the surrender of Jeru- 
salem. Hezekiah gave him 300 talents of silver, 
and 30 talents of gold, to turn him aside ; but 
though Sennacherib took the bribe, he refused 
to grant peace, but resolved to svibvert the 
kingdom of Judah, as he had that of Egypt, 2 
Kgs. xviii. 7. 13, 14. 16, 17. 19. 23. 28. 30, 31. 
33. ; 2 Chron. xxxii. 1. 4. 7. 9, 10, 11. ; Isa. 
xxxvi. 1, 2. 4. 8. 13. 15, 16. 18. But Isaiah 
comforted Hezekiah with the assurance of God's 
assistance, and that the Assyrian monarch 
should soon be obliged to return into his own 
country ; a prediction which was accomplished 
after Sennacherib, having defeated the forces of 
the king of Egypt, and Tirhakah, king of 
Ethiopia, returned to the attack upon Jeru- 
salem, when the angel of the Lord in one night 



ASSYRIANS. 



ATHENIANS. 



45 



smote 185,000 of bis troops in their camp. Here- 
upon lie returned with the wreck of his army 
to Nineveh, where he was murdered by his two 
eldest sons, 2 Kgs. xix.4. 6. 8. 10, 11. 17. 20. 32. 
35, 36.; 2 Chron. xxxii. 21, 22.; Isa. xxxvii. 
4. 6. 8. 10, 11. 18. 21. 33. 36, 37., xxxviii. 6. 
He was succeeded by his third son Esarhaddon, 
who ravaged the country of the Ten Tribes, and 
settled colonists there, Ezra iv. 2. He is 
thought to have been the monarch who carried 
Manasseh, king of Judah, captive to Babylon, 
2 Chron. xxxiii. 11.; where this prince re- 
mained until, having repented of his sins, God 
was pleased to permit him to be restored to his 
own country. 

The Nabuchodonosor mentioned in the apo- 
cryphal book of Judith, i. 1., as reigning in 
Nineveh, is supposed by some critics to have 
been the grandson of Esarhaddon. According 
to this writer, having razed Ecbatana, and 
pillaged many of the Median cities, he proceeded 
to attack some of those nations in the W. 
country who had refused to further his ambi- 
tious plans : for which purpose, he commissioned 
his general Holofernes to destro}' all who would 
not submit to his authority. This command 
was executed with great cruelty by Holofernes, 
until he himself was killed by Judith, when his 
troops tied in consternation, Judith ii. 14., v. 
L, xiii. 8., xy. 6. The then reigning monarch 
of Assyria, disliked by his subjects for his 
effeminacy and neglect, was besieged by his 
enemies in Nineveh, when his dominions were 
partitioned amongst them, and the Assyrian 
Empire came to an end b.c. 607. The predic- 
tions of Nahum, iii. 18. ; Micah, v. 5, 6., vii. 
12.; Isaiah, x. 5. 12. 24., xiv. 25.; and Ze- 
phaniah, ii. 13. ; were thus fulfilled, Jer. 1. 17, 
1 8. ; Ezek. xxxii. 22. The empires of Babylon 
and the Medes, hitherto parts of the Assyrian, 
Isa. xxiii, 13., rose rapidly into power after the 
destruction of Nineveh, under the rule of Ne- 
buchadnezzar and Cyaxares. The old province 
of Assyria, from which the empire had derived 
its name, formed successively a part of the 
Babylonian, Persian, Greek, Syrian, and Parthian 
kingdoms; and hence in the Holy Scriptures 
it is not unfrequently used to designate one or 
other of the first two of these regions, Jer. ii. 
18. 36. ; Lam. v. 6. ; Ezek. xvi. 28. ; Ezra vi. 

22. Assyria is the subject of some very in- 
teresting prophecies in regard to the restoration 
of the Jews; a few of Avhich, it would appear, 
still remain to be fulfilled, Isa. xi. 11. 16., xix. 

23, 24, 25., xxvii. 13. ; Zech. x. 10, 11. 
ASSYRLVNS, the inhabitants of the pro- 



vince and empire properly taken ; as also some- 
times of those kingdoms afterwards formed out 
of it. -See AssyPvIA. 

ASTAROTH, Dent. i. 4. See Ashtauoth. 

ASSUR, Judith ii. 14., v. 1., xv. 6. ; 2 Esd. ii. 
8. ; the same with Assyria ; which see. 

ASUPPIM {Collections), or the House of 
AsuppiM, 1 Chron. xxvi. 15. 17., the name of 
some gates in the Temple of Jerusalem, or of the 
porters who kept them ; or, as others say, 
of certain store-houses over those gates, wherein 
many things were laid up for the Temple service. 

ATAD, THRESHING-FLOOR OF, Gen. h 
10, 11., the place where Joseph, in company with 
his brethren and the Egyptians, buried his 
father Jacob. It was in the land of the Canaan- 
ites W. of the Jordan ; but its situation is un- 
certain, as also whether it was so called after 
a place or a man. See Abel-MizRx\im. 

ATARITES, one of the families of Caleb, 1 
Chron. ii. 54., marg., who dwelled probably at 
Ataroth in Judah. 

ATAROTH or Ataroth-Beth-Joab, Ata- 
roth the House of Joab, a town in Judah, inha- 
bited by the descendants of Caleb, 1 Chron. ii. 54. 

ATAROTH, a town of Ephraim, between Ja- 
nohah and Jericho, on the frontiers of Benjamin, 
Josh. xvi. 2. 7., otherwise Archi-Ataroth, Josh, 
xvi. 2. It is supposed to be the same with Ata- 
roth- Addai-, Josh. xvi. 5., xviii. 13. Eusebius 
describes an Ataroth 4 miles N. of Samaria, 
which therefore cannot be this. 

ATAROTH, a town in the inheritance of Gad, 
beyond Jordan, in the neighbourhood of Dibon 
and Aroer, and said to have been built by 
them. Num. xxxii. 3. 34. It was in the old 
kingdom of Sihon. 

ATAROTH-ADDAR, Josh. x^-i. 5., xviii. 13. 
See Ataroth of Ephraim. 

ATER, THE CHILDREN OF, mentioned 
amongst the porters of the Temple, who returned 
from the Babylonian capti\dty to Jerusalem, 
Ezra ii. 42. ; Neh. vii. 45. They appear to be the 
same Avith the Children of Ater of Hezekiah, 
mentioned Ezra ii. 16. ; Neh. vii. 21. 

ATHACH, a town in the tribe of Judah, where 
some of the elders of Judah, David's friends, 
dwelled, to whom he sent a portion of the 
spoils of Ziklag, taken from the Amalekites, 1 
i Sam. XXX. 30. 

I ATHENIANS, the inhabitants of Athens, to 
i Avhom St. Paul preached the gospel ; and of 



46 



ATHENS. 



AVEN. 



whom (at least of those who made the Areopagus 
their constant resort), he says that they spent 
their time in nothing else, but either to tell or 
to hear some new thing, Acts xvii. 21. 

ATHENS, the metropolis of the ancient king- 
dom and commonwealth of Attica, in Greece, 
still known as Atini or Athens. It was called 
Astu by way of eminence, and is said to have 
been founded by Cecrops b.c. 1556, and to have 
received its name from the worship of the false 
goddess Neith, introduced by him from Egypt, 
and afterwards designated by the Greeks Athena 
or Minerva. It was also called Cecropia from 
its founder. The town was at first small, being 
confined, as late as the time of Theseus, to the 
Acropolis and the Hill of Mars. It increased 
gradually, both in dimensions and splendour, till 
the time of Pericles, when it attained the summit 
of its beauty and prosperity, its population 
amounting to about 120,000 souls. No single 
city in the world can boast of having produced, 
in such a short space of time, so many illustrious 
men, equally celebrated for their humanity, 
learning, ingenuity, and military abilities. The 
Athenians have been admired in all ages for their 
love of liberty ; but this was united with such 
a jealousy of their foncied rights, that public 
favour was attended amongst them with con- 
siderable danger ; and there are but few instances 
where the man who had fought their battles, 
and exposed his life in defence of their country, 
did not fall a victim to their persecution. It has 
been said by Plutarch, that the good men whom 
Athens produced, were the wisest and most 
equitable in the world ; but that its bad citizens 
were never surpassed for their cruelty, perfidy, 
and impiety, in any age or country. 

St. Paul visited Athens (a.d. 53) after he had 
left Berea. Here, vfhilst he was waiting for 
Silas and Timothy, his spirit was stirred in him, 
when he saw the city wholly given to idolatry, 
and he preached the gospel there daily, until he 
was at length brought to Areopagus, where he 
pleaded the cause of Christianity before the men 
of Athens in his well-known discourse. From 
Athens he proceeded to Corinth, Acts xvii. 15, 
16. 22., xviii. 1. ; 1 Thess. iii. 1. Cf. 2 Mace, 
vi. 1., ix. 15. 

ATROTH or Atroth-Shopham, a town 
beyond Jordan, in the old territory of Sihon, 
assigned by Moses to the tribe of Gad, who are 
said to have built it. Num. xxxii. 35. Some 
suppose it to be the same with the Ataroth men- 
tioned in the preceding verse. 

ATTALIA, now called Adalia or Satalia, a 



town on the s6a-coast of Pamphylia, a province 
of Asia Minor, at the mouth of a river anciently 
called Catarrhactes, and at the head of thePam- 
phylium Mare, now known as the G. of Adalia. 
Attalia was a much -frequented port, and derived 
its name from having been built or beautified 
by Attains, second king of Pergamos. Its con- 
sequence was much increased after it fell into 
the hands of the Romans, who posted one of their 
prefects here. Paul and Barnabas preached the 
gospel in Attalia (a.d. 46), after they had left 
Perga ; and hence they sailed to Antioch, Acts 
xiv. 25. 

AVA, whether a country or city is not known. 
From this place, as well as from Babylon, 
Cuthah, Hamath, and Sepharvaim, Shalmane- 
ser, the king of Assyria, took colonists and 
settled them in the cities of Samaria (b.c. 678), 
after the Ten Tribes had been carried cap- 
tive, 2 Kgs. xvii. 24. Its situation is wholly 
unknown, but from the places mentioned in con- 
nection with it, it was probably on the borders 
of Syria and Mesopotamia ; perhaps, where now 
is a place called Resafa in Syria, near the 
W. bank of the Euphrates; or as some think, 
at Ahwaz or Haweeza, a town of Khuzistan, on 
the E. side of this river. Some identify it with 
the name Ahava, Ezra viii. 21. ; by others, it is 
conjectured to have been the same with Ivah, 
which was conquered by the Assyrians, and con- 
cerning which and other places he had ravaged, 
Sennacherib sent his boasting message to Heze- 
kiah and the Jews, 2 Kgs. xviii. 34,, xix. Ld. ; 
Isa. xxxvii. 13. 

AVA. See Ahava. 

AVEN, Ezek. xxx. 17., a city of Lower Egypt, 
on one of the E. branches of the Nile towards 
the apex of the Delta, now called Matarieh, 
a few miles below Memphis and on the other 
side. It was a famous seat of Egyptian wis- 
dom, and its inhabitants, according to Herodotus, 
were amongst the most learned of their countr^^- 
men. Moses is here said to have received his 
education ; and according to Josephus, this city 
was given to the Israelites upon their coming 
down to dwell in Egypt, which, considering 
its proximity to Goshen, may not be improbable. 
Aven is also called On, Gen. xli. 45. 50. ; its 
priest's daughter was given in marriage to Jo- 
seph. There was here a very famous temple of 
the Sun, whence the city was also named Beth- 
shemesh, Jer. xliii. 13., or Heliopolis in the 
Septuagint and Vulgate. It is also supposed by 
some to be the city referred to by Isaiah, xix. 
18., as Irchemesh, i.e. the City of Destruction, or, 



AYEN. 



AZMAVETII. 



47 



as -we read it in the margin, the City of Heres, 
or of the Sun. The destruction of the city and 
its inliabitants, predicted by Jeremiah as above, 
and by Ezckiel, xxix. 18—20., appears to have 
been carried into effect by ^Jebuchadnezxar. 
"When Onias the high-priest was dispossessed 
of his authority and office by Antiochus, Ptolemy 
Philadelphus, king of Egypt, permitted him to 
build a temple for the Jews in this city, Avhich 
was subsequently held in great esteem by those 
Jews who used the Greek language. 

AYEN" or Bfa'H-Avex {House of Vanity'), 
the name applied by the prophet Hosea, x. 8., to 
Bethel, on account of the idolatrous worship there 
paid to one of the golden calves set up by Je- 
roboam, IIos. iv, 15., V. 8., X. 5. 

AYEX, THE PLAIX OF, or Bikath-Avex, 
Amos i. 5., a beautiful valley in Sp-ia, on the 
frontiers of Canaan, and now called El-Bahaa. 
It lay between the ridges of Lebanon and Anti- 
Lebanon, and is thought to be the same with 
what is called the Yalley of Lebanon, Josh. xi. 
1 / . It may possibly have derived its name from 
the idolatrous practices there committed ; espe- 
cially as there was a magnificent temple dedi- 
cated to the Sun; in the city of Heliopolis, now 
Baalhec, which stood at the head of the valley. 

AYIM, a town in the inheritance of the tribe 
of Benjamin, Josh, x^-iii. 23. 

AYir>IS or AviTES, an old Canaanitish people, 
who dAvelled on the coast of the Mediterranean 
to the X. of Gaza, in the country called Ha- 
zerim. They were destroyed and expelled by 
the Caphtorims, Deut. ii. 23., after which their 
country became that of the Philistines, Josh, 
xiii. 3. Their name seems to be written Hi^'ites 
Gen. xxxiv. 2., where Moses recounts the story 
of Dinah, calling Hamor a Hi^-ite ; and again 
Josh. ix. 7., xi, 19., in the account of the league 
with Gibeon, where some of them dwelled. 
Whether these were connected with the great 
tribe of the Hivites, one of the seven nations of 
Canaan, whose chief seat was in the X. part of 
the country, is not known, and it is equally 
doubtful whether they are to be numbered 
amongst the Eephaim or Giants. See HmxES. 

AVITES. See Avms. 

ATITES, 2 Kgs. x^-ii. 31., one of the strange 
nations, v.-hom Shalmaneser, king of Assyria 
transplanted from Ava, 2 Kgs. xvii. 24., to Sa- 
maria, when he took the kingdom of Israel cap- 
tive. Upon the Avites and the other Assyrian 
tribes in Israel being plagued with lions by 
God, Shalmaneser commanded one of the Jewish 



' priests to be taken back to Samaria, that he 
i might teach these colonists the true worship ; but 
j notwithstanding, each nation made gods for itself 
j (the Avites made Xibhaz and Tartak), thus be- 
j ginning that mixture of religions which charac- 
terised the early history of the Samaritans. Cf. 
\ Ezra iv. 9, 10. 

AYITH, one of the (diief cities of the kings of 
Edom, built probably by King Hadad, who 
\ j eigned there. Gen. xxxvi. 35. ; 1 Chron. i. 46. 

AZAL, the name of a place near Jerusalem, 
mentioned by Zechariah, xiv. 5., in his pro- 
phecy of the cleaving of the Mt. of Olives at the 
coming of Christ, when the Jews shall flee to 
the valley of the mountains reaching unto Azal. 

AZEKAH, a town in the X. part of the 
tribe of Judah, Josh. xv. 35., which Eusebius 
and Jei'ome place between Eleutheropolis and 
Jerusalem, where in their days was still a village 
called Ezeca. The five confederate kings of 
Jerusalem, Hebron, Jarrautli, Lacliish, and Eg- 
lon, who warred against Gibeon for its alliance 
with the Israelites, were here defeated by Joshua, 
and their arm}^ discomfited and destroyed by a 
miracvdous hailstorm from heaven. Josh. x. 10, 
11. It was here, also, that one ■\ving' of the Phi- 
listine army rested, the other reaching to Sho- 
choh, when they gathered together against the 
Jews, in Ephes-dammim, and Goliath, their 
champion, defied Israel until he was slain by 
David, 1 Sara. xvii. 1. It was built up and made 
a fenced city by Eehoboam, upon the division 
of the kingdom, together with other towns in his 
dominions, which he established as strongholds 
and magazines, 2 Chron. xi. 9. It was one of 
the few towns that had escaped the violence of 
Sennacherib, 2 Kgs xviii. 13., and stiU main- 
tained its strength in the time of Nebuchad- 
nezzar, Avho besieged it and all the cities of 
Judah that were left, Jer. xxxiv. 7. After the 
retiirn from the Babylonian captivity, Azekah 
and its ^-illages were again inhabited by some of 
those JeAvs whose lot came forth to live out of 
Jerusalem, Xeh. xi. 30. 

AZEM, a town originally within the limits 
of the tribe of Judah, Josh, xv, 29., but after- 
wards assigned by lot to the children of Simeon, 
Josh, xix, 3. It is called Ezem 1 Chron. iv. 29. 

AZGAD, CHILDKEX OF, mentioned amongst 
those Jews who returned from the Babylonian 
captivity to Jerusalem and Judah on the procla- 
mation of Cyrus for the building of the Temple, 
Ezra ii. 12. ; Xeh. 17. 

AZMAYETH, or Betii-Azmavetii, Chil- 



48 



AZMOK 



BAAL-HAMON. 



DREN OF, who, under the command of Ezra, re- 
turned to their own country from Babylon, whither 
Nebuchadnezzar had led them into captivity, 
Ezra ii. 24. ; Neh. vii. 28,, marg. They appear 
to have dwelled near Jerusalem, in the fields 
of Azmaveth, and to have been amongst the 
singers of the Temple, Neh. xii. 29. It is 
called Bethsamos 1 Esd. v. 18. 

AZMON, a town on the S. frontiers of the 
Promised Laud, between Kadesh-barnea and 
the River of Egypt, Num. xxxiv. 4, 5. It fell 
within the limits of the tribe of Judah, Josh. 
XV. 4. In the Septuagint it is called Selmona. 

AZNOTH-TABOR, a town of Naphtali, on 
the borders of Zebulun, Josh. xix. 34., to the 
N. of Mt. Tabor, from which possibly it derived 
its name. Eusebius mentions a town called 



Azanoth in his day in the plain country near 
Diociesarea. 

AZOTUS, Acts viii. 40., the same with 
Ashdod ; which see. 

AZOTUS, THE MOUNT, whither Judas 
Maccabasus chased the forces of Bacchides in 
his last campaign, not long before he was killed, 
1 Mace. ix. 15. It was probably near the city 
of Ashdod, or even a part of its defences. 

AZZAH, the border city of the land of 
Canaan towards Egypt, and of the dominions of 
the Israelites in this direction, Gen. x. 19., 
marg. ; Deut. ii. 23. ; 1 Kgs. iv. 24. ; 2 Kgs. xviii. 
8., marg. ; Jer. xxv. 20., xlvii. 1., marg. It was 
one of the five capital cities of the Philistines, 
and is better known under the name of Gaza; 
which see. 



BAAL or Baalath-Beer, a town of the 
tribe of Simeon on its S.W. frontiers, towards 
the Desert of Egypt, near Ramath of the South, 
Josh. xix. 8. ; 1 Chron. iv. 83. 

BAAL, HIGH PLACES OF, near Kirjath- 
huzoth, in the comitry of Moab, where an altar 
was erected to Baal, in accordance with the 
heathen usage, Deut. xii. 2. It was hither that 
Balak first brought Balaam to curse Israel, 
the utmost part of whose camp might be seen 
from this elevated land. Num. xxii. 41. 

BAALAH, a town in the S. of the inherit- 
ance of Judah, in the neighbourhood of Beer- 
sheba. Josh. xv. 29. 

BAALAH, another name for Kirjath-jearim, 
Josh. XV. 9, 10. ; 2 Sam. vi. 2., marg. ; 1 Chron. 
xiii, 6. ; which see. 

BAALAH, MT., upon a spur of which Baalah 
or Kirjath-jearim, seems to have stood. It 
formed originally part of the N.W. frontier of 
the tribe of Judah, Josh. xv. 11., but appears 
to have been subsequently included within the 
limits of Dan. 

BAALATH, a town of the tribe of Dan, pro- 
bably not far from Gibbethon, Josh. xix. 44. 
It was enlarged and strengthened by Solomon, 
either for a fortress or store- city, 1 Kgs. ix. 
18. ; 2 Chron. viii. 6. ; owing perhaps to its 
lying towards the Philistine frontier and on 
the road to Egypt, Josephus calls it Baleth. 
Some critics suppose the Baalath Avhich Solomon 
built was in the neighbourhood of Lebanon, at 



Baal-Gad, or at Heliopolis, now knoAvn as 
Baalhec; but there seems no valid reason for 
such a conjecture. 

BAALATH-BEER, Josh. xix. 8.; 1 Chron. 
iv. 33., marg. ; the same with Baal ; which see. 

BAALE OF JUDAH, 2 Sam. vi. 2., the same 
with Kirjath-jearim ; which see. 

BAAL-GAD, a town in one of the valleys of 
Mt. Lebanon under Mt. Hermon, probably just 
within the N. limits of the tribe of Asher, though, 
as it would appear, not completely subdued by 
the Israelites at the death of Joshua. It is 
mentioned as being at the N. extremity of the 
land of Israel, as Mt. Halak in Seir was at its S., 
Josh. xi. 17., xii. 7., xiii. 7. It is thought by 
some to have been also called Baal-Hermon ; 
which see. Others identify it with Heliopolis, 
now known as Baalbec. 

BAAL-HAMON, mentioned in the So. of 
Sol. viii. 11., as a place where Solomon had a 
vineyard, which he let out to tenants, each of 
whom was to pay him a thousand pieces of 
silver. Its situation is wholly unkno^m, some 
identifying it with Hammon in the inheritance 
of Asher, Josh. xix. 28., others with Baal-Gad, 
or Baal-Hermon, or Heliopolis in Syria ; others 
placing it near Jerusalem, where many of the 
Jews are said to have possessed vineyards ; and 
others removing it to Egypt, not far from 
Thebes, representing it to have been the 
mai-riage dowry of Solomon's Egyptian bride, 
and its name to have been Baal-Ham-aun, So. 
of Sol. viii. 12. 



BAAL-HAZOE. 



BABEL. 



49 



BAAL-HAZOR, a town of the tribe of 
Ephraim, possibly not far from the town of 
Ephraim. Here Absalom kept his flocks, and 
here he treacherously killed his brother Amnon, 
2 Sam. xiii. 23. 

BAAL-HERMOX, MOUNT, a spur of the 
Lebanon, inhabited by the Hivites, from which 
tlie Israelites had not driven them out on the 
death of Joshua, Judg. iii. 3. It was in the 
N. part of the lot of the half tribe of Manasseh 
beyond Jordan, in the neighbourhood of Mt. 
Senir and Mt. Hermon, 1 Chron. v. 23. There 
was probably a town of the same name, which 
some identify with Eaal-gad. 

BAAL-MEON, a town of the Canaanites 
beyond Jordan, near the foot of Mt. Gilead, and 
on the borders of the Ammonites. It was taken 
from Sihon by the Israelites under Moses, and 
assigned to the tribe of Reuben, who built or 
repaired it. Num. xxxii. 38. ; 1 Chron. r. 8. ; 
changing its name, as it appears, from Beon, 
Num. xxxii. 3. It was also called Beth-baal- 
meon. Josh. xiii. 17., i.e. the House or Temple 
of Baal-raeon; and also Beth-meon, Jer. xhnii. 
23. Being on the frontiers of Israel in this di- 
rection, it Avas siibject to many incursions, and 
was at length taken by the Moabites, Ezek. xxv. 
9. ; by which prophet, and by Jeremiah, it was 
threatened -with a participation in the desolation 
of Moab. Eusebius and Jerome place it 9 miles 
from Heshbon, and at the foot of Mt. Abarim. It 
is now called Main. It is supposed by some to 
be the same withBajith, Isa. xv. 2. ; but this is 
doubtful. 

BAAL-PEOR is thought to have been a part 
of Mt. Abarim, upon which there seems to have 
stood the temple of an idol, thence called Peor 
or Baal-Peor. It was a little to the N. of the 
R. Arnon, looking towards the wilderness, Num. 
xxiii. 28., within the kingdom of Sihon, on the 
confines of the Moabites, Midianites, and Am- 
monites, and fell eventually within the limits of 
the lot of Reuben. WTiilst the Israelites lay en- 
camped at Shittim close by, they were enticed 
by the INIidianites (at the counsel of Balaam, 
Num. xxxi. 16. ; Rev. ii. 14.) to partake of the 
sacrifices offered to this obscene idol, and to 
mingle in its unclean and shameful rites ; whereby 
they drew down upon them the wrath of God, 
so that 24,000 of them died of the plague. Num. 
xxv. 3. 5. 9. ; Deut. iv. 3. ; Ps. evi. 28. ; Hosea 
ix. 10. Baal-Peor is sometimes called merely 
Peor, Num. xxiii. 28., xxv. 18., xxxi. 16. ; Josh, 
xxii. 17. In the Septuagint it is written Phogor. 

BAAL-PERAZl jI {the Place of Breaches), a 



, hill or town in the inheritance of Judah, in the 
j Valley of Rephaim, and not far from Jerusalem. 
} Here David, by the special help of God, smote 
j the Philistines, who had come up to fight against 
I him, when they heard he had been anointed king 
j over Israel, 2 Sam. v. 18. 20. ; 1 Chron. xiv. 11. 
j In the prophecy of Isaiah, it is called 31t. Perazim, 
Isa. xxviii. 21. 

BAAL-SHALISHA, a place mentioned 2 Kgs. 
iv. 42., whence came the man who brought the 
first-fruits of twenty loaves to the prophet 
Elijah, wherewith he miraculously fed a hundred 
men at Gilgal. It is placed by Jerome and 
I Eusebius, who write it Beth-shalisha, 15 miles 
I N. from Diospolis, in the Tliamnitic region : 
it was probably in the land of Shalisha spoken 
I of 1 Sam. ix. 4. 

I BAAL-TAMAR, a town of the tribe of Benja- 
j min, near Gibeah, near which in the quai-rel that 
j ensued upon the matter of the Levite's concubine, 
; 25,100 of the Benjamites were slain in battle, 
j Judg. XX. 33. 

j BAAL-ZEPHON, a place in Egypt, a few 
i miles to the S.W. of the modern Suez. It was 
I over against this place, at Pi-hahiroth, that at 
I God's command, the Israelites encamped when 
j they left Egypt, just before they crossed the 
I Red Sea. Whether it was a town, or a watch- 
j tower, or an idol-temple serving as a signal- 
house upon the neighbouring hill or cape, is not 
known ; but it was in its neighbourhood that the 
miraculous deliverance of Israel, and the destiiic- 
tion of Pharaoh with his pursuing host, were 
accomplished, Ex. xiv. 2. 9. ; Num. xxxiii. 7. 

BAANA-AHILUD, THE PURYEYORSHIP 
OF, in the central part of Judjea, including 
Taanach, IMegiddo, Beth-shean, Jezreel, Abel- 
meholah, &c., 1 Kgs. iv. 12. It was one of the 
twelve that furnished Solomon and his household 
with provision. 

I BAANAH-HUSHAI, THE PURYEYOR- 
I SHIP OF, in N.W. Judisea. It included Asher 
and Aloth, and Avas one of the twelve districts 
j mentioned above, 1 Kgs. iv. 16. 

j BABEL (i.e. Confusion'), TowER of, built 
by the descendants of Noah about 101 years after 
the Flood, in a plain m the Land of Shinar, 
when the whole earth was of one language and 
one speech. Its builders proposed to erect a 
cit}-- and tower whose top might reach unfo 
heaven, in order that they might make them- 

I selves a name, and not be scattered abroad upon 

■ the face of the whole earth. But God was pleased 
to defeat their wicked design by confounding 

I E " " 



50 



BABEL. 



BABYLON. 



their language, and scattering tliem abroad from 
thence upon the face of all the earth, so that 
they left oif to build the city, Gen. xi. 4—9. 
Nothing is known with any certainty concerning 
its situation. It is supposed by some modern 
travellers to have stood, on the W. side of the 
Euphrates, where is now the vast artificial 
mound called Birs Nhnrud; and to have been 
originally destroyed by lightning — an opinion 
which the appearance of the Birs, as well as the 
traditions of the country, seem to encourage; 
but others place it on the opposite side of the 
river, where on a hill are extensive ruins named 
31ujelibah. It is also a disputed point whether 
the Tower of Belus was built on the same spot 
with the Tower of Confusion, or whether they 
were separate structures. At all events the 
former, which was in the midst of the city of 
Babylon, and was eventually dedicated to the 
worship of Bel or Baal, was seen b}' Herodotus, 
who describes it as being of a pyramidal form, 
500 feet in height, and standing in the midst 
of a square area surrounded by walls with iron 
gates. It shared in the fortunes of the great city 
in which it stood until Xerxes the Persian king 
did all he could to destroy it ; and about two 
centuries afterwards, Alexander the Great -pur- 
posing to restore it, employed 10,000 men for 
two months in removing some of the rubbish 
around it, but died before he entered upon his 
project. 

BABEL, the beginning of the kingdom of 
Nimrod, Gen. x. 10., i.e. probably the first city 
built by him, or the head-quarters of his king- 
dom. He seems to have been the youngest son 
of Cush, the son of Ham, and to have chosen the 
place for his capital, where the cit}" and tower of 
Babel had been begun a few years before. It 
is called in the margin, and generally in our 
version of the Bible, 

BABYLON, It was the most ancient city in 
the world, and became eventually, probably, the 
largest as well as the strongest and most im- 
portant. It stood upon both banks of the R. 
Euphrates, near a place now called Hillah, about 
53 miles to the S. of the modern Bagdad ; its ruins 
are said to be still called Ard-Babil. After its 
increase and restoration by Nimrod, it is stated 
to have been much beautified and enlarged by his 
son and successor Ninus, as well as by Semiramis, 
the reputed queen of the lattei'. Succeeding 
sovereigns strengthened and beautified it greatly ; 
but it was at last so enlarged, and raised to 
such magnificence and splendour by Nebuchad- 
nezzar, Dan. iv. 29, 30., and his daughter Nitocris, 



as to have become one of the wonders of the 
world. Owing to its greatness and celebrity it 
is called by a variety of names in Holy Writ. 
It was situated in a vast plain, Said once to 
have been an immense morass ; and from being 
surrounded by water, it is styled in prophetic 
language the Desert of the Sea, Isa. xxi. 1. 

It was noted for its luxury, Isa. xlvii. 1., pride, 
Jer. 1. 29., and power, as well as for its commerce, 
Isa. xliii. 14. ; Ezek. xvii. 4. ; and the learning 
of its wise men, as we gather not only from 
profane authors, but also from the pages of 
Holy Writ. It was famed for its astronomers 
and astrologers, whose observations of the hea- 
venlj^ bodies were probabl}' amongst the oldest 
in the world, and may have gained for them 
their place and repute with the Eastern mo- 
narchs, Dan. ii. 2. 12. 14. 18. 24. 48., iv. 6., 
V. 7. Its conquests on every side rendered it 
almost a universal monarchy, Dan. ii. 37, 38. ; but 
though, in the hand of God it became the 
hammer of the whole earth, Jer. 1. 23., yet its 
own cruelty (especially to Israel), Isa. xiv. 4. ; 
Jer. 1. 14. 17. 24., li. 24. 33, 34, 35. 49.; Ps. 
Ixxxvii. 4., cxxxvii. 8.), its frightful vices, Jer. 
li. 6, 7. 9. 11., 'and its idolatry, Isa. xxi. 9., 
Jer. li. 47., brought on its destruction, Jer. 1. 28. 
34, 35. 42, 43. 45, 46., li. 1, 2. 8. 12. 30, 31. 42. 44. 
48. 53. 56. 58. ; Dan. ii. 31—38. It was taken b.c. 
538, after a hard siege of about two years, by 
Cyrus, king of Persia, who being foiled in his 
attempts to take it in the regular manner, 
diverted the course of the river which ran through 
the , city whilst the Babylonians, upon the occasion 
of a grand festival, were all carousing and ine- 
briated ; he thus forced a passage along the bed of 
the river into the heart of the palace, when the 
guards were driven back, and their king slain 
on the same evening he had seen the hand- 
writing on the wall, Dan. v. 30. The city fell 
afterwards into the hands of the Macedonians 
under Alexander the Great, who died here b.c. 
323. Shortly afterwards this great city began 
to decline in consequence of Seleucus Nicanor, 
one of Alexander's generals, having built Se- 
leucia on the R. Tigris. Babjdon was thus 
gradually deprived of its glory and greatness. 
It was reduced to desolation in the time of 
Pliny, and in the days of St. Jerome it was 
turned into a park, in which the Persian kings 
followed the sports of the chase. 

The doom of Babylon was predicted, even 
to minute particulars, by the prophets of 
God a hundred years before it was fulfilled, Isa. 
xiii. 1 ; Jer. xxv. 12., 1. 1, 2. 8. 9. ; and even the 
nama of the prince who was to accomplish 



BABYLON, 



51 



the divine vengeance against it, was given 
three generations before he was born, Isa. xliv. 
28. In their appointed seasons all tliese varied 
predictions were fulfilled to the letter; and Ba- 
bylon, the mighty city, the prince of the whole 
earth, Jer. li. 41., the glory of kingdoms, the 
beauty of the Chaldees' excellency, Isa. xiii. 19., 
xiv. 22., the lady of kingdoms, the tender and 
delicate and given to pleasures, was so swept 
with the besom of destruction as to have left it 
a desert, never again to be inhabited, the 
dwelling-place of wild beasts and every un- 
clean and hateful thing, Jer. 1. 13. 16., li. 29. 37. 
59 — 64. It gave name to the kingdom, and 
countiy, and empire of 

BABYLON", of which it was the vast m.etro- 
polis, and to which so many of the predictions 
in Holy Wi'it refer. It is also frequently called 
Chald£ea, but this designation, properly speaking, 
belonged to the adjacent country, W. of the 
Euphrates ; the two names Babylonians and Chal- 
deans as national appellations, being apparently 
almost convertible terms, Isa. xliii. 14., xlvii. 
1., xlviii. 14. 20. ; Jer. 1. 1, ; Dan. v, 30, ; though 
there was probably a provincial, if not a po- 
litical distinction between the two. The name 
may at first have been confined to the comitry 
round the metropolis, Dan. ii. 48, 49., Hi. 30. ; 
Ezra vii. 16. ; which constituted Babylon strictly 
so called, and corresponded generally with the 
modern province of Irak Arabi ; but it Avas also 
applied to the neighbouring regions when they 
fell under its sway. Ezekiel mentions the Baby- 
lonians of Chaldaia, xxiii. 15. It seems, also, in 
the earliest times to have included what was 
afterwards better known as the I'egion or empire 
of Assyria. Indeed, according to the marginal 
reading of our Bible, Nimrod went out of the 
land of Shinar (or Babylon), and built Nineveh, 
though others make Asshur, the second son of 
Shem, to have been the founder of the latter 
city and its empire, Gen. x. 11. 

Nothing certain, however, is known of the 
early history of these two kingdoms (which 
would appear to have been in such a state of 
friendship as to be almost one and the same) 
except what may be gathered from Holy Scrip- 
ture. Thence Ave learn, that in the days of Abra- 
ham (B.C. 1917) there was a king of Shinar, 
called Amraphel, Gen. xiv. 1., who, with the 
king of Elam, made Avar upon the Canaanites. 
From this time it would appear, that Ave have 
nothing that can be depended upon until the 
days of Nabonassar, the first king of Babylon 
according to Ptolemy's canon ; though it is plain, 



that Babylon subsisted as a distinct kingdom 
from Assyria, even Avhen the latter was in all 
its glory. The foUoAving is a probable account 
of the matter. On the death of Pul, Avho is one 
of the earliest Assyrian monarchs mentioned in 
Scripture as afflicting Israel, 2 Kgs. xv. 19, 20. ; 
Neh. ix. 32., his dominions were divided betAveen 
his sons Tigiath-Pileser and Nabonassar, the 
latter of Avhom succeeded to the throne of Baby- 
lon B.C. 747, which year is therefore called the 
fera of Nabonassar. Cf. Isa. xxiii. 13. The tAvo 
kingdoms seem to haA^e co-existed in independ- 
ence and harmony for sometime; Merodach- 
Baladan, one of the kings of Babylon, being 
mentioned 2 Kgs. xx. 12., 2 Chron. xxxii. 31., 
Isa. xxxix. 1., as haA^ing sent an embassy to 
Hezekiah, king of Judah, to congratulate him 
on his recovery from sickness, upon which 
occasion the prophet Avas directed to foretell 
Israel's captivity by Babylon, 2 Kgs. xx. 14. 17. ; 
Isa. xxxix, 3—6, But Esar-Haddon, king of 
Assyria, at length reduced Babylon to subjec- 
tion, and sent some of its inhabitants as colonists 
to Samaria, 2 Kgs, xvii, 24. 30., having first 
conquered the ten tribes of Israel, and then 
carried Manasseli captive to Babylon, 2 Chron. 
xxxiii. 11. Thus Babjdon remained part of his 
empire until Nabopolassar, the militarA' go- 
vernor of the province, seized upon it, and Avas 
proclaimed king, b. c. 626, 

Towards the latter end of his reign, he asso- 
ciated his son Nebuchadnezzar in the goA'-ern- 
ment of the kingdom ; who, after Avorsting the 
Egyptians, invaded Judaea; and haAing seized 
Jehoiakim, 2 Kgs. xxiv. 1., 2 Chron. xxxAa. 6., 
proposed to send him in irons to Babylon. He 
conquered Pharaoh Necho, and uniting Avith 
Cyaxares, king of Media, against the Assyrians, 
put an end to that empire, Avhich Avas diA'ided 
between the tAvo conquerors, b. c. 607. Whilst 
he Avas thus employed, Jehoiakim, king of Judah, 
attempted to throAV otf the Babylonian A'oke 
Avhich fruitless effort cost him his life, brought 
on the final subjugation of his country, and the 
destruction of Jerusalem b.c. 588., 2 Kgs. xxia'. 
15, 16., xxA^ 7. 13. ; 2 Chron. xxxvi. 7. 10. 18. ; 
Ps. cxxxA'ii. 1.; Jer. xxi. 2., xxiA'. 1., xxxa- 
11., xxxA'ii. 1., xxxix. 1. 3. 5, 6, 7. 9. 11. 13. 
xl. 1. 4., xUa'. 30. ; Dan. i. 1. ; Esth. ii. 6. ; :\Iatt. 
i. 11, 12. 17. It Avas soon after tli eso events 
that Nebuchadnezzar set up the ucKlcu image, 
Dan. iii. 1., in memorA' perhajis of his .ouquer- 
ing not only the Jcavs, but Ta i-c (avIuoIi held 
out a siege of thirteen years), Ezek. xxA'i, 7., 
xxix. 18.; Sidon, Egypt, Ezek. xxix. 19., xxx. 
10. 24, 25., xxxii. 11.; Ethiopia, Libya, and 
E 2 



52 



BABYLON. 



many neighbouring countries, Jer. xlix. 30. 
But towards the end of his reign, he was af- 
flicted Avith madness; whereupon Evil-Mero- 
dach his son ruled the empire, and eventually 
succeeded his father. In the first year of his 
reign, this prince released Jehoiachin, king of 
Judah, from prison, and advanced him in his 
court, 2 Kgs. XXV. 28.; Jer. lii. 31, 32. 34.; 
but at last he was murdered by the usurper 
Neriglissar, who in his turn was killed in an 
engagement with Cyrus. 

The last monarch of Babylon was Belshazzar, 
Dan. vii. 1., who was vanquished by Cyrus, 
the king of Persia (b.c. 538), Dan. v. 30. ; Avhen 
the kingdom underwent all the revolutions of 
the Persian, Syrian, and Parthian empires. 
It was thus that Almighty God was pleased to 
employ Babylon to fulfil his denunciations 
against the sins of the Jews, uttered by his 
prophets against them and their kings through 
a long succession of years, 1 Chron. ix. 1. ; 
2 Chron. xxxvi. 21. ; Jer. xx. 4, 5, 6., xxi. 4. 7, 
10., xxii, 25., XXV. 1. 9. 11., xxvii. 6. 8, 9. 11, 
12, 13, 14. 17, 18. 20. 22., xxviii. 2, 3, 4. 11. 14.. 
xxix. 1. 4. 15. 20, 21, 22. 28., xxxii. 3, 4, 5. 28. 
36., xxxiv. 2, 3, 21., xxxvii, 17. 19., xxxviii. 
3. 17, 18. 23., lii. 11, 12. 15. 17. 26, 27.; Ezek. 
xii. 13., xvii. 12. 16. 20., xix. 9., xxi. 19. 21., 
xxiv. 2. ; Mic. iv. 10. ; Acts vii. 43. The mi- 
serable remnant left in Judsea were put under 
the government of Gedaliah, who was murdered 
by Ishmael. Hereupon many of the Jews, 
thi-ough fear of the vengeance of their con- 
querors, fled to Egypt under the guidance of 
their leader Johanan, who forced Jeremiah 
to go with him. Here the prophet was put to 
death, Jer. xl. 1. 4, 5. 9. 11., xli. 2. 18.,xlii. 11., 
xliii. 3. 10., xlvi. 26. 

The Jews who were led captive to Babylon 
seem to have been parcelled out by their 
conquerors into small communities round the 
metropolis ; one of the largest, probably, being 
on the banks of the R. Chebar, Ezek. i. 1. 
They were protected by the power and influence 
of Daniel from suffering many of the hardships 
inflicted on conquered nations, though they 
deeply bemoaned their condition, Ps. cxxxvii. 
1. ; until it pleased God to put it into the 
heart of Cyrus to decree their restoration to their 
own land, when great multitudes returned home 
(B.C. 536), though many still remained in 
Babylon. Their condition in both cases varied 
much with the revolutions in the dynasties and 
policy of the Persian Empire ; until Ahasuerus, 
having divorced his queen Vashti, chose Esther 
in her place, and greatly contributed to their 



peace and prosperity. Zerubbabel or Shesh- 
bazzar, as the Persians called him, a prince of 
the royal house of David, was appointed by 
Cyras, in company with Jeshua the hereditary 
high priest, to conduct the Jews to their own 
land ; where, urged on by the prophets Haggai 
and Zechariah, ii. 7., vi. 10., they soon began to 
rebuild their city and temple, though much 
hindered in their work by the envy of the 
Samaritans and other surrounding nations. 
Some years later (b.c. 457), Ezra the scribe 
obtained permission from Artaxerxes to lead a 
second colony of his countrymen from Babylon 
to Judaea, where he reformed many abuses, and 
greatly added to the welfare of the Jews, Ezra 
i. 11., ii. 1., V. 12. 14. 17., vi. 1. 5., vii. 6. 9. 16., 
viii. 1. ; which was still further set forward, 
twelve years afterwards, by Nehemiah, a Jewish 
nobleman, who completed the w^alls of Jerusalem, 
and gave stability to their church and polity, 
Neh. ii. 6., xiii. 6. With the death of Nehemiah 
and the prophecy of Malachi, the Old Testament 
closes. See Chald^ea 

BABYLON", or Babylon the Great, in 
the mystical language of Holy Scripture is an 
appellation given to Rome — to Rome Pagan 
according to many of the Roman Catholic 
writers, but to the antichristian errors and 
apostacy of Rome Papal, according to Pro- 
testant writers. Ancient Babylon was one of 
the most formidable and relentless enemies of 
God's people the Jews, Isa. xlvii. 6.; Jer. 1. 
11 — 15. It was a land of graven images, and 
the people were mad upon their idols, Jer. 1. 38. 
It was a golden cup in the Lord's hand that 
made all the earth drunken; the nations have 
drunken of her wine, therefore the nations are 
mad, Jer. li. 7. ; and so it is taken as the fittest 
emblem to set forth the enormous guilt, and to 
exhibit the cnielty, power, and abominable 
practices of Rome Papal, as well as its awful 
destruction ; the former corrupting the heathen 
world, the latter the Christian, Rev. xiv. 8., xvi. 
19., xvii. 5., xviii. 2. 10. 21. It is thought very 
doubtful by many commentators whether St. 
Peter refers to Rome in his first epistle, v. 13., 
as there appears no reason why he should con- 
ceal the name of the city when merely sending 
a greeting ; and added to the fact, that it is by 
no means certain he was ever at Rome at all 
(being the apostle of the circumcision. Gal. ii. 
9.), it would seem from the ignorance of the 
Jews of Rome about Christianit}', when St. Paul 
was taken thither as a prisoner. Acts xxviii. 21, 
22., that St. Peter's epistle, though written three 



BABYLON, PEOYINCE OF. 



BAJITH. 



53 



years before, Avas unknown to tliem. Others, 
therefore, refer this Babylon to a city of like 
name in Egypt, which, however, appears to 
have been too unimportant a place to have been 
so spoken of by Peter. Others, again, refei- it to 
the old Babylon on the E.. Euphrates ; but this 
was surely too much a mass of ruins, to have 
any such church as the apostle describes. 
Others are led to refer it to Seleucia on the R. 
Tigris, which is said to have been the metropolis 
of the Eastern dispersion of the Jews : but there 
is no proof that Seleucia was ever so called. 
Hence some are of opinion that if Rome Papal 
is not figuratively signified by Peter in this 
passage (even though he himself may not have 
visited Pagan Rome), Jerusalem itself probably 
is. Cf. Rev. xi. 8. 

BABYLOX, PROYIXCE OF, apparently the 
region immediately round the great metropolis 
of the empire. It was here that the captive 
Jews seem to have been located, Ezra vii, 16., 
and that Daniel, with his three holy companions, 
was placed specially in authority, Dan. ii. 48,49., 
iii. 30. 

BABYLOX, RIVERS OF, a name applied 
in the Psalms, cxxxvii. 1., to the various waters 
by which the great city was intersected and sur- 
rounded, and by which the captives of Judtea 
wept as they remembered Zion. These rivers 
were so numerous as to cause Isaiah, xxi. 1., to 
designate Babylon as the Desert of the Sea, and 
Jeremiah to speak of her as dwelling upon many 
waters, li. 13. The banks of these rivers were 
planted with willows, upon which the discon- 
solate Israelites hanged their harps as they 
were tauntingly asked for the songs of Zion, 
and it may be that Isaiah, Avhen foretelling 
the conquest of the Moabites by Nebuchad- 
nezzar, XV. 7., points out this land as the scene 
of their captivity, and the R. Euphrates as the 
brook of the icillows, though some refer the latter 
name to the R. Arnon. 

BABYLONIANS, probably the inhabitants 
of the metropolis and province of Babylon, 
Ezek. xxiii. 17. 23., distinguished at verse 15. 
as the Babylonians of Chaldiea, and charged 
with defiling Israel. The name is also applied 
to the colony which was sent to Samaria, where 
they joined with other enemies of the Jews in 
hindering the rebuilding of the Temple at Jem- 
salem, and wrote a letter to Artaxerxes on the 
matter, Ezra iv. 9. 

BABYLONISH, Josh. vii. 21. Achanso calls a 
g<wdly garment which he took from among the 



spoils of Jericho, contrary to God's command, 
and thereby became the troubler of Israel, B.C. 
1451. If it refers to the mighty city mentioned 
above, it shows its great antiquity by the skill 
and commerce of its people, even in the time of 
Joshua. 

BACA, VALLEY OF, Ps. Ixxxiv. 6., thought 
by some to be only a mystical name, the Vale of 
Tears, by Avhich the Psalmist, either in exile or at 
a distance from Jerusalem, describes his great 
desire and his then condition. Others, however, 
represent it as a real locality, identifying it with 
the Vale of Bochim, or Weepers, Judg. ii. 1. 5., 
near Gilgal; or with the Vale of the Mulberry 
Trees (as the word also signifies), where David 
by God's special help smote the Philistines, 2 
Sam. V. 23. ; 1 Chron. xiv. 14, 15. ; and which 
was near Jerusalem; or, trusting more to the 
similarity of name than general probability, with 
the valley now called El Bekaa, at the foot of 
Mt. Lebanon, near the springs of the R. Jordan 
and near the N. entrance into the Promised Land.' 
Josephus speaks of a A-illage of this name on the 
confines of Galilee and Tjxe. 

BACHRITES, a di\nsion of the tribe of 
Ephraim mentioned Num. xx-\i. 35., when the 
census of all Israel was taken in the Plains of 
Moab. 

BAHARUMITE, the patronymic of one of 
David's mighty men ; but whence derived is lui- 
known, 1 Chron. xi. 33. 

BAHURIM, a town of the tribe of Benjamin, 
a few miles E. of Jerusalem, and according to 
Josephus (who calls it Bachoures) within its 
precincts. It was hither that Phaltiel accom- 
panied his wife Miclial, when she was made to 
return to David, her first husband, 2 Sam. iii. 
16. It was the residence of Shimei, 2 Sam. xix. 
16. ; 1 Kgs. ii. 8. ; who here cursed and threw 
stones at David when he fled from Absalom, 2 
Sam. xvi. 5.; and here Jonathan and Ahimaaz 
concealed themselves in a well, to escape from the 
ser\-ants of Absalom, when they were conveying 
information of his -wicked purposes to David. 
It is thought by some to be the same with Almon 
and Alemeth, Josh. xxi. 18. ; 1 Chron. vi. 60. ; but 
apparently without reason. 

BAJITH, a town of Moab, where appears to 
have been an idol-temple, probably on a high 
place, in which the people are represented as 
supplicating their false gods for help against 
' their destruction by Babylon, Isa. xv. 2. In the 
■ Chaldee and Syriac versions it is rendered Beth- 
' E 3 



54 BAKBUK, CHILDEEN OF. 



BASHAK. 



Dibon ; Bajith and Dibon being seemingly united. 
Some identify it with Baal-meon. 

BAKBUK, THE CHILDREN OF, mentioned 
among the Nethinims, who, on the proclamation 
of Cyrus, returned from Babylon to Jerusalem, 
Ezra ii. 51. ; Neh. vii. 53. 

BALAH, a town in the tribe of Simeon, pro- 
bably towards its S. frontier, where the family 
of his grandson Shimei dwelt. Josh. xix. 3.; 1 
Chron. iv. 29., marg. In the latter place, it is 
called Bilhah. 

BALAMO, a place apparently in Samaria, be- 
tAveen which and Dothaim, the husband of J udith 
was buried, Judith viii. 3. It is also written 
Baalmaim, which has led to the suspicion of 
its being the same with Belmen. Cf. Judith 
vii. 3. 

BAMAH, a prophetical name given in Ezek. 
XX. 29., to one of the eminences or high places 
where the Jews committed idolatry ; or it may 
be a mystical name for all their idolatrous altars. 
In Ezek. xxxvi. 2., the word is rendered ancient 
high places, but it is mostly translated high place. 
After God had been pleased to select Jerusalem 
as the place where he would fix his name, when- 
ever the Jews offered on a high place, it was com- 
monly linked on to some heathen or idolatrous rite. 

BAMOTH, the fortj^'-second encampment of 
the Israelites, within the limits of Moab, and 
probably in one of the valleys at the foot of Mt. 
Nebo, from its being also called Bamoth in the 
Valley, Num. xxi. 19, 20. It is the same place 
where stood 

BAMOTH BAAL, a town assigned by Joshua 
to the tribe of Reuben, and called in the margin 
the high places of Baal, Josh. xiii. 17. Euse- 
bius places it near the R. Arnon. It may have 
been formerly called Nebo. Cf. Num. xxxii. 38. 

BANI, CHILDREN OF, the name of a family 
or tribe that returned to Jerusalem with Ezra 
after the Babylonish captivity : it is also written 
BiNNUi Ezra ii. 10. ; Neh. vii. 15. 

BARHUMITE, the patronymic of Azmaveth, 
one of David's mighty men, 2 Sam. xxiii. 31. ; 
whence derived is unkno>vn. 

BARKOS, CHILDREN OF, the name of a 
family of the Nethinims, who returned to Je- 
rusalem, under Ezra, after the seventy years' 
captivity in Babylon, Ezra ii. 63. ; Neh. vii. 55. 

BARZILLAI, CHILDREN OF, a family of 
the priests, who returned after the Babylonish 
captivity with Ezra to Jerusalem, Ezra ii. 
61.; Neh. vii. 63. 



BASCAMA, a place apparently in the country 
of Gilead, where Tryphon slew Jonathan, who 
was buried here, 1 Mace. xiii. 23. Josephus 
calls it Basca. Some identify it with Bozkath, 
but this was in the heart of the tribe of Judah. 

BASHAN or Basak, a country of the Amorites 
on the other side Jordan, of which, when the 
Israelites took possession of the Promised 
Land, Og was the king. It was bounded on 
the N. by the ridges of Mt. Hermon (or the Hill 
of Bashan, Ps. Ixviii. 15.), on the E. by Da- 
mascus and the Desert of Arabia, on the S. by 
the R. Jabbok and Gilead, on the W. by the 
Jordan. It belonged to Gilead in the more 
extended sense of the latter appellation, Josh, 
xii. 5., xiii. 31. Although it is constantly dis- 
tinguished from it in the proper and more con- 
fined usage of the name. Josh. xvii. 1. 5., xx. 8. ; 
2 Kgs. X. 33. ; Mic. vii. 14. It was called the 
Land of the Giants, Deut. iii. 13., and Og was 
of the remnant of the giants. Josh. xii. 4. He 
was one of the two Amorite kings, Deut. iii. 8. ; 
1 Kgs. iv. 19. ; Ps. cxxxv. 11., inhabiting the 
trans- Jordanic regions (the name of "Amor- 
ites," whose king was Sihon, being especially 
borne by the inhabitants of its S. part) be- 
tween the R. Arnon and Mt. Hei-mon. He pos- 
sessed sixty cities, Deut. iii. 4. ; 1 Kgs. iv. 13. ; 
of which his two chief were Ashtaroth and 
Edrei, Josh. xii. 4., xiii. 12. At the latter 
of these two places he attacked. Num. xxi. 33. ; 
Deut. iii. 1., xxix. 7., but was conquered by 
the Israelites, Ps. Ixviii. 22., under Moses (b.c. 
1452), when he and his followers were slain, 
Deut. i. 4., iii. 10. 13., iv. 47. ; Josh. ix. 10. ; Ps. 
cxxxvi. 20. ; and his dominions principally as- 
signed to the half-tribe of Manasseh, Num. 
xxxii. 33. ; Josh. xiii. 11., xiii. 30, 31., xvii, 
1. 5., XX 8., xxi. 6., xxii. 7. ; 1 Chron. v. 23. ; 
Neh. ix. 22. ; which tribe was then bounded 
on the S. by the portion of the tribe of Gad. 

The N. extremity of Bashan was, however, 
eventually possessed by that jDortion of the 
tribe of Dan, Deut. xxxiii. 22., whose migration 
is recorded in Judg. xviii., and again, its S. 
part was given b}' Moses to the tribe of Gad, 
1 Chron. v. 11, 12. 16. 23. Bashan was on the 
whole a hilly country, Jer. xxii. 20. ; Nah. i. 4. ; 
being intersected by the spurs of Mt. Hermon 
and the ridges of Auranitis, It was also famed 
for its forests of oaks, Isa. ii. 13., xxxiii. 9. ; 
Ezek. xxvii. 6. ; Zech. xi. 2. ; as well as for its 
rich pasturage and fine cattle, Deut. xxxii. 14, ; 
Ps. xxii. 12. ; Jer, 1. 19. ; Ezek. xxxix. 18. ; 
Amos iv. 1. ; Mic. vii. 14. In later times it is 



BASHAN, HILL OF. 



BEER. 



55 



called Batana3a by the Greek writers, though 
then, no doubt, its limits were much altered and 
contracted, as at last this appellation came to 
denote only one of the territories which formed 
the Tetrarchy of Philip, Lu. iii. 1. The Ten 
Cities which gave name to the Decapolis, were 
for the most part in the old Bashan. Some 
trace of the ancient appellation is to be found 
in the modern one Fd Bottein, which may be 
sometimes met with ; although it is better known 
to the inhabitants by certain district names, as 
Jaulan en Nakrah, &c., into which they divide 
it. 

BASHAN, HILL OF, Ps. Ixviii. 15., men- 
tioned by David as a high hill, refers probably 
to Mt. Hermon, in the N. part of the land of 
Bashan, which is a spur of the Anti-Lebanon, 
and is now called Heish. 

BASHAN-HAVOTH-JAIR, Deut. iii. 14., 
otherwise called Havoth- Jair., Num. xxxii. 
41. ; Judg. X, 4. ; 1 Kgs. iv. 13. ; certain cities in 
Argob, Bashan, and Gilead, given by Moses to 
Jair, who called them after his own name. See 
Havoth- Jair. 

BASILIS, 1 Mace. xv. 23., marg., another 
reading for Phaselis, a city of Lycia, in Asia 
Minor, mentioned in the Apocrypha as one of 
the places to which the Romans wrote in favour 
of the Jews. 

BATHRABBIM, GATE OF, So. of Sol. vii. 
4., conjectured to have been the name of one of 
the gates in Heshbon, the old capital of Sihon, 
king of the Amorites. Near it were some 
fine fish-pools; it led probably towards the 
neighbouring city Rabbath-Amnion. 

BATHZACHARIAS, a place in the neigh- 
bourhood of Jerusalem and Bethsura, not other- 
wise mentioned, and the situation of Avhich is 
not known with any certainty. It was here that 
Judas Maccabaeus and the younger Antiochus 
had a battle, in which the latter lost 600 men, 
1 Mace. xi. 32, 33. According to Epiphanius, 
the prophet Habakkuk was born in its suburbs. 

BAY OF THE SEA, at the uttermost part 
of Jordan, Josh. xv. 5., seems to have been that 
small bay at the N. end of the Dead Sea, 
where the Jordan flows into it. This was the 
N. E. limit of the tribe of Judah. 

BAY THAT LOOKETH SOUTHWARD 
was probably that small elliptical basin in which 
the Dead Sea terminates at its S. extremity. 
It was the S.E. limit of the tribe of Judah, Josh. 
XV. 2. 



BAZLUTH (or Bazlith), CHILDREN OF, 
a famil}'^ of the Nethinims, that returned to Je- 
rusalem after the seventy years' captivity in 
Babylon, Ezra ii. 52, ; Neh. vii. 54. 

BEALOTH, the name of a toAvn belonging 
to the tribe of Judah on its S. frontier, towards 
Edom, Josh. xv. 24., which probably even- 
tually fell within the inheritance of Simeon. 
It is thought by some to be the same Avith Aloth, 
1 Kgs. iv. 16. ; but this is very doubtful. 

BEAN, CHILDREN OF, a name of un- 
certain application, 1 Mace. v. 4. They were 
attacked and destroyed by Judas Maccaba;us, on 
account of their enmity to the Jews ; to whom 
in former times, also, they are said to have been 
an offence, and to have laid wait for them 
in the ways. Some think that Bean was the 
name of an ancient king, whose descendants 
lived in hostility Avith the childi-en of Israel : 
others take Bean for the name of a place on 
the confines of the Dead Sea ; and others, again, 
refer it to Akan or Jakan, Gen. xxxvi. 27., a 
descendant of Seir, near whose possessions at 
Bene-jaakan, was one of the Israelites' encamp- 
ments before they entered Canaan, Num. xxxiii. 
31, 32. 

BEBAI, CHILDREN OF, mentioned amongst 
those of the Israelites Avho returned from Ba- 
bylon to Jerusalem with Zerubbabel, Ezra ii. 
11. ; Neh. vii. 16. Their dwelling-place is not 
known, though it may have been at 

BEBAI, Judith xv. 4., a place to Avhich Ozias 
sent a report of his victory over the Assyrians, 
after the death of Holofernes. It Avas probably 
somewhere in the N. part of Judjea. 

BECTILETH, PLAIN OF, three days' journey 
from NineA^eh, Avhere Plolofernes pitched his tents 
previous to his iuA^ading Israel, Judith ii. 21. 
Its situation is Avholly unknoAA-n, though it may 
be looked for S. of the Cilician Taurus, and 
near the Valley of the Euphrates. 

BED AN, a family of the Manassites, 1 Chron. 
vii. 17. Cf. 1 Sam. xii. 11., Avhere Samson ap- 
pears to be thus designated, as being of the 
children of Dan. 

BEER ( Well), a station of the Israelites in 
the Avildei-ness N. of the R. Ai-non, in the country 
of the Amorites. It Avas here that, by the direc- 
tion of Moses, the princes of Israel digged a well 
with their staA^es, Num. xxi. 16. It is supposed 
b}' some to be the same Avith Becr-elim, Isa. 
XV. 8. 

BEER, Judg. ix. 21., whither Jctham fled 

JE 4 



56 



JBEER-ELIM. 



BEESHTERAH. 



after having spoken his parable against Abime- 
lech and the Shechemites. It seems to have 
lain a few miles to the K of Jerusalem, and is 
thought to have been also called Beeroth ; which 
see. 

BEER-ELIM (the Well of Firs), a place ap- 
parentl}' within the limits of Moab, mentioned 
by Isaiah, xv. 8., when predicting the desolation 
of that countiy. Some identify it with Beer, 
Num. xxi. 16. 

BEER-LAHAI-ROI (the Well of Him that 
liveth and seeth me), or the Well Lahai-roi, a 
well in the wilderness S. of Ccxnaan, where 
Hagar, when she fled from her mistress with 
Ishmael, rested, and was found by the angel ; 
it was between Kadesh and Bered, Gen. xvi. 
14. Here Isaac was dwelling with his father 
when Rebekah was brought to him ; and here 
he continued to dwell after Abraham's death. 
Gen. xxiv. 02., xxv. 11. 

BEEROTH ( Wells), a region belonging to the 
children of Jaakan; it was a station of the 
Israelites, and lay to the S. of Mt. Hor, Deut. 
X. 6. It seems to be called Bene-jaakan at Num. 
xxxiii. 31, 32. 

BEEROTH, a city of the Gibeonites, Josh, 
ix. 17., afterwards allotted to the tribe of Ben- 
jamin, xviii. 25. ; 2 Sam. iv. 2. ; placed by Euse- 
bius 7 miles N. of Jerusalem. See Berites. 
Its inhabitants, the 

BEEROTHITES, fled to Gittaim, 2 Sara. iv. 
3. ; probably upon the great slaughter of the 
Benjamites in the time of the Judges. They 
are also mentioned 2 Sam. iv, 2. 5. 9., xxiii. 37. 
They are probably the same with 

BEEROTH, CHILDREN OF, who are men- 
tioned as having returned with Zerubbabel after 
the captivitj' in Babylon, Ezra ii. 25. ; Neb. 
vii. 29. 

BEERSHEBA ( Well of the Oath), so called 
by Abraham, because there he and Abimelecli 
made a covenant and sware together, on the 
spot where Abraham had digged a well, Gen. 
xxi. 31, 32. It was in the S. borders of Canaan, 
towards Edom, 20 miles S. of Hebron, according 
to Eusebius and Jerome. Abraham here planted 
a grove and set up an altar to God, and made 
it his dwelling-place. Gen. xxi. 33., xxii. 19., 
as did also Isaac, Gen. xxvi. 23., whose servants 
appear here to have re-digged the well, and Isaac 
and Abimelech to have also made a new cove- 
nant of alliance, xxvi. 33. ; excepting, indeed, 
this be another place altogether, and perhaps 
the same called Sheba, Josh. xix. 2. It was 



from this place, that Jacob was sent by his 
father to Padan-Aram, Gen. xxviii. 10. ; and 
hither he came and rested, and had a vision, 
when on his way to Egypt to Joseph, xlvi. 1. 5. 
In pi-ocess of time, a town grew up on the spot, 
which Avas at first assigned by Joshua to the 
tribe of J adah. Josh. xv. 28. ; 2 Sam. xxiv. 7. ; 
1 Kgs. xix. 3. ; but afterwards to Simeon, Josh, 
xix, 2. ; 1 Chron. iv. 28. It is often mentioned 
as the southernmost limit of the whole land of 
Israel, Judg. xx. 1. ; 1 Stim. iii. 20. ; 2 Sam. 
iii. 10., xvii. 11., xxiv. 2. 15.; 1 Kgs. iv. 25.; 
1 Chron. xxi, 2. ; 2 Chron. xxx, 5. ; Dan being 
the northernmost point ; though, when Moses 
was favoured with his view of the land shortly 
before his death, Zoar in the S. and Dan in the 
N. are the two limits mentioned, Deut. xxxiv. 3. 
In like manner, after the division of the king- 
dom, it is given as the S. frontier town of the 
kingdom of Judah; Geba being the nothern- 
most post, 2 Kgs. xxiii. 8., or according to 2 
Chron. xix. 4., Mt. Ephraim, at the foot of Avhich 
Geba lay. After the Babylonian captivity Beer- 
sheba in the S., and the Valley of Hinnora in 
the N., formed the limits of the dwellings of 
the children of Judah, Neh. xi. 30.; as, indeed, 
they had done before. It seems to have been at 
one time a seat of government, for Samuel's sons 
were judges here, 1 Sam. viii. 2. ; though it is 
denounced by the Prophet Amos, v. 5., viii. 14., 
in connection with Bethel and Gilgal, as a 
stronghold of idolatry, being termed by him the 
high places of Isaac, vii. 9. It was the birth- 
place of Zibiah, the mother of Jehoash, king of 
Judah, 2 Kgs. xii. 1. ; 2 Chron. xxiv. 1. ; and is 
remarkable as the place whither Elijah first fled 
from the vengeance of Jezebel, 1 Kgs. xix. 3. 
It was still in existence after the captivity in 
Babylon, as some of the children of Judah dwelt 
there, Neh. xi. 27. 30. Its remains are still 
called Bi}'-es-Seba. 

BEERSHEBA, WILDERNESS OF, the open 
country to the S. of Beersheba, into which Hagar 
and Ishmael wandered when driven by Abraham 
from his dwelling-place there. Gen. xxi. 14. Cf. 
1 Kgs. xix. 4. It appears to have joined, if 
not to have formed part of, the Wilderness of 
Paran, Gen. xxi. 21., or The Great Wilderness 
of Egypt. 

BEESHTERAH, a city of the half tribe of 
Manasseh, beyond Jordan, which, with its 
suburbs, was given by Joshua to the children 
of Gerslion, Josh. xxi. 27. ; in the parallel pas- 
sage, 1 Chron. vi. 71., it is called Ashtaroth. 
It was one of the forty-eight Levitical cities. 



BELA. 



BENJAMIN. 



57 



It has been supposed to be the &ame with tho 
Bostra of later times, still called Boszm ; but this 
last was in Arabia. 

BELA, one of the Five Cities of the Plain, situ- 
ated in the beautiful and exuberant Vale of 
Siddim, by the waters of Jordan, and towards 
the S. borders of the land of Canaan, Gen. xiii. 
10. It was near the S. extremity of the vale : 
and its king joined the four other kings that 
went out to battle against Chedorlaomer, king of 
Elam, and his three confederates, when after 
twelve years of servitude they had rebelled 
against him. Gen. xiv. 2. 8. It was in this 
battle (B.C. 1913), that Lot was taken prisoner, 
but was recovered by Abram. Its name was 
afterwards changed to Zoar, i.e. Little, when, 
at the intercession of Lot, upon the plea of its 
being but a little city, it was spared, whilst 
the four other cities, Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, 
and Zeboiim, were miraculously consumed by 
fire for their iniquity, b.c. 1898 ; Gen. xix. 20. 22, 
23. 30. The Vale of Siddim then became the 
Salt Sea, Gen. xiv. 2., or the Dead Sea, as it 
is now commonly called ; on a bay of which 
towards its S. end, still are seen the mins of 
the little town, at a place called Ghoi' Szafue. 
Cf. Zoar. It is never mentioned as having 
belonged to Israel, though it was shown in mi- 
raculous vision to Moses as the S. limit of the 
Promised Land, Deut. xxxiv. 3. At all events, 
it seems to have been a frontier town of Moab 
in this direction, in the time of the prophets 
Isaiah, xv. 5., Jeremiah, xlviii. 34., who include 
it in their predictions of the coming desolation 
of Moab. See Cities of the Plain. 

BELAITES, Num. xxvi. 38., the name of 
a family of the Benjamites, who were numbered 
in the Plains of ]\Ioab, and derived their name 
from Belah, Gen. xlvi. 21. ; 1 Chron. vii. 6. 

BELMAIM,aplace in the valley, where Holo- 
fernes encamped mth the Assyrian army when 
he besieged Bethulia, Judith vii. 3. It was pro- 
bably in the N. of Samaria, at one end of the great 
Plain of Esdraelon. It is thought by some to 
be the same Avith Balamo mentioned Judith 
viii. 3. ; as also with 

BELMEN, Judith iv. 4, a place which the Jews 
endeavoured to fortify against Holofernes; but 
whether in Samaria, or further S., is unknown. 
Some identify it with Abel, on the borders of Ze- 
bulun and Naphtali. See Abel. 

BEN-ABINADAB, 1 Kgs. iv. 11., marg., one 
of the twelve purveyorships of Solomon, charged 
with furnishing him and his household with 



victuals ; it was in the region of Dor, on the 
sea-coast of Samaria. 

BEN-DEKAR, 1 Kgs. iv. 9., marg., another 
of the above purveyorships, in the S.W. part of 
the kingdom of Isi'ael, about the inheritance 
of the tribe of Simeon : it included Makaz, 
Shaalbim, Beth-shemesh, and Elon-beth-hanan. 

BENE-BERAK, a town within the inheritance 
of the tribe of Dan, Josh, xix. 45., supposed by 
Eusebius to have been near Ashdod. 

BENE-JAAKjVN, one of the encampments 
of the Israelites in the Wilderness, between 
Moseroth and Hor-hagidgad, Num. xxxiii. 31, 
32. It seems to be called Beeroth Deut. x. G., 
and is there said to belong to the children of 
J aal^an. 

BEN-GEBEK, 1 Kgs. iv. 13., marg., one of 
the purveyorships of Solomon mentioned above, 
containing Ramoth-Gilead, the towns of Jair 
and the region of Argob in Bashan. 

BEN-HESED, 1 Kgs. iv. 10., marg., another 
of Solomon's purveyorships for supplying himself 
and his household with provisions. It was 
on the frontiers of Judaja and Samaria, towards 
the Jordan, and included Aruboth, Sochoh, and 
all the land of Hepher, 

BEN-HUR, 1 Kgs. iv. 8., marg., another 
of Solomon's purveyorships. It was in Mt. 
Ephraim. 

BENJAMIN, the smallest of the twelve tribes 
of Israel, 1 Sam. ix. 21.; Ps. Ixviii. 27.; the 
name of which was derived from Benjamin, the 
youngest son of Jacob by his wife Eachel, Gen. 
XXXV. 18. At the Exodus, about 240 years 
after tlie birth of Benjamin, the number of 
fighting men of the children of Benjamin was 
35,400, Num. i. 37., ii. 23.; but when they 
were again numbered in the Plains of ]\Ioab 
thirty-eight years later, their number was 45,G00, 
Num. xxvi. 38. 41. The total number which ap- 
pears to be given 1 Chron. vii. 6. 10. 12., is 
69,434. They were famed as archers, 1 Chron. 
viii. 40. They marched, together with Manasseh , 
under the standard of the tribe of Ephraim, Num. 
ii. 22,, X. 24. ; this standard following immedi- 
ately after the sanctuaiy, whence the Psalmist's 
prayer that God woiild stir up his strength in 
behalf of His church before Ephraim, Benjamin, 
and Manasseh, Ps, Ixxx. 2. Benjamin was the 
ninth tribe as ranged in the order of their 
journejdngs ; and when encamped, they pitched 
their tents on the W. side of the Tabernacle. 
Their offerings for the service of God Avere maile 



58 



BENJAMIN^. 



on the ninth day, Num. vii. 60. One of the 
twelve spies whom Moses sent from Kadesh to 
spy out the land, was taken out of this tribe, 
Num. xiii. 9. On the entrance of the Israel- 
ites into Canaan, they, with five other tribes, 
were appointed to stand upon Mt. Gerizim, to 
bless the people, Deut. xxvii. 12, ; and one of 
their number was chosen to assist Eleazar and 
Joshua in allotting the inheritance of the tribes. 
Num. xxxiv. 21. 

Upon the division of the Promised Land, Joshua 
assigned to the tribe of Benjamin their inherit- 
ance in the S.E. part from the R. Jordan to Mt. 
Ephraim and Mt. Jearim, being bounded on the 
S. by the tribe of Judah, W. by Dan, N. by 
Ephraim, and E. by Reuben, from Avhich last 
they were separated by the Jordan, Josh, xviii. 
11. 20. 28. ; 1 Sam. x. 2. It was a hilly, but a 
well-Avatered and fruitful district, and though 
the smallest of the twelve divisions of Israel, 1 
Sam. ix. 21., it was amply compensated by 
containing the temple and city of Jerusalem 
within its limits. This honour appears to have 
been predicted by Moses, who foretold that the 
Lord should cover him all the day long, and 
that he should dwell between His shoulders — 
a promise which was graciously fulfilled when 
Benjamin's inheritance was allotted round Mt. 
Zion, and the dwelling-place of God in His 
earthly sanctuary was within their borders ; so 
that they were covered by the protection of 
Jehovah, and had His power engaged in their be- 
half as long as they remained faithful to His wor- 
ship, Deut. xxxiii. 12. Jei'usalem was, however, 
at first jointly inhabited by some from the tribe 
of Judah, as well as by Benjamin; for the Jebusites 
were not fully driven from Zion till the time of 
David, Josh. xv. 63.; Judg. i. 21. ; 2 Sam. v. 6. 9. 
Indeed, the Jebusites seem not to have been 
driven out from the rest of Benjamin's lot for 
some time, Judg. xix. 11. It gave name to one 
of the gates of Jerusalem, near the Temple, 
hence called Benjamin's Gate, Zech. xiv. 10., or 
the High Gate of Benjamin, where were the 
stocks into which they put Jeremiah, Jer. xx. 
2. It contained four Levitical cities belonging 
to the children of Aaron, viz. Gibeon, Geba, 
Anathoth, and Almon, with their several suburbs. 
Josh. xxi. 4. 17, 18. 

From this tribe sprang Ehud, the Benjamite, 
who appears to have been the second Judge 
in Israel after the death of Joshua, and who 
delivered his countrymen from the bondage of 
Eglon, king of Moab, B.c 1336, Judg. iii. 
15. The Benjamites also helped Deborah and 
Barak against Jabin and Sisera, Judg. v. 14. ; 



and they seem likewise to have borne some of 
the brunt of the Ammonite invasion in the 
days of J ephthah, Judg. x. 9. ; as well as in other 
encounters, 1 Sam. iv. 12. After this arose a war 
between Benjamin and the rest of the tribes of 
Israel in the matter of the Levite's concubine, 
whom the Gibeonites abused to death, which led 
to their being cited before the nation, and on 
their refusing to hearken, to two battles, in 
which the confederated Israelites lost 40,000 
men, though at length by a stratagem the 
Benjamites were all destroyed except 600 men, 
who escaped to the rock Rimmon, b.c. 1406. So 
deep had been the hostility between the two 
pai'ties, that the men of Israel had sworn that 
none of their daughters should be given to a 
Benjamite; so that, when they punished the in- 
habitants of Jabesh-gilead for not coming to 
the general assembly, they encouraged the Ben- 
jamites who were left to go and surprise 400 
virgins of that place, and take them for wives 
that a tribe might not be cut off from Israel, 
Judg. xix. 14. 16., XX. 4. 35. 40. 48., xxi. 1. 6. 13. 
14, 15, 16, 17, 18. 20, 21. 23. 

The Benjamites were famed for their valour, 
and indeed according to the emblem used in 
Jacob's prediction. Gen. xiix. 27., they were to 
be noted for their fierceness and cruelty. They 
appear to have been expert slingers and archers, 
sometimes left-handed, sometimes using either 
hand, Judg. iii. 15., xx. 16. ; 1 Chron. xii. 2. 
Perhaps they formed occasionally the sovereign's 
body-guard, 1 Sam. xxii. 7. ; 1 Chron. xxvii 12. 
From them also sprang the first king of all Israel, 
Saul, the son of Kish, a Benjamite, a mighty 
man of power, 1 Sam. ix. 1. 4. 16. 21., x. 21. ; Ps. 
Ixviii. 27. ; Acts xiii, 21 ; who after his death 
in Gilboa Avas taken from Bethshan, and buried 
in Zelah in his own country, 2 Sam. xxi. 14. 
But before Saul's death, whilst David kept 
himself close at Ziklag because of him, some 
of David's mighty men who joined him there 
were of Benjamin, 1 Chron. xii. 1, 2. ; and 
as hosts flocked into him from other tribes day by 
day, until he had a great army, at length there 
came many Benjamites also, whom because of 
their connection with the house of Saul, David 
did not at first trust, 1 Chron. xii. 16, 17. 22. On 
the death of Saul, the tribe of Benjamin, with 
all the other tribes, save Judah (which followed 
David), took part with Ishbosheth, the son of Saul, 
Avhom Abner made king of Israel, 2 Sam. ii. 9. 
15. 25. ; but eventually Benjamin was gained over 
to David, 2 Sam. iii. 19. ; as indeed were all the 
other tribes, though traces of the old feud are 
discoverable in the conduct of Shiraei the Ben- 



BEN JAM m. 



BEREA. 



59 



jamite, 2 Sam. xvi. 11., xix. 16.; 1 Kg3. ii. 8.; 
Ps. vii. title; aud of Sheba the Benjaraite, 2 
Sam XX. 1. One of the twelve princes of Israel, 
whose duties related chiefly, as it is supposed, 
to civil matters, was chosen by David out of 
Benjamin, 1 Chron. xxvii. 21. The territory 
of this tribe was constituted by Solomon one 
of his twelve purvey or ships, under Shimei, the 
son of Elah, 1 Kgs. iv. 18. It remained faithful 
to the house of David after the division of 
the kingdoms, taking part with Judah, and 
sharing its fortunes, 1 Kgs. xii. 21., which is 
the more remarkable, considering its relation- 
ship to the house of Joseph ; until having fallen 
into idolatry, from which for a time it recovered 
under the good kings Hezekiah and Josiah, and 
the preaching of the prophets, it was with Judah 
carried captive to Babylon, 2 Chron. xxxi. 1., 
xxxiv. 9.; Jer. vi, 1., xvii. 26., xxxii. 8. 44., 
xxxiii. 13., xxxvii, 12. ; Hos. v. 8. ; Obad. 19. 
The prophet Jeremiah was of this tribe, J er. 

i. 1., as were also Mordecai and Esther, Esth. 

ii. 5., whose interposition in behalf of the Jews 
with the king of Persia, contribixted so wonder- 
fully to their deliverance. It was the tribe of 
Benjamin alone that, as a tribe, united with the 
tribe of Judah after the Babylonian captivity in 
refounding the Jewish commonwealth under 
Zembbabel, Ezra i. 5., iv. 1., x. 9.; Neh. xi. 4. 
31. 36. ; 2 Mace. iii. 4. Thus once more it en- 
joyed the blessed privilege promised it by IMoses, 
Deut. xxxiii. 12., until for its manifold rebellions 
it was for a time cast away by God, and its 
dwelling-place finally destroyed by the Romans ; 
so that in its continuance from first to last, is 
thought to be verified the prediction of Jacob, 
Gen. xlix. 27., that Benjamin should ravin as a 
wolf; in the morning he should devour the 
prey, and in the evening divide the spoil. In 
the history of the war about the Levite's concu- 
bine, in the doings of Ehud, King Saul, and Saul 
of Tarsus — to say nothing of other instances — we 
have abundant proof of the havoc committed in 
the morning of the Jewish and the Christian 
commonwealth; and in Benjamin's peaceful 
union with Judah, under tiying circumstances, 
and twice repeated, together with Paul's preaching 
the gospel, which once he destroyed, we are 
shown how it was foreseen for ages before, that 
in the evening this, the least of the tribes, should 
still divide the spoil with the lion of the tribe of 
Judah. In the prophetical division of the land 
by Ezekiel, the portion of Benjamin is placed the 
eighth in order from the northward, being imme- 
diately below the Holy Oblation, Ezek. xlviii. 
22, 23=, and above the portion of Simeon ; and 



one of the gates of the New City on the E. side 
is called the Gate of Benjamin, Ezek. xlviii. 
32., St. Paul was of the tribe of Benjamin, Kom. 
xi. 1. ; Philip, iii. 5. St. John in his vision of 
futurity, saw twelve thousand sealed of this 
tribe, Rev. vii. 8. 
BENJAMIN'S GATE, Zech. xiv. 10., or 

BENJAMIN, HIGH GATE OF, Jer. xx. 2., 
xxxvii. 13., xxxviii. 7., one of the gates of Je- 
rusalem, probably on the N. side, and so named 
from its situation toAvards the tribe of Benjamin. 
It was near the Temple, and adjoining to it v. ere 
the stocks into which they thrust the prophet 
Jeremiah for his predictions against the Jews. 
Here also he was afterwards arrested, under the 
pretence that he was falling away to the Chal- 
deans, and was confined in the dungeon ; until 
Ebed-melech, the Ethiopian, pleaded his cause 
before Zechariah, king of Judah, while sitting 
in the same gate. It appears to be the same 
with the Higher Gate described by Ezekiel, 
ix. 2., as that by Avhich he saw in a vision the six 
destroyers enter Jerusalem. The High Gate 
mentioned in 2 Chron. xxiii. 20., xxvii. 3., as 
having teen built or repaired by Jotham, king of 
Judah, was probably an entrance into the Temple. 

BEON, Num. xxxii. 3., one of the io^\n& be- 
yond Jordan, taken by the Israelites from the 
Amorites, and afterwards inhabited by them, 
when its name seems to have been changed to 
Baal-meon ; which see. 

BERACHAH, VALLEY OF (or of Blessing), 
a place where the Israelites under their King 
Jehoshaphat, praised God for his miraculously 
overthrowing the Ammonites, Moabites, and 
Edomites, who had jointly invaded their country 
(having probably crossed the Jordan near Haza- 
zon-tamar, where they were encamped), aud turn- 
ing their hands against their other enemies, 
the Edomites, 2 Chron. xx. 26. Some think 
it was the same with the valley by the Wilder- 
ness of Jeruel, 2 Chron. xx. 16., in the Great 
Desert of Judah, E. of Hebron aud Tecoa ; but 
others identify it -ftdth the Valley of Jehoshaphat, 
mentioned in Joel iii. 2. 12., through which ran 
the Brook Kedron between Jerusalem and the 
Mt. of Olives. 

BEREA, a city of Emathia, a district in the E. 
of Macedonia, near the banks of the R. Haliac- 
mon, and at the foot of Mt. Bermius. It was 
beautified by Philip of ]Macedon ; but being re - 
paired by the Empress Irene, it was called Ireno- 
polis. Its old name still remains in that of 
Veria. It was hither that St. Paul fled after 



60 



BEREA. 



BETANE. 



his ill-treatment in Thessaloiiica, from which 
it is distant about 40 miles ; and here he preached 
the gospel to the Jews, who had a synagogue in 
Berea, and whom he commends for their noble 
candour in receiving the word with all readiness 
of mind, and searching the Scriptures daily. He 
was, however, driven away again by his perse- 
cutors from Thessalonica, when he went to 
Athens ; though probably not before he had been 
the mea)is of converting Sopater and others. 
Acts xvii. 10. 13., xx. 4. 

BEREA, a place mentioned 1 Mace. ix. 4., 
where Bacchides and Alcimus encamped when 
proceeding against Judas Maccabaeus. It appears 
to have been N. of Jerusalem ; according to Je- 
rome 8 miles from Eleutheropolis, within the 
old limits of the tribe of Benjamin. Some iden- 
tify it with Beeroth of the Gibeonites; which 
see. 

BEREA, mentioned 2 Mace. xiii. 4., as the 
place where Antiochus Eupator had Menelaus 
put to death. It is supposed to be the same 
with Beroea, a famous city in the N. of Syria, 
about midway between Antioch and the R. Eu- 
phrates, on a small river called Chalos, the fish 
of which are said to have been worshipped 
by the Sj^ians. Beroea was formerly called 
Chalybon, a name which it still retains in that 
of the well-known city Haleb or Aleppo; but 
it was changed to Beroea when it fell into the 
hands of the Macedonians. The prophet Eze- 
kiel, xxvii. 18., calls it Helbon, and speaks of 
the wine with which it supplied Tyre. 

BERED, a place to the S. of Canaan, in the 
Wilderness of Shur, between which and Kadesh 
was the well Beer-lahai-roi, where the angel 
met Hagai-, and sent her back to submit herself 
to her mistress. Gen. xvi. 14. 

BERRETHO, 1 Mace. ix. 4., marg. See Berea. 

BERIITES, a family of Asher, so called after 
Beriah, Gen. xlvi. 17. ; 1 Chron. vii. 30. ; who 
were numbered by Moses in the Plains of Moab, 
Num. xxvi. 44. 

BERITES, supposed to be the inhabitants of 
Beeroth, a town in the tribe of Benjamin. After 
the death of Amasa, they joined Joab in pur- 
suing the rebellious party of Sheba, the son of 
Bichri to Abel of Beth-maachah, where at the 
advice of a wise woman, Sheba's head was cut 
off, and cast over the city wall to Joab, when 
the sedition ended, 2 Sam. xx. 14. See Beeroth. 

BE ROTH AH, one of the border towns of the 
land of Israel, as pro^jhetically drawn out by 



Ezekiel, xlvii. 16., somewhere between the Great 
Sea and Damascus, and near to Hamath. It is 
conjectured to be the same with 

BEROTHAI, which David took from Hada- 
dezer, king of Zobah, as he went to recover his 
border at the R. Euphrates, where he captured 
shields of gold and exceeding much brass, 2 Sam. 
viii. 8. ; 1 Chron. xviii. 8., marg. ; wherewith 
he made the brazen sea, and the pillars, and the 
vessels of brass. It is called Chun at 1 Chron. 
xviii. 8., and in the marg. of 2 Sam. viii. 8. 

BEROTHITE, 1 Chron. xi. 89. Joab's ar- 
mour-bearer was a Berothite. Cf. 2 Sam. xxiii. 
37. See Beeroth. 

BEROTH, the inhabitants of which returned 
home after the captivity in Babylon, 1 Esd. v. 
19. ; probably the same place with Beeroth. 

BESAI, CHILDREN OF, a family of the 
Nethinims that returned home after the captivity 
in Babylon, Ezra ii. 49. ; Neh. vii. 52. 

BESOR, THE BROOK, a small river in the 
S.W. part of the Promised Land, supposed to be 
the same with that now called Wady es Sheriah, 
which runs into the Mediterranean Sea, a little 
S. of the town of Gaza. It was here that David 
left 200 of his men that were faint, in charge 
of his stuff, when he pursued the Amalekites 
who had burnt Ziklag ; and hither he returned, 
after having beaten them and recovered his 
wives and all that they had carried away, 
dividing the spoil equally amongst those that 
fought and those that kept the stuff, which 
thenceforward became the law of the land, 
1 Sam. XXX. 9, 10. 21. It is called Bosor in the 
LXX., and may perhaps have run through the 
Valley of Gerar, mentioned Gen. xxvi. 17. 

BETAH, a city of Hadadezer, king of Zobah, 
near Damascus, which was taken by David as 
he went to recover his border at the R. Eu- 
phrates; and from which he brought shields 
of gold, and exceeding much brass, wherewith 
he made the brazen sea, and the pillars, and 
vessels of the Temple, 2 Sam. viii. 8. ; 1 Chron. 
xviii. 8., marg. In the text of the last 
reference, it is called Tibhath. The LXX. write 
it Metebak and Matabeth. 

BETANE, a place from which Nabucho- 
donosor summoned auxiliaries against Arphaxad, 
Judith i. 9., not otherwise known. It is sup- 
posed to refer to the region of Batanaea, or the 
town Ecbatana on Mt. Carmel; but from 
being mentioned after Jerusalem and before 
Kades, othei's think it must have been a town 



BETEN. 



BETHBASI. 



61 



towards the S. of Judoca, such as Ain, Josh. xxi. 
16. ; or the Bcthanin of Eusebius, 4 miles from 
Hebron. 

BETEN a town of the tribe of Asher, Josh, 
xix. 25. Eusebius and Jerome call it Bethbeten, 
and put it 8 miles from Ptolemais. 

BETH A BAR A {the House of the Ford), men- 
tioned Jo. i. 28., as the place where John the 
Baptist began his ministry, and gave his 
testimony to the Messiah. It was beyond Jor- 
dan, over which river there seems here to have 
been a ford; and it was hither that our Blessed 
Lord retired from the persecution of the Jews 
towards the close of His life, Jo. x. 40. Many of 
the old manuscripts, versions, and Fathers, read 
Bethany in place of Bethabara; but from the 
origin of the name, the latter seems preferable, 
especially as Bethbarah is mentioned in the book 
of Judg. vii. 24., as a noted place on the R. 
Jordan. 

BETH-ANATH, a town of the tribe of 
Naphtali, Josh. xix. 38., from which they could 
not drive out the old Canaanitish inhabitants, 
but made them tributary, Judg. i. 33. Eusebius 
describes it as a place noted for its medicinal 
wells, 15 miles from Diocassarea. 

BETH-ANOTH, a tovra of the tribe of Judah, 
Josh. XV. 59., mentioned in connection with 
five others in the hill-country; its position is not 
further known. 

BETHANY (Rouse of Dates), a town of the 
tribe of Benjamin, N.E. from Jerusalem, 15 
furlongs distant, Jo. xi. 18., on the Mt. of Olives, 
Mk. xi. 1. ; Lu. xix. 29. It seems to have been 
on the. way to Jericho, and near to Bethphage. 
It was here that Lazarus dwelt, vdih his sisters 
Mary and Martha, Jo. xi. 1., and here he was 
raised from the dead, Jo. xi. 1 — 44. Here also 
was the house of Simon the leper, where Maiy 
anointed the feet of Jesus with spikenard, Matt, 
xxvi. 6. ; Mk. xiv. 3. It was to Bethany that 
the Blessed Saviour came so frequently with 
His disciples, and lodged, especialh^ during the 
six days before His crucifixion. Matt. xxi. 17. ; 
Mk. xi. 11, 12.; Jo. xii. 1.; and it appears, 
likewise, to have been from its neighbourhood 
that om- Lord ascended up into heaven in the 
presence of His Apostles, Lu. xxiv. 50. 

BETHARABAH, a town in the Wilderness, 
on the confines of the tribes of Judah and 
Benjamin, Josh. xv. G. It seems to have been 
at first allotted to Judah, Josh. xv. 61., but 
afterwards to Benjamin, Josh, xviii. 22. It 
is also simply written Aiabah, Josh, xviii. 18. 



BETH-ARAM, a town on the otlier side 
Jordan in the valley. It formerly appertained 
to the kingdom of Sihon, but was given by 
Joshua to the tribe of Gad, Josh. xiii. 27., Avho 
fenced or rebuilt it. In Num. xxxii. 30., it is 
written Beth-haran. 

BETHARBEL, a place mentioned by Hos. x. 
14., as having been spoiled by Shalman, and 
whose utter ruin he declared should be the type 
of that of the kingdom of Israel. It seems to 
have been a strong fortress, and is identified by 
many with Arbela in Galilee. The victory 
alluded to by Hosea, is supposed by some com- 
mentators to have been gained by Shalmaneser 
over Hoshea, king of Israel. See Arbela. 

BETH-AVEN {House of Idols), a town of the 
tribe of Benjamin, on the borders of Ephraim, 
adjacent to Ai and Bethel, Josh. vii. 2., xviii. 
12. Near it the Philistines encamped when 
about to attack Saul in the beginning of his 
reign, 1 Sam. xiii. 5. ; and the battle was even- 
tually fought between them in its neighbour- 
hood; though by reason of Saul's unadvised 
adjuration, the Israelites did not get the full 
advantage of the victory, 1 Sam. xiv. 23. It 
must not be confounded with 

BETH-AVEN, by which name the prophet 
Hosea designates Bethel, because of the golden 
calves which were in it, denouncing God's ven- 
geance against it for its idols, Hos. iv. 15., 
V. 8., X. 5. See Avex. 

BETHAVEN, WILDERNESS OF, the open 
country round Bethaven, which at one time 
formed the boundary in that direction between 
the two tribes of Benjamin and Ephraim, Josh. 
x^^ii. 12. It Avas probably a part of the 
extensive " AYilderness " which extended from 
Jericho west\vard throughout jMt. Bethel, Josh, 
xvi. 1. 

BETH-AZMAVETH Ezra ii. 24., marg. ; 
Neh. xii. 28. See A_z]maveth. 

BETH-BAAL-MEON, Josh. xiii. 17. ^^ee 
Baal-meon, 

BETH-BARAH, a place on the R. Jordan, 
where there seems to have been a noted ford or 
passage, of which Gideon commanded the 
Ejihraimites to take possession, when they were 
pursuing Oreb and Zeeb, after his -victory over 
the Midianites and Amalekites, Judg. vii. 24. 
It seems to have been in the tribe of Gad, and 
was probably the same with Bethabara ; which 
see. 

BETIIBASL a toAvn in the Wilderness of 
Judaja, probably not far from the Dead Sea, 



62 



BETHBIREI. 



BETHEL. 



which was repaired and fortified under the 
Maccabees by Jonathan and Simon. It was 
attacked and besieged by Bacchides, who, how- 
ever, was compelled to retreat from before it, 1 
Mace. ix. 62. 64. It is called by Josephus Beth- 
alaga. 

BETHBIREI, a city belonging to the tribe of 
Simeon until the reign of David, 1 Chron. iv. 
31. It is called Bethmarimoth in the Septuagint. 

BETHCAR, a town of Judah, on the borders 
of Dan and the Philistines. It was to this 
place that the Israelites, on their repentance at 
Mizpeh, in the days of Samuel, pursued the 
Philistine host, after they had been miraculously 
discomfited by thunder, 1 Sam. vii. 11. 

BETHD AGON {House ofDagoyi), a town of the 
tribe of Judah, towards the frontiers of Simeon, 
Josh. XV. 41. It is supposed by some to be the 
same place with that described in" 1 Sam. v. 
2., whither the Philistines took the ark of God 
after they had captured it from the Israelites. 
It seems also to be mentioned in 1 Mace. x. 
83., as having been the retreat of some of the 
forces of Demetrius the younger, whom Jonathan 
pursued hither, and then burned the place. 
But these last two passages may perhaps refer 
only to Dagon's temple in Ashdod. 

BETHDAGOX, a town of the tribe of Asher, 
apparently in its S. part, Josh. xix. 27. 

BETHDIBLATHAIM, a town of the Mo- 
abites, against which Jeremiah, xlviii. 22,, de- 
nounces God's vengeance. It seems to have 
been near the banks of the R. Arnon and Mt. 
Abarim, on the borders of the great Wilderness ; 
and to be identified with Diblath mentioned 
Ezek. vi. 14., as a place like the desolate neigh- 
bourhood of which God would make Israel for its 
transgressions. Near it, probably, was Almon- 
diblathaim, where the Israelites encamped on 
their way to Canaan, Num. xxxiii. 46, 47. 

BETHEDEN (or the House of Eden), a royal 
city in Syria, probably of some consequence, 
against which Amos, i. 5., marg., prophe- 
sies coming destruction. It is thought to have 
been in one of the valleys between Lebanon and 
Anti-Lebanon, where is said to be a place still 
called Eden. Others, however, suppose that by 
the " House of Eden," the prophet Amos means 
some place near Damascus, the capital of Syria ; 
its inhabitants believing that the ancient Pa- 
radise had existed here, and pretending to 
show the spot where our first parents were placed 
at their creation. 

BETHEL {House of God), the place where 



Jacob had his wonderful vision, when first 
flying from the vengeance of Esau, Gen. xxxv. 
1. Here he set up the stone which had 
served him for a pillow, pouring oil upon it, to 
consecrate it to God; and here he made his 
vow, calling the place Bethel, in commemoration 
of the event, Gen. xxviii. 19., xxxi. 13.; Hos. 
xii. 4. It was near the city of Luz, the Canaan- 
itish name of which was afterwards changed to 
Bethel by the Israelites. 

BETHEL, an old royal city of the Canaan- 
ites, called anciently Luz, Gen. xxviii. 19., xxxv. 
6., xlviii. 3. ; Josh. xvi. 2., xviii. 13. ; Judg. i. 
23. ; to the W. of Ai, Josh. vii. 2., xii. 9., and 
according to Eusebius 12 miles from Jerusalem, 
on the road to Sichem. In its neighbourhood 
Abram pitched his tent when he went first into 
Canaan, and when he came out of Egypt, Gen. 
xii. 8., xiii. 3. After Jacob's return from Me- 
sopotamia it was continually his place of abode, 
Gen. xxxv. 1. 3. 6. 15, 16. ; where he built his 
promised altar, and here Deborah, Rebekah's 
nurse, was buried, Gen. xxxv. 7, 8. Its inhabit- 
ants joined with the men of Ai in attacking the 
Israelites under Joshua, Josh. viii. 17. ; and it 
was in its neighbourhood, that he set the 
ambush to destroy Ai, viii. 9. 12. ; which when 
he had wasted, he took Bethel, xii. 16., and 
smote its king. On the division of the land 
among the tribes, it touched the borders of 
Ephraim and Benjamin, Josh. xvi. 2., xviii. 13. ; 
but though at first it was given to the former 
tribe, 1 Chron. vii. 28., who drove out the 
Canaanites that inhabited it, Judg. i. 22, 23., yet 
it was subsequently allotted to Benjamin, Josh, 
xviii. 22. It was under the palm-tree near this 
place, that Deborah dwelt when she judged 
Israel, Judg. iv. 5. ; and hard by it, near Shiloh, 
an annual feast was held, whence the surviving 
Benjamites stole away some of the virgins 
that danced there, and took them for their 
wives, Judg. xxi. 19. 

Bethel was one of the places to which 
Samuel came in circuit from year to year, to 
judge Israel, 1 Sam. vii. 16. ; and seems to have 
grown gradually into importance, and possessed 
suburbs or towns of its own, 1 Chron. vii. 28. ; 
2 Chron. xiii. 19. Here also, as the ark was 
now mthout am' determined place, the Israel- 
ites offered sacrifice as in other high places ; 
being, perhaps, the rather induced to do so from 
Jacob's vow, that the stone which he had there 
anointed should be God's house, and from, 
the patriarch's having there erected an altar at 
the command of God, Gen. xxxv. 7.; 1 Sam. 



BETHEL. 



BETH-HACCEEEM. 



03 



X. 3. It is thought by some to be referred to in 
Judg. XX. 18. 26., as "the house of God," where 
the Israelites Avent up to inquire about the war 
with the Benjamites ; but this woukl ratlier 
seem to point to Shiloh.' Cf. Judg. xx. 27. When 
the Ten tribes revolted from Rehoboam, Bethel 
was seized upon by them, probably because of its 
sanctity, and being taken from Benjamin became 
included in the new kingdom of Israel. Upon 
this, Jeroboam here wickedly set up one of his 
golden calves, to keep his subjects from going to 
Avorship at Jerusalem, whereby he greatly pro- 
voked the anger of God, and drew ruin upon 
Israel, 1 Kgs. xii. 29. 32. 38. ; 2 Kgs. x. 29. ; Jer. 
xlviii. 13. ; Hos. x. 15. ; Amos iii. 14., iv. 4., v. 5, 
6., vii. 10. 13. ; the other being set up in Dan at 
the N. extremity of the kingdom. Hence Bethel 
is called by Hosea, iv. 15., v. 8., x. 5., Bethaven, 
i. e. the House of Idols. It was here that God 
sent the disobedient prophet to prophesy 
against the idolatrous altar ; upon which occa- 
sion Jeroboam's hand was withered for his vio- 
lence, but afterwards restored at the prayer of the 
prophet, 1 Kgs. xiii. 1. 4. 10, 11. 32. 

Bethel Avas wrested out of the hands of Jero- 
boam by Abijah, king of Judah, 2 Chron. xiii, 19., 
but it was probably soon afterwards recovered by, 
or restored to, the kings of Israel. There appears 
to have been here a school of the prophets, for 
some of them came out to tell Elisha of Elijah's 
departure, when they both went to Bethel, 2 
Kgs. ii. 2, 3. ; and here, also, the mockers of the 
former prophet had their terrible vengeance in- 
flicted upon them, 2 Kgs. ii. 23. After the cap- 
tivity of the Ten Tribes, the king of Assyria sent 
one of the priests to Bethel whom they had car- 
ried away thence, because of the lions which God 
sent amongst the foreign and heathen settlers 
whom the Assyrian king had transported thither, 
2 Kgs. xvii. 28. But Josiah, king of Judah, en- 
tirely cleansed the city of its idolatry, destroy- 
ing the altar and the grove ; and in all respects 
fulfilling the words of God, which He spoke by 
the mouth of the disobedient prophet to Jero- 
boam, 2 Kgs. xxiii. 4. 15. 17. 19. After the 
return of the two tribes from the captivity. 
Bethel and its villages were again occupied by 
the Benjamites, Ezraii. 28. ; Neh. vii. 32., xi. 31., 
and in the time of the Maccabees it was thought 
of sufficient consequence to be strengthened and 
garrisoned by Bacchides, 1 Mace. ix. 50. 

BETHEL, otherwise Bethul, or Betkuel, 
a small town, supposed to have been in the tribe 
of Simeon, to his friends in which David sent 
some of the spoil he had taken from the Ania- 



lekites when they attacked Ziklag, 1 Sam. xxx. 
27. 

BETHEL, MT., the hill adjacent to the old 
city of Luz or Bethel, on part of which it probably 
stood. It formed in that direction the line of de- 
marcation between Ephraim and Benjamin, Josh, 
xvi. 1. ; and was chosen by Saul for one of the 
divisions of his army to encamp • upon, when 
about to attack the Philistines, 1 Sam. xiii. 2. 
It w'as a part of that great Wilderness which 
extended E. to Jericho. 

BETHELITE, an inhabitant of Betheh Such 
was Hiel, who in the days of King Ahab, ful- 
filled the prophecy of Joshua concerning the re- 
building of Jericho, vi. 26 ; laying the foundation 
thereof in his firstborn, and setting up its gates 
in his youngest son, 1 Kgs. xvi. 34. 

BETHEMEK, a frontier town of the tribe 
of Asher, probably in its S. part, Josh. xix. 27. 

BETHER (Division), MOUNTAINS OF, So. 
of Sol. ii. 17. It is very uncertain whether this 
is a proper name or nOt : in the margin, it is ren- 
dered mountains of division, and at viii. 14. 
mountains of spices. Some refer it to Bethhoron ; 
and others to other places, but Avithout much 
proof. 

BETHESDA (Rouse of Mercy), a pool in Je- 
rusalem near the sheep-market or sheep-gate, 
Jo. V. 2., which had five porches. In these, in 
the days of the Blessed Redeemer, lay a great 
number of impotent people to be cured, by being 
the first to step doAvn into the pool after its 
Avaters had been troubled by the angel Avho 
visited it; and here the SaA'iour miraculously 
cured a man who A\'as so Avaiting, and had been 
afflicted th^ty and eight years. 

BETHEZEL, a place mentioned by the pro- 
phet Micah, i. 11., in connection Avith Gath, near 
Avhich, on the borders of Judah and the Philis- 
tines, it mayha\'e been situated ; though Ephraim 
the Syrian Amtes that it was near Samaria. 

BETHGADER, a toAvn of the tribe of Judah, 
1 Chron. ii. 51., probably near Bethlehem. Some 
have supposed it to be the same place Avith the 
ancient royal city Geder, Josh. xii. 13. ; 1 Chron. 
xxvii. 28.; or Gederah, Josh. xa". 36.; 1 Chron. 
xii. 4. ; orGedor, Josh. xv.5S., orGederoth,xv.41. 

BETHGAMUL, a city belonging to theMoab- 
ites, against Avhich the juilgmcnt of Gmi is de- 
nounced by the prophet Jeremiah, xlviii. 23., 
for their Avickedness. 

BETH-HACCEREM, a town belonging to the 
tribe of Judah. situated on an eminence betAvecn 



64 



BETH-HARAN. 



BETHLEHEM. 



Jerusalem and Tecoa, where, when the destruc- 
tion of the kingdom of Judah was hastening 
on, the prophet Jeremiah, vi. 1., bids the Ben- 
jamites set up a sign of fire to warn of the 
coming evil. Some of its inhabitants appear to 
have returned home after the captivity, Neh. 
iii. 14. 

BETH-HARAN, Num. xxxii. 36., a town of 
the tribe of Gad. See Beth-arAjNI. 

BETH-HOGLA, a town on the limits of Judah 
and Benjamin, Josh. xv. 6., xviii. 19., but belong- 
ing to the latter tribe, xviii. 21. Jerome places 
it 3 miles from Jericho, and 2 from the Jordan. 

BETH-HORON, a city on the borders of the 
tribes Ephraim and Benjamin, Josh, xviii. 14., 
but allotted to the former. It seems to have 
been a double city, distinguished as Beth-horon 
the Upper, Josh. xvi. 5. ; 1 Chron. vii. 24. ; 2 
Chron. viii. 5. ; and Beth-horon the Nether, 
Josh. xvi. 3., xviii. 13. ; 1 Kgs. ix. 17. ; 1 Chron. 
vii. 24. ; 2 Chron. viii. 5. ; separated from each 
other by parts of Mt, Bethel or Mt. Ephraim. 
Herjpe it may be that we read of the going up of, 
or going down to, Beth-horon, Josh. x. 10, 11. ; 1 
Mace. iii. 16. 24. ; but others think the Upper 
Beth-horon was at some little distance, on the 
limits of Ephi-aim and Manasseh. It appears 
to have been an important military position, and 
was therefore often the scene of an affray, 1 Sam. 
xiii. 18. ; 2 Chron. xxv. 13. ; 1 Mace. iii. 16., 
vii. 39. It was to this place that Joshua chased 
the five kings with their armies, and here God 
discomfited them by casting down great stones 
wpon them from heaven; and it was probably, 
whilst standing on this spot, that Joshua com- 
manded the sun and moon to stand still, Josh. 
X. 10, 11. It was given for a possesion to the 
children of Kohath, and is therefore reckoned 
amongst the Levitical cities. Josh. xxi. 22. ; 1 
Chron. vi. 68. Both the upper and nether Beth- i 
horon are stated to have been built by Sherah, | 
the daughter of Ephraim, 1 Chron. vii. 24. ; 
although Solomon aftei'wards rebuilt and fenced 
them, 2 Chron. viii. 5. It maintained its im- 
portant character as a military post in the time 
of the Maccabees, Judith iv. 4. ; 1 Mace. iii. 16, 
24., vii. 39. ; and its defences were repaired 
by Bacchides, 1 Mace. ix. 50. 

BETII-JESIMOTH, or 

BETH-JESHIMOTH, a town on the other | 
side Jordan, in the country of Moab, where the ' 
Israelites encamped on their journey to Canaan, i 
Num. xxxiii. 49. It stood near the entrance j 
of the Jordan into the Salt Sea, and was one 



of the frontier towns of the kingdom of Sihon, 
Josh. xii. 3. ; but was given by Moses to the 
Reubeiiites, Josh. xiii. 20. It grew much in im- 
portance, Ezek. xxv. 9., and appears to have been 
seized upon by the Moabites, but was eventually 
destroyed by the Babylonians. According to 
Eusebius it was 10 miles S. of Jericho. 

BETHLEBAOTH, a town of the tribe of 
Simeon, Josh. xix. 6., supposed to be the same 
with Lebaoth mentioned Josh. xv. 32., as be- 
longing to the inheritance of Judah. 

BETHLEHEM (//oMse of Bread), a small town 
of the tribe of Judah, about 6 miles S.W. of Jeru- 
salem on the road to Gaza. It was called 
anciently Ephrath, Gen. xxxv. 16. 19., xlviii. 7., 
or Ephratah, Ruth' iv. 11.; and its inhabitants 
Ephrathites, Ruth. i. 2.; 1 Sam. i. 1., xvii. 12., 
as well as Bethlehemites, 1 Sam. xvi. 1.18., xvii. 
58. ; 2 Sam. xxi. 19. It was likewise called 
Bethlehem- Judah, to distinguish it from another 
town of the same name in the tribe of Zebulun, 
Judg. xvii. 7, 8, 9., xix. 1, 2. 18. ; Ruth i. 1, 2. ; 
1 Sam. xvii. 12.; or otherwise Bethlehem of 
Judasa, Matt. ii. 1. 5, 6. ; and also Bethlehem- 
Ephratah, Mic. v. 2. It existed in the time of 
Jacob; for near it Rachel died and was buried, 
Gen. xxxv. 16. It was the scene of the story 
of Ruth, i. 19. 22., ii. 4., iv. 11. ; and probably the 
residence of Boaz. It was the birth-place of 
Ibzan, one of the judges of Israel, Judg. xii. 8. 
10. ; the dwelling-place of that Levite whom 
the Danites carried off to their new settlement, 
Judg. xvii. 7. ; and also of that other Levite's 
concubine, whose wrongs by the Gibeonites led 
to the extinction of nearly the whole tribe of 
Benjamin, Judg. xix. 1. It was the birth-place 
and residence of Jesse, 1 Sam. xvi. 1. 4. Here too 
David was born, and was appointed king of 
Israel by Samuel, living with his father, and 
keeping his sheep, until he went to the court 
of Saul, 1 Sam. xvii. 15., xx. 6. 28. ; hence it 
is called the City of David, Lu. ii. 4. 11, It 
seems also to have been the residence of Zeruiah, 
for in his sepulchre here his son Asahel was 
bui-ied by his brother Joab, 2 Sam. ii. 32. Cf. 
1 Chron. xi. 26. There was a beautiful well 
of water by the gate of Bethlehem, for a drink 
from which David longed when attacking the 
Philistines who at that time had seized upon 
the town, 2 Sam. xxiii. 14, 15, 16.; 1 Chron. xi. 
16, 17* 18. It was fortified by Rehoboam, 
together Avith other places, in order to strengthen 
his kingdom, 2 Chron. xi. 6. ; and it seems to have 
maintained its position to the days of Jeremiah, 
xii. 17., and Zerubbabel, Ezra ii. 21.; Neh. vii. 



BETHLEHEM. 



BETH3AM0S. 



65 



■26. ; 1 Esd. V. 17., marg. ; when many of its 
inhabitants returned from the Babylonish cap- 
tivity. But what ennobled Bethlehem more 
than any other event, and imparts to it an in- 
terest greater than any other circumstance, 
is that, according to the prophecy of Micah, 
700 years before, v. 2., Matt. ii. 5, 6., Jo. vii. 
42., our ever-Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus 
Christ was here born of the Virgin Mary, Matt, 
ii. 1. 8. 16. ; Lu. ii. 4. 15. 

BETHLEHEM, a town of the tribe of Zebu- 
lun, Josh. xix. 15. ; probably in its W. part. 

BETHLEHEM -EPHRATAH, or 

BETHLEHEM-JUDAH, or 

BETHLEHEM OF JUD.EA. See Bethle- 

HEJI. 

BETHLEHEMITE. See Bethlehem. 

BETHLOMON, a place mentioned 1 Esd. v. 
17., the inhabitants of which returned home 
after the captivity in Babylon. It is thought 
to be the same with Bethlehem; and so it is 
read in the margin. 

BETHMAACHAH, a town and district ap- 
parently of the tribe of Zebulun, to which J oab 
pursued Sheba when he rebelled against King 
David, 2 Sam. xx. 14, 15. They were also at- 
tacked by Benhadad, as well as other cities in the 
N. of Israel when Asa, king of Judah, made a 
league with him, 1 Kgs. xv. 20. 

BETHMAECABOTH, a town allotted by 
Joshua to the tribe of Simeon, which continued 
in then- possession until the reign of David, Josh, 
xix. 5. ; 1 Chron. iv. 31. 

BETHMEOX, a city of Moab, the destruction 
of which is predicted by Jeremiah, xlviii. 23. 
See Baalmeon. 

BETH-MILLO, 2 Kgs. xii. 20., marg. See 
Mn.LO. 

BETHXIMRAH, a town in the old kingdom 
of Sihon, allotted by Moses to the tribe of Gad, 
and by them rebuilt and fenced, Num. xxxii. 
36. ; Josh. xiii. 27. It is called Ximrah at Xum. 
xxxii. 3. Its ruins are said to be still known 
by the name of Nimrin. 

BETHPALET, a city of the tribe of Judah, 
towards the borders of Edom, Josh. xv. 27. 
It appears to be the same with Bethphelet, 
whither some of the children of Judah returned 
after the captivity in Babylon, Neh. xi. 26. 

BETHPAZZEZ, a town of the tribe of Issa-- 
char, Josh, xix. 21. 

BETHPEOR, a city of the Moabites, so called 



probably from the worship of their idol Baal- 
Peor. Here the Israelites under Moses en- 
camped on their way to Canaan ; and here he 
rehearsed to them the statutes and judgments 
which Avere to guide them ; and near it the great 
lawgiver himself was bixried, Deut. iii. 29., iv. 
46., xxxiv. 6. It was assigned by Moses to 
the tribe of Reuben. Josh. xiii. 20. 

BETHPHAGE {House of Figs), so called from 
the abundance of figs which grew there, a village 
on the declivity of the Mt. of Olives, near Be- 
thany, and within 2 miles of Jerusalem. Here 
the disciples of our Lord found the ass and the 
colt tied, as He had told them. Matt. xxi. 1. ; 
Mk. xi. 1. ; Lu. xix. 29. ; on which He rode into 
Jerusalem according to the prediction of Zecha- 
riah, ix. 9. 

BETHPHELET, Xeh. xi. 26. See Beth- 
palet. 

BETHREHOB, an old city of the Canaarutes, 
Judg. xviii. 28., possibly in a country or king- 
dom of the same name, 2 Sam. x. 6., which is 
named merely Rehob, 2 Sam. x. 8. Xear it was 
Laish, which the Danites seized upon and called 
after the name of their tribe, Dan. The S. 
part of the country of Bethrehob fell even- 
tually within the limits of the tribe of Asher. 
The city also seems to have been generally called 
Rehob, Josh. xix. 24. ; it was given by J oshua 
to the Asherites, and by them assigned to the 
Levites of the family of Gershon, Josh. xxi. 
31. See Rehob. 

BETHSATDA, a city of Galilee, at the X. ex- 
tremity of the Sea of Tiberias, !ilk. vi. 45., where 
the R. Jordan enters the lake. It seems to have 
stood on both sides of the river, being thus partly 
in Gaulonitis ; but it is, notwithstanding, called 
Bethsaida of Galilee, Jo. xii. 21. It was the 
birth-place of Philip, Andrew, and Peter, Jo. i. 
44., xii. 21. It was often visited by the Blessed 
Redeemer, who here gave a blind man his sight, 
Mk. viii. 22., but it was so sunk in impenitence, 
as to disregard the many mighty Avorks He had 
done in it, and so to draw doAvn upon itself the 
denunciation of woe. Matt. xi. 21. ; Lu. x. 13. 
It seems to have been in a desert place to the 
E. of the city, in the region of Gaulonitis, that 
Christ fed the five thousand, IMk. vi. 31. 45. ; 
Lu. ix. 10. According to Josephus it received 
ncAv privileges from Philip the Tetrarch, who 
changed its name to Julias, in honoiu* of the 
daughter of Augustus Caesar. 

BETHSAMOS, 1 Esd. v. 18., a town in Judsea, 
some of the inhabitants of which returned home 
E 



66 BETHSHAlSr. 



BETHULIA, VALLEY OF. 



after the Babylonian captivity. It is conjectured 
to be the same with Azmaveth, or Bethazmaveth, 
or Bethazamoth, mentioned by Ezra, ii. 24. and 
JSTehemiah, vii. 28. See Azmaveth. 

BETHSHAN, or Bethshean, or Bethsan, a 
city of the tribe of Manasseh on this side Jordan? 
in a district of the same name, not far from the 
banks of the river, and at the extremity of 
the great Plain of Jezreel, 1 Mace. v. 52. It, 
together with its suburbs and towns, was allotted 
to them by Joshua on the conquest of Canaan, 
Josh. xvii. 11. 16.; 1 Chron. vii. 29.; but they 
were unable to drive out the old inhabitants, 
Judg. i. 27. After the battle in Mt. Gilboa, the 
Philistines fastened the bodies of Saul and his 
sons to the wall of Bethshan; but when the 
men of Jabesh Gilead heard of it, they went 
by night and took them away, and buried their 
bones under a tree at Jabesh, 1 Sam. xxxi. 10. 
12. David, however, afterwards removed them 
thence, and buried them in the^epulchre of Kish, 
the father of Saul, 2 Sam. xxi. 12. In the days of 
Solomon, it was included in the purveyorship of 
Baana, 1 Kgs. iv. 12., and seems gradually to 
have risen into importance, being often men- 
tioned in the wars of the Maccabees, 1 Mace. v. 
52., xii. 40, 41.; 2 Mace. xii. 29, 30.; Judith 
iii. 10. In the three last references it is called 
Scythopolis, a name which it is said to have 
derived from the Scythians, and which it appears 
to have retained long afterwards. It formed one 
of the cities of the Decapolis, of which Josephus 
says it was the greatest. Its ruins are still called 
Beisan. 

BETHSHEMESH {House of the Sun), a city 
in the N.W. part of the inheritance of Judah, on 
the borders of Dan and Benjamin, Josh. xv. 10., 
afterwards constituted one of the Levitical cities, 
and given to the children of Aaron, Josh. xxi. 
16. ; 1 Chron. vi. 59. When the Philistines sent 
back the ark of the Lord, it was hither that the 
milch kine brought it; upon which occasion, 
50,070 of the men of Bethshemesh were smitten 
for looking into it, 1 Sam. vi. 9. 12, 13, 14, 15. 
18, 19, 20. The ark was soon removed from Beth- 
shemesh by the men of Kirjath-jearim, into the 
house of Abinadab in the hill. Bethshemesh was 
included in Solomon's purveyorship of Ben-dekar, 

1 Kgs. iv. 9. ; and was the scene of the battle 
between Amaziah, king of Judah, and Jehoash, 
king of Israel, when the former was conquered 
and taken, and Jerusalem ravaged and spoiled, 

2 Kgs. xiv. 11. 13. ; 2 Chron. xxv. 21. 23. Beth- 
shemesh was seized upon and dwelt in by the 
Philistines, because of the wickedness of King 



Ahaz, 2 Chron. xxviii. 18. ; and they appear to 
have kept possession of it, until Judah was 
carried captive to Babylon. It seems to have 
existed in the days of Eusebius, who places it 
10 miles from Eleutheropolis, towards Nicopolis ; 
its ruins are said now to be called Ain Shems. 

BETHSHEMESH, a border town of the tribe 
of Issachar, probably near or on the R. Jordan, 
Josh. xix. 22. 

BETHSHEMESH, a town of the tribe of 
JSTaphtali, Josh. xix. 38., from which they did 
not drive out the old inhabitants, though they 
made them tributary to them, Judg. i. 33. 

BETHSHEMESH, a city of Lower Egypt, 
the destruction of which by Nebuchadnezzar, 
king of Babylon, and the conquest of all Egypt 
by him, is prophesied by Jeremiah, xliii. 13. 
It was also called On and Aven, and by the 
Greeks Heliopolis, and is supposed to be alluded 
to by Isaiah under the name of Carchemish. 
See Aven. 

BETHSHEMITE, an inhabitant of Bethshe- 
mesh. Such was Joshua into whose field the 
milch kine drew the ark, when the Philistines 
sent it back to Israel, 1 Sam. vi. 14. 18. 

BETHSHITTAH, a town of the tribe of Ma- 
nasseh on this side Jordan to which Gideon's 
band of 300 drove and pursued the Midianites, 
Judg. vii. 22. It was in a district, or near 
another place, called Zererath, and probably in 
the neighbotu-hood of the Jordan, towards Beth- 
shan. 

BETHSURA. See Bethzur. 

BETHTAPPUAH, a city of Judah, in its S. 
part. Josh. xv. 53., which Eusebius states to be 
the last city of Palestine towards Egypt. 

BETHUEL, 1 Chron. iv. 30., or 

BETHUL, Josh. xix. 4., a town assigned to 
the Simeonites by Joshua. It is supposed to 
be the same -with Chesil, Josh. xv. 30. ; and to 
have been at first allotted to Judah. 

BETHULIA, a city probaby in Galilee, near 
the lake, but said to be in the neighbour- 
hood of Esdraelon and Dothaim. It stood upon 
a high mountain, was well fortified, and almost 
impregnable in those days. It is chiefly re- 
markable for its siege by Holofernes, who was 
here killed in his camp by Judith, Judith iv. 6., 
vi. 10, 11, 14^ viL 1. 3. 6. 13. 20., viii. 3. 11., x. 
6., xi. 9., xiii. 10., xv. 3. 6., xvi. 21. Some iden- 
tify it with the modern town of Safet. 

BETHULIA, VALLEY OF, at the foot of the 
mountain on which the above fortress stood, 



BETHZUR. 



BEZER. 



67 



where was a fountain, wlience probably it was 
chieflj' supplied with water, Judith xii. 7. Cf. 
vii. 13. 

BETHZUR, a city belonging to the tribe 
of Judah, Josh. xv. 58., in a position which was 
considered one of the keys of Judjea on the side 
of Edom. It was rebuilt and fortified by Ee- 
hoboam, 2 Chron. xi. 7., and seems to have sur- 
vived the Babylonian invasion, as some of its 
inhabitants returned from their captivity, Neh. 
iii. 16. It was further strengthened in the days 
of the Maccabees by both parties, and was the 
scene of some struggles of the Jews against 
their enemies with various success, until at last 
it was taken and garrisoned by Antiochus Eupa- 
tor, 1 Mace. iv. 29. 61., vi. 7. 26., ix. 52., x. 14., 
xi. 65., xiv. 7. 33.; 2 Mace. xi. 5., xiii. 19. 
According to Eusebius it was 20 miles from 
Jerusalem, on the road to Hebron. 

BETOLIUS, a place mentioned 1 Esd. v. 21., 
as having been re-peopled by its old inhabitants 
after the Babylonian captivity. 

BETOMASTHEM, Judith xv. 4., or 

BETOMESTHAM, Judith iv. 6., a town 
mentioned in the war with the Assyrians under 
Holofernes, and said in the latter passage to 
be near Esdraelon and Dothaim. If so, it was 
probably on the limits of Samaria and Galilee. 
But the Latin interpreter renders the name 
Estemo, which was a town of Judaja. 

BETONIM, a town on the other side Jordan, 
assigned by Moses to the children of Gad, Josh, 
xiii. 26. 

BEULAH (i.e. Married), a name to be applied 
to the land of Judtea when finally restored to the 
favour of God, Isa. Ixii. 4. 

BEYOND JORDAN, or the Other side 
Jordan, the whole country of the Jews, or the 
Promised Land, on the E. side of the R. Jordan, 
including in a general way the dominions of 
Sihon, king of the Amorites, and Og, the king 
of Bashan. It was given by Moses to the tribes 
of Reuben, Gad, and the half tribe of Manasseh, 
Josh. ix. 10., xii. 1., xiii. 8. 32., xviii. 7. ; Judg. 
V. 17., vii. 25. Moses himself, however, having 
never crossed the river, speaks of the W. divi- 
sion of the Promised Land as Beyond Jordan, 
Gen. 1. 10, 11., or Yonder side Jordan, Num. 
xxxii. 19.; Deut. iii. 20, 25., xi. 30.; whilst 
Joshua, who had crossed it, thus usually de- 
scribes the E. portion : so that, in defining the 
meaning of the word, respect must be had to 
the situation of the writer. Cf., also, Isa. ix. 1. ; 
Matt. iv. 15. The appellation is likewise era- 



ployed in the New Testament to designate the 
E. portion of the country. Matt. iv. 25., xix. 1. ; 
Mk. iii. 8. ; Jo. i. 28., iii. 27., x. 40. ; though 
St. Mark, x. 1,, uses the phrase of " the farther 
side of Jordan" to designate the same regions. 
Cf. Judith i. 9. 

It may be also here noticed, that the terms, 
On this side Jordan, On the other side Jor- 
dan, are employed in the same relative man- 
ner, with regard to the position of the writer. 
Thus Moses speaks of the E. portion of the land 
as On this side Jordan, Num. xxii. 1., xxxii. 
19. 32., xxxiv. 15„ xxxv. 14. ; Deut. i. 1. 5., 

iii. 8., iv. 41. 46, 47. 49.; and Joshua also 
in one passage, i. 14, 15., though he and the 
other writers of the Old Testament usually 
describe the "W. division by that name. Josh, 
ix. 1., xii. 7., xxii. 7.; 1 Chron. xxvi. 30. 
Whereas, by the Other side Jordan Moses means 
to signify the W. portion, Deut. xi. 30. ; whilst 
Joshua and other writers allude to the E. part. 
Josh. vii. 7., xii. 1., xiii. 27. 32., xiv. 3., xvii. 5., 
xviii. 7,, XX. 8., xxii. 4., xxiv. 8. ; Judg. vii. 25., 
X. 8. ; 1 Sam. xxxi. 7. ; 1 Chron. vi. 78., xii. 37. 

The land of Israel beyond Jordan is some- 
times called Gilead in the Old Testament. See 
GiLEAD. It is likewise frequentl}' named Perffia 
by the ecclesiastical and profane authors, but the 
appellation never occurs in Holy Writ. By 
Persia, however, is sometimes understood a 
greater or less portion of that territory, accord- 
ing to the age in which the writer lived. 

BEZAI, CHILDREN OF, Ezra ii. 17. ; Neh. 
vii. 23. Some of them returned with Zerub- 
babel from their captivity in Babylon to their 
own land. 

BEZEK, a town apparently in the S. of Judtea, 
from which the tribe of Judah drove out the old 
inhabitants, slaying there great numbers of the 
Canaanites and Perizzites. They also captured 
its king Adonibezek, whom they requited for his 
past cruelties to other kiiigs, Judg. i. 4, 5. It 
was here also, that King Saul reviewed his army, 
prior to bis going to deliver the men of Jabesh- 
Gilead out of the power of the Ammonites, 1 Sam. 
xi. 8. 

BEZER, a city beyond Jordan, given by JNIoses 
to the Reubenites, but afterwards constituted a 
Levitical city and given to the family of Ger- 
shon. Moses also selected it as one of the six 
Cities of Refuge, of which it was the southern- 
most in this direction. It appears to have been 
situated upon a plain, in a void country, and 
is hence called Bczer in the Wilderness, Deut. 

iv. 43.; Josh. xx. 8., xxi. 36.; 1 Chron vi. 78. 
It is written Bosor in the Septuagint; and 

F 2 



68 



BEZETH. 



BOZEZ. 



may be the same place mentioned in the Apo- 
crypha, as being in tlie Wilderness, but in the 
land of Galaad, and called Bosor or Bosora. 

BEZETH, a town in the R part of the old 
tribe of J udah, which was sm'prised and taken 
by Bacchides, who here slew man}- of the men 
that had forsaken him, and threw them dnto a 
great pit, 1 Mace. vii. 19. It is supposed by 
some to be the same with Berea, 1 Mace, ix, 4. ; 
which see. 

BIGVAI, CHILDREN OF, who returned to 
their own possessions with Zerubbabel from 
the Babylonian captivity, Ezra ii. 14. ; Neh. 
vii. 19. 

BILEAM, a town belonging to the half tribe 
•of Manasseh on this side Jordan, but assigned 
to the Levites of the family of Kohath, 1 Chron. 
vi. 70. It is supposed to be the same with that 
Gath-rimmon which is spoken of in Josh. xxi. 25. 

BILHAH, a town of the tribe of Simeon, 1 
Chron. iv. 29., called Balah in the margin, and 
probably the same with the Balah of Josh. xix. 3. 

BINNUI, CHILDREN OF, Ezra ii. 10., marg., 
otherwise Bani in the text, but Binnui Neh. vii. 
15. They returned to their own country under 
Zerubbabel after the captivity in Babylon. 

BITHRON, a region beyond Jordan, whether 
a proper name or not, is uncertain. It seems to 
have been in Gilead, between the R. Jordan and 
Mahanaim, and was traversed by Abner and his 
men on the occasion of his skirmish Avith Joab, 
after setting up Ish -bosheth to be king of Israel, 
2 Sam. ii. 29. 

BITHYNIA, a province in the N. part of Asia 
Minor, on the shores of the Black Sea, bounded 
on the E. by Paphlagonia, on the S. by Galatia 
and Phrygia, and on the W. by Mysia. It is a 
well-known and interesting province in profane 
history, but it is chiefly remarkable in Holy Writ 
for Paul not being suffered by God to preach 
the gospel there, Acts xvi. 7., and also for its 
being one of the provinces to which Peter ad- 
dressed his first Epistle, 1 Pet. i. 1. In the begin- 
ning of the second century during the reign of 
Trajan, it was under the government or pro- 
prtetorship of the younger Pliny, who seemS; 
together with the emperor, to have endeavoured 
to stop by persecution the rapid advance of 
Christianity in the province. Amongst the well- 
known and important cities in Bithynia may be 
mentioned Nicsea or Nice, now called Iznih, 
where a.d. 324, was held one of the most impor- 
tant Christian Councils, under Constantine the 
Great, when the Nicene Creed was drawn up. 



BIZJOTHJAH, a to\ra of the tribe of Judah 
towards the frontier of Edom ; and so, in its S. 
part, Josh. xv. 28. 

BLOOD, THE FIELD OF, Matt, xxvii. 8. ; 
Acts i. 19., a potter's field outside the walls of 
Jerusalem, on its S. side, which derived its name 
from having been purchased by the Jewish 
priests and elders with the thirty pieces of silver 
for which Judas Iscariot sold our ever-Blessed 
Redeemer. See Aceldaivia. 

BOAZ (i.e. in it is strength), the name given to 
one of the large brazen pillars which Solomon 
set up in the porch of the Temple. It Avas on 
the left, the other named Jachin (i.e. he shall 
establish) being on the right. They were each 
18 cubits high, 12 cubits in circumference, 
and 4 fingers or a liandbreadth thick, for they 
were hollow, 1 Kgs. vii. 21. ; 2 Chron. iii. 17. 
They were so valuable and beautiful as to have 
been taken to Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar 
when he plundered the Temple. Cf. 2 Kgs. 
XXV. 16, 17. ; 2 Chron. iv. 12. ; Jer. lii. 17—23. 

BOCHIM (i.e. Weepers), a place whose situ- 
ation is not exactl}^ known, but probably it was 
on the borders of the two tribes of Judah and 
Benjamin. It is mentioned in connection with 
Gilgal, and therefore by many persons thought 
to be near it or in its neighbourhood ; though 
others suppose it designated Shiloh, where the 
people were then wont to assemble for worship. 
It received its name from the Israelites there 
weeping, because of the angel of the Lord re- 
buking them for their transgressions, and 
threatening that he would not drive out the 
Canaanites from the land any more, but would 
leave them as thorns in their sides, Judg. ii. 
1. 5. 

BOHAN, THE STONE OF, on the common 
limits of Judah and Benjamin, Josh.xv. 6., xviii. 
17. It was so called from a son of Reuben, and 
may have been put up in commemoration of his 
services to his countrymen against the Canaan- 
ites. 

BOSCATH, the birth-place of Adaiah, the 
father of Jedidah, King Josiah's mother, 2 Kgs. 
xxii. L It seems to be the same with Bozkath, 
mentioned Josh. xv. 39. as a town belonging to 
the tribe of Judah. 

BOSOR, 1 Mace. v. 26. 36. See Bezer. 

BOSORA, 1 Mace. v. 26. 28. See Bozrapi. 

BOZEZ, the name of a sharp rock on one side 
of the passage of Michmash, the name of that 
on the other side being Seneh; between which 
Jonathan and his armourer-bearer had to pass. 



BOZKATH. 



CiESAREA PHILIPPI. G9 



when the}' miraculously smote the garrison of 
the Philistines, 1 Sam. xiv. 4. 

BOZKATH. See Boscatii. 

BOZEAH, a chief city of Edom, probably 
its metropolis for some time. It seems to have 
been situated to the S. of the Bead Sea, about 
half-way between it and Mt. Hor, where now 
is the village of Beszeyra, which preserves traces 
of its name, and is surrounded by extensive 
ruins; thougli many have identified it with the 
Greek city Bostra in the Aiu-auitis, which how- 
ever was comparatively a modem place, whilst 
Bozrah Avas very ancient. It was the city of one 
of the kings of Edom in the time of Moses, Gen, 
xxxvl. 33. ; 1 Chron. i. 44. ; and is spoken of by 
many of the earlier prophets as excelling in 
greatness and strength, Jer. xlix. 16. ; Amos i. 
12. ; Mic. ii. 12. ; but is by them denounced for 
its wickedness, Isa. xxxiv. 6., Ixiii. 1.; Jer. 
xlix. 13. 22. ; Amos i. 12. 

BOZRAH, a city of Moab, the destruction 
of which is foretold by the prophet Jeremiah, 
xlviii. 24., because of its transgressions. Some 
suppose it to have been the same Avith the Idu- 
mfean city, but this is very doubtful : perhaps it 
may be the Bosora of 1 Mace. v. 26. 28. 

BROAD WALL, THE a part of the wall of 
Jerusalem, probably on the N.W. side, towards 
the Tower of the Furnaces. It appears to have 
been rebuilt and fortified under Xehemiah, iii. 
8., xii. 38. 



BROOK, THE. This term, properly applied to 
J a small stream of water which in summer is dry, 
\ is in our translation of the Bible employed to 
designate not only the smaller rivers, such as 
Jiibbok, Gen. xxxii. 23. ; 1 Mace. v. 37. 39, 40. 
42. (though these apocryphal references may 
perhaps refer to the R. Jarmouk or Hiero- 
max), Kidron, 2 Chron. xx. 16., xxxii. 4. ; 
Xeh. ii. 15., &c. ; but also, as it would appear, 
even the larger rivers, as the Jordan, 2 Sam. 
x\ii. 20. ; and being sometimes used "without 
any proper name attached to it, the real local- 
ity is left in doubt. 

BUZ, a country lying on the E. of Canaan, 
the situation of wbich is not known. It is men- 
tioned with the " utmost comers," and with 
Arabia, and may have been somewhere between 
Damascus and the R. Euphrates, perhaps in 
the neighbom-hood of the ancient Bostra, now 
i Boszra, which may have obtained its name from 
Buz. Its destruction is foreshown by the pro- 
phet Jeremiah, xxv. 23, See Buzite. 

j BUZITE, the appellation given to Elihu, Job 
xxxii. 2. 6., probably from his being a native of 
the land of Buz. He is here described as having 
been " of the kindred of Ram," and many sup- 
pose both himself and the country were so named 
from Buz, the son of Xahor, Gen. xxii. 21. In 
the Septuagint version of Job, xxxii, 2,, Elihu 
• is stated to have come from the laud of 
i Ausitis, i.e. probably Uz. 



CABBOX, a town of the tribe of Judah, Josh. ; 
XV. 40. I 

CABUL, Josh. xix. 27., a town of the tribe of ! 
Asher, on its S.E. frontier, towards Xaphtali. | 

CABUL {Displeasing or Dirty), LAXD OF, a 
name given by Hiram, the king of Tyre, to the 
country in which were the twenty cities pre- 
sented to him by King Solomon at the conclu- 
sion of the building of the Temple and of the : 
king's house. They did not please Hii-am, and 
hence he gave them, as is thought, this name. 
Others, however, derive it from the town of Ca- 
bul, which may perhaps have been one of the 
twenty, and others again, from a word in the 
Phoenician tongxie, signifying boundary, the dis- 
trict forming the frontiers between Hiram's 
dominions and Galilee ; or bond land, by which 
the Tyriau king sarcastically alluded to the 
manner in which his services had been repaid. 



These cities being restored to Solomon, he rebuilt 
them, and caused his own subjects to dwell in 
them, 2 Chron. \dii. 2. This land of Cabul lay 
to the S. of Tyre, within the inheritance of 
Asher, and near the borders of Xaphtali and 
Zebulun. It seems to be the same with the 
Chabalon or Oiabul of Josephus. 

CADES, a town in Galilee, the scene of 
some of Jonathan's exploits against the army 
of Demetrius, 1 Mace. xi. 63. 73. It is pro- 
bably the same with Kedesh in Galilee ; which see. 

CADES-BARXE, Judith v. 14., mentioned 
by Achior, when relating the idstoiy of the 
Jews to Holofernes. The same with Kadesh- 
Bamea ; which see. 

C.ESAREA. See Cesarea. 

C.ESAREA PHILIPPE See Cesarea Phi- 
Lirpi. 

F 3 



70 



CAIN. 



CANAAN, LAND OF. 



CAIN, a town of the tribe of Judah, Josh. xv. 
57. 

CALAH, one of the cities built by Nirarod 
in Assyria, and described Gen. x. 11, 12., as ly- 
ing between Nineveh and Resen. It was pro- 
bably on or near the R. Tigris, though nothing 
seems to be known with any certainty about its 
situation. Some traces of the name are thought 
to have been preserved in that of the district 
Calachene, mentioned in the profane authors as 
lying round the R. Lycus, now Zab, in the 
modern Kourdistan. Others identify Calah with 
the Halah spoken of 2 Kgs. xvii. 6., xviii. 11., 
1 Chron. v. 26., as one of the places to which 
Shalmaneser carried captive those of the Ten 
Tribes that remained ; but this is very doubtful. 

CALAMOLALUS (1 Esd. v. 22.), THE 
SONS OF, who returned with Zerubbabel to 
Judaea after the seventy years' captivity, and 
settled in their own city. 

CALEB, 1 Sam. xxx. 14., or 

CALEB-EPHRATAH, 1 Chron. ii. 24., a dis- 
trict in the S. of the tribe of Judah, which was 
invaded and pillaged by the Amalekites when 
David was a fugitive from Saul; though he 
afterwards overtook and smote them, and re- 
covered the spoils. It derived its name from 
Caleb, to whom Joshua gave all the country 
round Hebron with Debir and other places, 1 
Chron. vi. 66. ; and may in a general way 
have lain between Hebron and Debir. 

CALNEH, a city in the land of Shinar, one of 
the first four built or possessed by Nimrod, Gen. 
X. 10. It is said by the Chaldee Interpreters, by 
Eusebius, and Jerome, to have been the same 
with the famous city Ctesiphon on the Tigris, 
and to have had its name altered from Calneh 
by one of the Parthian kings. Traces of^the old 
name were, however, preserved in the neigh- 
bouring district of Chalonitis on the R. Gyndes, 
the chief town of which was Chala or Celon£E, 
still called Ghilanee. Calneh is placed by some 
at the last-mentioned place, and Accad at Ctesi- 
phon. It is usually identified Avith the Calneh 
of Amos vi. 2., and Calno of Isa. x. 9., and 
Canneh of Ezek. xxvii. 23., and is therefore 
supposed to have risen to considerable import- 
ance, but to have been destroyed about 794 
B.C. by one of the Assyrian kings. A century 
afterwards some of the descendants of its old 
inhabitants may, perhaps, have been brought 
to Samaria with those enumerated 2 Kgs. xvii. 24. 

CALNO, Isa. x. 9. See Calneh. 

CALVARY {the Place of a Skull), Lu. xxiii. 



33., called also Golgotha, Matt, xxvii. 33. ; Mk. 
XV. 22. ; Jo. xix. 17. ; the place where our ever- 
Blessed Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, was by 
the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of 
God, crucified for the sins of the world by the 
hands of wicked men, Acts ii. 23. It was a small 
rising-ground or hill, on the N.W. side of Jeru- 
salem, without the gate, Heb. xiii. 12., but nigh 
to the city, Jo. xix. 20. (c/. Lu. iv. 29., Acts 
vii. 58.) ; and is said to have derived its name 
from malefactors being there put to death, and 
their bodies left unburied : but others derive it 
from its shape having been like that of a skull. 
The mount is said to be within the limits of the 
modern city, and is now enclosed within what is 
called the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, reputed 
to have been built by Helena, mother of Con- 
stantino the Great ; but which is unhappily a 
frequent scene of the most revolting supersti- 
tions. 

CAMON, a town of Gilead, probably within 
the inheritance of the tribe of Gad, where Jair, 
one of the judges of Israel, was buried, Judg. 
X. 5. 

CANA (Zeal), a town within the old limits 
of the tribe of Zebulun, and now called Kana 
el Jalil. It was in the country or province of 
Galilee, and is therefore called Cana of Galilee, to 
distinguish it from another Cana or Kanah in 
the tribe of Asher, and country of Syrophoenicia, 
Josh. xix. 28. There was also a R. Kanah, which 
partly formed the bovmdar}'- between Ephraim 
and Manasseh, Josh. xvi. 8., xvii. 9. Cana of 
Galilee was honoured by the Divine Redeemer 
there performing His first miracle, by turning the 
water into wine, at the marriage feast to which 
He and His disciples were invited, Jo. ii. 1. 11. ; 
and it was here also, that the nobleman whose 
son was sick at Capernaum came to Jesus, to 
beseech His help, Jo. iv. 46. It was the birth- 
place of the apostle Nathanael, Jo. xxi. 2. ; and 
probably also of Simon the Cananite (which by 
a usual misprint, is written Canaanite in our 
version). Matt. x. 4. ; Mk. iii. 18. ; who was also 
called Zelotes, a Greek rendering of Cananite, 
as some think. 

CANAAN (3Ierchant), LAND OF, the most 
interesting country in the world to the Christian. 
It derived its name from Canaan, the son of Ham, 
who divided it amongst his sons. These were 
the heads of the eleven tribes or nations by 
whom it was at first peopled, viz. the Sidonians, 
Hittites, Jebusites, Amorites, Girgasites, Hivites, 
Arkites, Sinites, Arvadites, Zemarites, and Ha- 
mathites, Gen. x. 15—18. Though popularly 



CANAAN, LAND OF. 



CANAANITES. 71 



speaking the appellation of Canaan is employed to 
designate all the country possessed by the twelve 
tribes of Israel, yet it should be applied only to 
that portion which was allotted to the nine tribes 
and a half. Its original limits seem to have been 
on the W., the Mediterranean Sea from Sidon to 
Gaza ; on the S. from Gaza to the Cities of the 
Plain (afterwards covered with the Salt Sea) ; on 
the E. the R. Jordan in its whole extent to Lasha 
or Dan ; on theN. from Dan to Sidon, Gen. x. 19. 
In Josh. xi. 17., xii. 7., it is described as extend- 
ing from Mt. Halak on the S. to Baal-Gad in 
the Valley of Lebanon on the N. ; and in a still 
more general way, in Num. xiii. 21., as lying 
between the Wilderness of Zin and Rehob. This 
was Canaan in its proper sense; and thus the 
appellation is used for the most part in Holy 
Writ, Gen. xi. 31. ; Acts vii. 11., xiii. 19. But 
Canaan as taken possession of by the nine tribes 
and a half, appears to have had its limits ex- 
tended both on the N. and S., as may be seen in 
Num. xxxiv. 3 — 12. Though some of the Ca- 
naanitish nations, such as the Amorites, appear 
to have crossed the Jordan and settled there, it 
seems doubtful whether the country beyond this 
river (which was inherited by the two tribes 
and a half) is ever called Canaan in Scripture. 
Indeed, many of the above passages draw a most 
clear distinction between the two ; ex. gra. Num. 
xxxii. 30. 82., xxxiii. 51., xxxv. 10. 14. ; Deut. 
xxxii. 49. ; Josh. v. 12., xiv. 1., xsii. 9, 10, 11. 
32, ; Ps. cxxv. 11. The name is, however, used 
in a much narrower way to define the limits of 
the Canaanites strict^ so called, Judg. iv. 2. 23, 
24., whose king Jabin was subdued by Deborah 
and Sisera ; though in the context his confederates 
are also termed kings of Canaan, v. 19., as are 
all the kings of the land inPs. cxxxv. 11. This 
name served to distinguish them from the other 
tribes of Canaan, Gen. xiii. 7., xv. 21. ; Ex. iii. 8. 
17., xiii. 5. ; Deut. vii. 1. ; and seems at length, 
when the Israelites were settled in their inhe- 
ritance, to have been s^pcially applied to the 
inhabitants of Tyre, Isa. xxiii. 11., marg., and 
Sidon, perhaps because Sidon was Canaan's 
first-born son. The appellation Canaan was 
also sometimes restricted to the land of the 
Philistines, Zeph. ii. 5, Cf. Josh. xiii. 3. In 
the New Testament times, the S. part of Phoe- 
nice, if not the whole of it, Avas in a general 
way called Canaan ; hence the Syrophoeni- 
cian woman who came to our Lord, is called a 
woman of Canaan, Matt. xv. 22. 

Canaan was the chief scene of the pilgrimage 
of Abram, Gen. xii. 5., xiii. 12., xvi. 3, ; the 
usual residence of Isaac, Gen. xxxi. 18., xxviii. 



1. 6. 8., and of Esau before he settled in Edom, 
Gen. xxxvi. 2. 5, 6., and for some years of Jacob 
also, and of his sons until they went down to 
^'-gyptj Gen. xxxiii. 18,, xxxv. C, xxxvii. 1., 
xiii. 5. 7. 13. 29. 32., xlv. 17. 25., xlvi. G. 12. 31., 
xlvii. 4. 13, 14, 15., xlviii. 3. 7. Here Jacob was 
buried, xlix. 30., 1. 5. 13., as Abraham and Isaac 
had also been, Canaan was promised by Al- 
mighty God as an inheritance to Abraham and 
his seed, Gen. xvii. 8. ; a covenant which was 
confirmed to Isaac and Jacob, Ex. vi. 4. ; 1 Chron. 
xvi. 18. ; Ps. cv. 11. ; Ileb. xi. 9. But it was not 
until nearly 500 years after the first promise was 
made to Abraham, that (the iniquity of the in- 
habitants being full) the Israelites, by the con- 
stant assistance of Almighty God, and after 
many wars, took possession of their inlieritance, 
Ex. XV. 15., xvi. 35.; Lev. xiv. 34., xviii. 3., 
XXV. 38. ; Num. xiii. 2. 17., xxxiii., 40., xxxiv. 

2. ; Josh. xxi. 2. ; Judg. iii. 1., xxi. 12. ; Ps. 
cvi. 38. ; Isa. xix. 18. ; Ezek. xvi. 3. 29. 

The fruitfulness and excellency of the land of 
Canaan are constantly spoken of in the Bible. 
It was a land flowing with milk and honey ; full 
of corn, wine, and oil; abundant in fig-trees, 
pomegranates, and all fruits; and its soil was 
rich in iron and brass, Ex. iii. 8. ; Deut. viii. 
7—9., xxvi. 9. 15. It was a land of which it is 
written that God cared for it, and that His eyes 
were always upon it, from the beginning of the 
year even unto the end of the year, Deut. xi. 12., 
and that it was the land of the possession of the 
Lord, Josh, xxii, 19. Hence it might well 
be termed. The pleasant land, Dan. viii, 9, ; The 
glorious land, Dan. xi. 16. 41. 45. ; The glory 
of all lands, Ezek. xx. 6. 15. ; and even God's 
own land, Lev. xxv. 23. ; Deut. xxxii. 43. ; 
2 Chron. vii. 20. ; Ps. x. 16., Ixxxv. 1. ; Isa. viii. 
8.. ; Hos. ix. 3. ; Joel ii. 18., iii. 2. 

Canaan is also in Holy Writ called Palestina, 
Ex. XV. 14., which seems to have been one of its 
original names, and is that by which it is com- 
monly known in profane authors, though with 
varying extent. It is also called the Land of the 
Hebrews, Gen. xl. 15 ; the Land of Israel, 1 Sam. 
xiii. 19 ; the Land of Judah, 2 Chron. ix. 11. ; 
the Holy Land, Zech. ii. 12. ; and the Land of 
Promise, Heb. xi. 9. But some of these names 
include the trans-Jordanic territorj^ 

CANAANITES, the inhabitants of the whole 
of Canaan, so called from Canaan, the son of 
Ham, Gen. x. 19., 1. 2. ; Ex. xiii. 11. ; Num. xxi. 
1. 3., xiv. 25. 43. 45. ; Deut. i. 7., xi. 30. ; Josh. \-ii. 
9., xiii. 3, 4. ; Judg. i. 1. 3. 9, 10. 17. ; Neh, ix. 
24. But the name is also applied, in a restricted 
F 4 



72 



CAKAANITES. 



CANAANITE. 



and particnlar manner, to distinguish one of their 
tribes, Gen. xv. 21. ; Ex. iii. 8, 17., xiii. 5., xxiii. 
23.28.,xxxiii.2.,xxxiv.ll. ; jSTum. xiii, 29. ; Josh. 
V. 1., xi. 3., xvii. 16. 18. ; Judg. i. 4, 5. Canaan 
had eleven sons, Gen. x. 15 — 18., who vdth their 
families were spread abroad over the whole 
country, from Sidon to Gaza, and from the Cities 
of the Plain to the source of the R. Jordan, 
excepting those portions of it which were already 
occupied by previous settlers. They became by 
degrees a great and powerful people, acquiring 
vast riches by merchandize and war ; and they 
multiplied so rapidly as to send out colonies to 
many of the islands and countries of the Medi- 
terranean. Though the several tribes that com- 
posed the nation were only eleven in number, 
others are mentioned in Ploly Writ as either in- 
termixed with or incorporated wuth them, as the 
Kenites, Kenizzites, Kanmonites, and Rephaims, 
Gen. XV. 19, 20. Indeed the number of the tribes 
is variously given, according to the matter the 
sacred penman has in hand. In the last -men- 
tioned passage only Ten are reckoned up : in 
Deut. vii. 1. ; Josh. iii. 10., xxiv. 2. ; Acts xiii. 19. 
— Seven : in Ex. iii. 8. 17., xxiii. 23. ; Josh. ix. 1., ! 

xii. 8. ; Judg. iii. 6. ; Neh. ix. 8. — SLv : in Ex. j 

xiii. 5. ; 2 Chron. ^dii. 7. — Five : in Judg. iii. 3. — 
Four : in Ex. xxiii. 28. — Three : in Gen. xiii. 7,, 
xxxiv. 30. — Two : and in Josh. i. 4. ; 1 Kgs. x. 
29. ; 2 Kgs. vii. 6. — only One, viz. the Hittites. 
But the common patronymic of Canaanites was 
still usually applied to all the tribes collectively, 
whether few or many are included under it, Gen. 
xxxviii.2. ; Ex. xiii. 11. ; Deut. xi. 30. ; although 
sometimes they are all described under the appel- 
lation Amorites, Gen. xv. 16. ; 1 Kgs. xxi. 26. ; [ 
perhaps because the Amorites were the most ! 
powerful of the tribes. j 

The Canaanites do not seem to have been all ! 
governed by one ruler, though probably some of | 
the stronger tribes or more ambitious kings may | 
have reduced their neighbours to a kind of sub- 
jection or sovereignty, or united them in a 
smaller league ; ex. gra. Adoni-Zedec, king of 
Jerusalem, Josh. x. 1 — 5. ; Jabin,king of Hazor, 
Josh. xi. 1 — 5 ; Adoni-bezek of Bezek, Judg. i. 
4 — 7.; and Jabin, king of Canaan, Judg. iv. 2. 
24. They were divided into thirty-one kingdoms 
in the time of Joshua, xii. 9 — 24., viz. Jericho, 
Ai, Jerusalem, Hebron, Jarmuth, Lachish, Eglon, 
Gezer, Debir, Geder, Hormah, Arad, Libnah, 
Adullam, Makkedah, Bethel, Tappuah, Hepher, 
Aphek, Lasharon (or Sharon), Madon, Hazor, 
Shimron-meron, Achshaph, Taanach, Megiddo, 
Kedesh, Jokneam of Carmel, Dor, Gilgal, Tirzah. 
The Canaanites seem to have advanced rapidly 



to a high degree of cultivation, as may be 
I gathered from their goodly cities, well- stored 
houses, wells, vineyards, and olive trees ; which 
I both Moses and Joshua speak of the Israelites 
I taking from them, Deut. vi. 10, 11. ; Josh. xxiv. 
13. They were said b}^ the spies to be stronger 
than the Israelites, their cities to be strong and 
yery great, and all the inhabitants to be men of 
j great stature, Num. xiii. 28. 31 — 33. Indeed this 
1 is the account usually given in Scripture of them 
and their country, Deut. iv. 38., vii. I., xxiii. 14. 
They were, however, a very wicked nation, Deut. 
XX. 17, 18. ; Ezra ix. 1. ; sunk in all the debase- 
ments of idolatry and cruel superstitions, Deut. 
xviii. 9 — 14. ; and greatly provoked the anger of 
God, who gave their land to Abraham and his 
descendants, and eventually rooted them out. 
Abraham., Gen. xii. 6., xiii. 7. 12., xxiv. 3., Lot, 
Isaac, and Jacob, Gen. xlvi. 10., 1 Chron. ii. 3., 
dwelled for a time in the midst of them, and 
Esau took two wives of them, Gen. xxvi. 34., 
xxvii. 46., xxxvi. 2. 

But at last the measure of their iniquities was 
tilled up by this wicked nation, and the Israelites 
under Joshua attacked them without quarter. Ex, 
xxiii. 33. ; Deut. vii. 23, 24., xx. 13—16. ; until 
they were nearly all destroyed from otf the soil. 
Josh. xii. 7 — 24., xxiv. 11. ; Ps. x. 16. Some, 
indeed, were left by the command and providence 
of Almighty God ; partly, lest the land should 
become desolate, and that the wild beasts of the 
field might not multiply so fast as to hurt the 
Israelites, Ex. xxiii. 29. ; Deut. vii. 22. ; and 
partly, that the surviving Canaanites might be as 
thorns in the sides and pricks in the eyes of the 
rebellions Israelites, Num. xxxiii. 55. ; Josh. 

xxiii. 13. ; Judg. ii. 3. ; Ps. cvi. 34—36. ; Zech. 
xiv. 21. Hence we find them dwelling in many 
of the towns of Canaan, even after the nine and 
a half tribes had received their inheritance ; the 
latter not being able to drive them out, though 
they put them to tribute. Josh. xvi. 10., xvii. 
12, 13. ; Judg. i. 27—^5. This state of things 
continued until the reign of David, 2 Sam. v. 6., 

xxiv. 7., and even to that of Solomon, 1 Kgs. ix. 
16. ; when, probably, all of them who would not 
pay him tribute, or become his servants and la- 
bourers, 2 Chron. viii. 7 — 9., either retreated to 
Phoenicia, Obad. 20., where even in the days of 
our Lord some of them dwelt. Matt. xv. 22. ; or 
else had become intennixed with the Philistines ; 
or othenvise had migrated to Africa and other 
countries of the Mediterranean. 

CANAANITE, Matt. x. 4., Mk. iii. 18., the 
patronymic applied (by a usual error, instead of 



CANNEII. 



CAPPADOCIA. 73 



Cananite) to Simon Zelotes, one of the Twelve i 
Apostles. See Cana. 

CANNEH, an important city mentioned by 
Ezekiel, xxvii. 23., as trading with Tyre. It is 
supposed to have been the same with Ctesiphon 
on the E. Tigris, so famous in profane history ; 
especially as traces of its name long remained in 
the neighbouring district Chalonitis, as they still 
do in that of the modern town Ghilanee. See 
Causteh. 

CAPERNAUM, a city in that part of Galilee 
of the Gentiles, Matt. iv. 15., Lu. iv. 31., called 
the Upper or Higher Galilee. It lay on the 
N.W. shore of the Sea of Tiberias, Jo. vi. 17. 24., 
and on the borders of Zebulun and iSTaphtali, 
Matt. iv. 13. It was the usual residence of the 
Blessed Saviour during the three years of His 
public ministry, Matt. iv. 13. ; Mk. ii. 1., ix. 33. ; 
Lu, vii. 1. ; Jo. ii. 12. ; possibly, in the house of 
Andrew and Peter, Matt. viii. 14., x-sii. 24, 25. ; 
and hence it is called " His own city," Matt. ix. I 
1., although ISTazareth is likewise termed "His ! 
own country," Matt. xiii. 54. ; Mk. vi. 1. : Lu. iv. 
23. ; from His having been brought up there, Lu. 
iv. 16. It contained a synagogue in which He 
frequently taught the people, Mk. i. 21. ; Lu. iv. 
31. ; Jo. vi. 59. It seems to have been an im- 
portant and flourishing place, and was the scene 
of some of our Lord's mightiest works, Lu. iv. 23., 
though for its unbelief it was threatened by Him 
with utter destruction, Matt, xi, 23. ; Lu. x. 15. ; 
a prophecy which has been so completely accom- 
plished that its site cannot be certainly dis- 
covered. Travellers, however, suppose it to have 
stood where are now some ruins, called Tel Hum. 
Capernaum is not mentioned in the Old Testa- 
ment, and is thought to have been built after 
the return from Babylon. It was upon the high 
road from the Mediterranean to Damascus, and 
had a passage over the Sea of Galilee, where 
Matthew received the toll ; an occupation from 
which he was called by Jesus to become His 
apostle. Matt. ix. 9.; Mk. ii. 14.; Lu. v, 27.; 
and here it is likely was His dwelling, where 
he made the feast for the Saviour, Mk. ii. 15. ; j 
Lu. v. 29. Here also dwelled that nobleman 
who went to the Eedeemer when at Cana of 
Galilee, to beseech Him to heal his son, Jo. iv. 
46. ; and hither came the centurion to entreat 
the cure of his servant, Matt. viii. 5. ; Lu. vii. 1. 

CAPHARSALAMA or Carphasalama, as it 
is in the margin, a place apparently near Jerusa- 
lem, probably on its N.E. side, where Nicanoriwent 
to attack Judas Maccabasus, and lost about 5000 
men in the encounter, the rest flying into the 



1 city of David, 1 Mace. vii. 31. Some Identify it 
with Capharsabe, which was the old name of 
Antipatris ; but this seems too much out of the 
Avay. Sec Antipatris. 

CAPHENATHA, the name given 1 Mace. xii. 
37., to part of the wall of Jerusalem on the E. 
side, toward the Brook, which was restored and 
strengthened by Jonathan during the Macca- 
boean wars. 

- CAPHIRA, a place mentioned 1 Esd. v. 19., 

in connection Avith Beeroth, to which some of the 
Jewish families returned after the Babylonian 
captivity. 

CAPHTOR, and 

CAPHTHORIM, or 

CAPHTORIM, a country and people of Egypt 
so called after Caphtor, a son of Mizraim, Gen. x. 
14. ; Deut. ii. 23. ; 1 Chron. i, 12. ; who appear 
to have settled in its central part, on the banks 
I and Islands of the R. Xile, near No-Amon or 
Thebes, where was afterwards a city called Cop- 
tos, still known by the name of Ghouft. The 
origin of the name Egypt is itself deduced from 
Ai Caphtor, i.e. the country of Caphtor, 3 qt. xlvii. 
4., which the Greeks are thought to have softened 
down to jEgyptus. Indeed, the original natives 
of Egypt are still called Copts, to distinguish 
them from the Arabs and Turks; hence their 
translation of the Bible (for the}'- profess Chris- 
tianity) is called the Coptic version. The Caph- 
torim seem to have left Egypt, and migrated to 
the S.W. corner of Canaan ; where after they 
had driven out the Avims, Deut. ii. 23., they 
settled and became eventually known as the 
Philistines, Jer, xlvii. 4. ; Amos ix. 7. They 
were probably accompanied by their brethren 
and neighbours the Casluhim (likewise descended 
from Mizraim) ; as in Gen. x. 14. and 1 Chron. i, 
12. the Philistines are said to have come out of 
Casluhim; whilst Jeremiah and Amos deduce 
them from Caphtor. The Cherethims or Chere- 
thites are also supposed to have been a branch 
of the Caphtorim, or connected with them, as the 
I Philistines are called by the former name, 1 Sam. 
XXX. 14 — 16. ; Ezek. xxv. 16. ; Zeph. ii. 5. 

There are some who place Caphtor in Cappa- 
docia, a province of Asia Minor, as do most of the 
ancient translators ; others in the island of Crete ; 
others in Cyprus, and even Phoenicia, but, as it 
would appear, without sufficient probability. 

CAPPADOCIA, a province in the S.E. part of 
Asia Minor, bounded on the E. by the E. 
Euphrates, on the S. by Cilicia, on the W. by 
■ Phrygia, and on the N. by Pontus. It was the 



74 CAPTIVITY, CHILDKEN OF. 



CARMEL, MT. 



largest province in the whole peninsula, and 
is said to have derived its name from the little E. 
Cappadox, a tributary of the Halys. It origi- 
nally included Poutus, which became afterwards 
a separate kingdom. Cappadocia was at one 
time governed by the Persians, then by the Ma- 
cedonians, until it became an independent king- 
dom, which the Romans supported for a time, but 
eventually made the country a province of their 
own empire. Its inhabitants were Syrians, who 
fi-om their comparative paleness of complexion, 
were called Leuco-Syri. Their character was so 
proverbially bad, that they formed one of the 
three bad Kappas, the Cretans and Cilicians 
being the two others. 

It is mentioned Acts ii. 9., as one of the 
countries from which there were devout Jews, 
who were present at Jerusalem on the Day of 
Pentecost; and its Christian inhabitants are 
amongst those " strangers " to whom St. Peter 
addressed his first Epistle, i. 1. 

CAPTIVITY, CHILDREN OF THE, an ex- 
pression used by Ezra to describe those Israelites 
who had returned from Babylon, in contradis- 
tinction to such as remained in Ju.d£ea, and had 
in many instances fallen into the ways of the 
heathen nations around them, Ezra iv. 1., vi. 
16. 19, 20, 21., X. 7. 16. 

CARCHEMISH, or Charchemish, or Car- 
CHAMis, an important city and fortress of Meso- 
potamia, on the E. banks of the R. Euphrates, at 
its confluence with the R. Chaboras, or Khahour 
as it is now called. It was the frontier town of 
Assyria in this direction, apparently commanding 
the entrance into the N. part of Mesopotamia 
from Syria ; and hence, probably, was the scene of 
many hostile conflicts. Cf. Isa. x. 9. Its value 
may be gathered from the fact that Pharaoh- 
Necho, king of Egypt, as it would appear by 
Divine instigation, 2 Chron. xxxv. 22., un- 
dertook a long and painful march fi-om his own 
country to gain possession of it, 2 Chron. xxxv. 
20. ; an expedition in which he was vainly op- 
posed by Josiah, king of Judah, who was van- 
quished and slain by him at Megiddo, B.C. 610, 
2 Kgs. xxiii. 29. Necho then advanced against 
Carchemish and took it, leaving a strong garri- 
son there ; but his army was afterwards smitten 
and driven away by Nebuchadnezzar, king 
of Babylon, in the fourth year of Jehoiakim, son 
of Josiah, Jer. xlvi. 2. It is called Carchamis in 
the Apocrypha, 1 Esd. i. 25., and appears to be 
the same place with that which is named Cir- 
cesium in profane history. It was strengthened 
by Diocletian, and seems to have constituted for 



some time the frontier town of the Roman empire 
on this E. side. It is thought to have been 
afterwards called Chaboras, but is now known by 
the name of Kerkisia. 

CARIA, a province in the S.W. corner of Asia 
Minor, bounded on the W. and S. by the Medi- 
terranean Sea, on the N. by Lydia, and on the E. 
by Phrygia. The Dorians are said to have mi- 
grated hither after the siege of Troy, and hence 
its coasts and islands received the name of Doris. 
Its inhabitants were so despised by the Greeks for 
their barbarous manners, as to give rise to a pro- 
verb: and, as was the case with some other 
nations, they let themselves as auxiliaries to 
any people that would pay them. 

Caria is mentioned 1 Mace. xv. 23., as one of 
the places to which the Romans wrote in behalf 
of the Jews. 

CARMANIANS, 2 Esd. xv. 30., where we 
read that they were to go forth and waste a por- 
tion of the land of the Assyrians. Carmania 
was the S.W. province of the Persian kingdom, 
answering generally to the modern Kerman : to 
the W. it touched upon Persis, to the N. upon 
Parthia, to the E. upon Asia and Gedrosia, to 
the S. upon the Persian Gulf and Erythraean Sea. 
It is said to have derived its name from the word 
Carnia, signifying in the language of the country 
a vi?ie ; for which tree it was very famous, yield- 
ing sometimes clusters of grapes more than two 
feet long. 

CARMEL, a city in the S. and mountainous 
part of Canaan, not far from the Dead Sea, and 
according to Eusebius 10 miles E. of Hebron. 
On the division of the land by Joshua, it was 
allotted to the tribe of Judah, Josh. xv. 55., and 
seems to have been a well-known and perhaps 
fortified spot; for here Saul came after the 
slaughter of the Amalekites, and set him up a 
place or trophy, probably on the hill whereon 
Carmel stood, 1 Sam. xv. 12. It was the scene 
of David's wanderings for some time, when flying 
from Saul, 1 Sam. xxv. 7. 21. ; and was the resi- 
dence of Nabal, whose churlishness so provoked 
David, as well as his wife Abigail, whom 
David married after the death of Nabal, 1 Sam. 
xxv. 2. 5. 40., xxvii. 3., xxx. 5 ; 2 Sam. ii. 2., 
iii. 3. ; 1 Chron. iii. 1. The town and hill, on 
which are extensive ruins of buildings and 
fortifications, still called by the natives Karmal. 

CARMEL (i.e. Vineyard of God), MT., a 
lofty but small range of hills in Canaan, which 
sweeps round ficom the Plain of Jezreel, in a 



CARMELITE. 



CASPIS. 



75 



N.W. direction, for about 30 miles, to the shores 
of the Mediterranean, Jer. xlvi. 18.; where it 
ends in a bold promontory, noAV called Cape Car- 
mel, shutting in " the Haven of the Sea," or 
the Bay of Acre as it is now called, and forming 
the only headland and bay of any magnitude on 
the coast of Canaan. Along the whole extent of 
its E. foot runs the R. Kishon, with an almost 
parallel course into the Mediterranean ; above 
the level of which sea some portions of the ridge 
rise to the height of 1500 feet. It formed part of 
the S.E. border of Asher, Josh. xix. 26., probably 
towards Zebulun (c/. Gen. xlix. 13.), or as Jo- 
sephus writes, towards Issachar; and in later 
times gave name to the adjoining distiict, Judith 
i. 8. 

Mt. Carmel seems to have been a favourite re- 
sort of the prophet Elijah. Here he had his con- 
troversy with the false prophets of Baal, 1 Kgs. 
xviii. 19, 20., in the days of King Ahab, who 
also seems to have made it occasionally a place 
of pleasure, 42. 44. Here likewise the prophet 
Elisha frequently dwelt, 2 Kgs. ii. 25., iv. 25. 27. 
Carmel is celebrated in Holy Scripture for its 
beauty and fertility, as well as for its pastures, 
vines, and forests, being ranked with Sharon and 
Lebanon, Bashan and Gilead, 2 Kgs. xix. 23.; 
2 Chron. xxvi. 10. ; So. of Sol. vii. 5. ; Isa. 
xxxiii. 9., XXXV. 2., xxxvii. 24. ; Jer. xlvi. 18., 
1. 19. ; Amos i. 2. ; Mic. vii. 14. ; Nah. i. 4. It was 
remarkable for the number of caves (of which 
there are said to be 2000), natural and artificial, 
which had been formed in the rock, and which 
served not only as dwelling-places for many 
prophets and religious persons from very ancient 
times, but as a place of security forfugitives of all 
kinds. Hence the prophet Amos, ix. 3., threatens 
they shall not hide the Jews from the anger of 
Almighty God. The cave of Elijah is still pre- 
tended to be shown. Pythagoras, the heathen 
philosopher, is likewise said to have resided here 
some time, on his retm-n from Egypt. In latter 
days, it has given name to the Carmelite monks, 
whose monastery and caves still exist there. 

CARMELITE, the patronymic of Nabal, 1 
Sam. XXX. 5. ; 2 Sam. ii. 2,, iii. 3. ; and also of 
Hezrai or Hezro, one of David's mighty men, 
2 Sam. xxiii. 35. ; 1 Chron. xi. 37. ; so called 
from the town of Carmel ; as was also Nabal's 
wife Abigail, the Caeihelitess, 1 Sam. xxvii. 3. ; 
1 Chron. iii. 1. 

CARMITES, Num. xxvi. 6., a family of the 
Reubenites, so called from Carmi, Gen. xlvi. 9., 
a son of Reuben. 

CARNAIM, 1 Mace. v. 26. 43, 44., or 



CARNION, 2 Mace. xii. 21. 26. ; probably the 
same place with Ashtaroth,an old and important 
city of Bashan ; which see. 

CARPHASALAMA, 1 Mace. vii. 31., marg. 
See Capharsalama. 

CASIPHIA, a place whither Ezra, viii. 17., 
sent Eliezer and eleven other principal persons of 
his company, to Iddo, a very considerable chief 
there, in order to obtain ministers for the Temple. 
It seems to have been in one of the provinces of 
Babylon, probably near Mt. Caspius, on the 
shores of the Caspian Sea (the Sea of Casiphia), 
though its locality is not known. The Greek 
translators render it a Place of Silver, which the 
Hebrew word signifies. There were here a great 
many of the Jewish captives, as well as of the 
Levitical families, and the inferior oflficers called 
Nethinims; many of whom came to Ezra at 
his request, and accompanied him to Jeru- 
salem. 

CASLUHIM, the descendants of a son of 
Mizraim, who settled in Egypt, and were the pro- 
genitors of the Philistines, Gen. x. 14. ; 1 Chron. 
i. 12. They are supposed to have given name to 
the district of Casiotis and Mt. Casius, still 
called Kasaroun, at the 'N.E. extremity of Egj'pt, 
on the borders of Palestine. Near this mountain 
Pompey the Great was basely murdered by order 
of Ptolemy, when he was on the point of landing 
to take refuge, after the fatal battle of Pharsalia ; 
and here he was buried. The Casluhim appear 
to have been neighbours to, and closely connected 
with, the Caphtorim. See Caphtor. 

CASPHON, 1 Mace. v. 36., or 

CASPHOR, 1 Mace. v. 26. (marg. Chascor), 
said to be a strong and great city in the land of 
Galaad or Gilead, where, as well as in the 
neighbouring strongholds, many of the Jews 
were shut up by the heathen beyond the Jordan. 
It Avas taken by Judas Maccabeus. Some 
commentators identify it with Heshbon; but, 
as it seems, without good reason. 

CASPIS, a strong and well-walled city, inha- 
bited by people of various countries ; it seems to 
have been adjacent to a river, and a lake 2 
furlongs broad. Judas Maccabteus was about to 
make a bridge over the river, until the inhabit- 
ants, trusting to the strength of their defences 
and the abundance of their provisions, provoked 
him, by then- railing and blasphemy, to destroy 
the city ; when such munbers of them perished, 
that the lake was seen running with blood. Its 
situation is unknown, though some suppose it to 
have been the same with Hebron. It is men- 



76 CASTLE, THE. 



CELOSYRIA. 



tioned in connection with Joppa and Jamnia, 
which has induced many to fix it in that 
neighbourhood ; though from other details it is 
thought to have been in Arabia Petrasa, towards 
the borders of Ammon and Moab. 

CASTLE, THE, 1 Chron.xi. 7., another name 
for " The Fort," or Stronghold of Zion, in Jeru- 
salem, which David took from the Jebusites and 
made his dwelling-place, styling it, " The City 
of David." -See City of David. 

CASTLE, THE ( i. e. of Antonia), the citadel 
and chief defence of the Temple at Jerusalem in 
the time of the Romans, who usually kept a 
whole legion of soldiers here, to overawe the 
Jews at their great feasts. It is chiefly known in 
the New Testament history from St. Paul having 
been confined there for a season. Acts xxi. 34. 
37., xxii. 24., xxiii, 10. 16. 32. It stood on a 
steep rock, where formerly Antiochus Epiphanes 
had erected a tower to annoy the' Jews, which 
they eventually destroyed, levelling the ground 
upon which it stood, so far as they were able to 
do it. It is usually called The Tower, or the 
Tower in Jerusalem, by the apocryphal writers of 
the books, of Maccabees, and was the scene of 
many of the struggles of the Jews with their 
cruel and implacable foes, 1 Mace. vi. 18. 24. 26. 
32., ix. 53., X. 32., xiii. 50. 52., xiv. 7., xv. 28. ; 
2 Mace. iv. 12., xv. 35. It was, however, rebuilt 
by the Maccabees, as it is said, B.C. 135 ; but 
very much strengthened and beautified by Herod 
the Great, who called it Antonia, after his patron 
Mark Antony, and gave it all the magnificence of 
a palace, with the strength of a citadel. It com- 
municated with the courts of the Temple by means 
of stairs. Acts xxi. 35. 40., and secret passages by 
which the military could descend and quell any 
uproar during the concourse of the nation at the 
great festivals. Acts xxi. 32. It was probably to 
a detachment of these troops, placed on such oc- 
casions in immediate connection with the Leviti- 
cal guards, that Pilate alluded as the guard or 
" watch," Matt, xxvii. 65. When St. Paul was 
assaulted by the Jews in the Temple, he was 
rescued by the Romans, and conducted into this 
citadel or " castle ; " where he was bound, and 
would have been scourged or tortured, had he 
not declared himself to be a Roman citizen. 
Here, also, the conspiracy for his assassination 
was made known to him by his nephew ; in con- 
sequence of which, he was removed hence to 
Caesarea. The Tower of Antonia was taken by 
Titus with great difiiculty, when he was be- 
sieging Jerusalem; which, as it was at that time 



the key of the city, soon made him master of the 
whole place. 

CAVE, THE, Ps. Ivii. title, cxlii. title; 
i.e. the Cave of Adullam ; which see. Hither 
David fled from Saul, and here he collected 
the band that followed his fortunes. 

CAUSEWAY, THE, or The Causeway of the 
Going up, 1 Chron. xxvi. 16. 18., a raised way or 
path in the city of Jerusalem, leading to the 
Temple. It appears to have been made by 
Solomon, and was one of the great things in the 
holy city which astonished the queen of Sheba.^ 
In 1 Kgs. X. 5., 2 Chron. ix. 4., it is called the 
Ascent, by which he went up to the house of 
the Lord. 

CEDRON", THE BROOK, which rising to the 
N. of Jerusalem, passes on the E. side of the city, 
between it and the Mt. of Olives, and finally 
empties itself into the Dead Sea. It was con- 
stantly crossed by our Blessed Redeemer on his 
way to Mt, Olivet, Gethsemane, Bethany, and 
the adjacent country, Jo. xviii. 1. In the Old 
Testament Scriptures the name is written Ki- 
dron ; which see. 

CEDRON, a town either in Jud^a or on the 
borders of it, which was rebuilt and fortified by 
Cendebeus, the general of Antiochus, to annoy 
the Jews, and assist in infesting their highways, 

1 Mace. XV. 39. 41., xvi. 9. It is thought by 
some to have been in the neighbourhood of 
Jamnia, Modin, and Azotus ; but others fix it 
at Gedor, to the S. of Bethlehem. 

CELOSYRIA, mentioned 1 Esd. ii. 17. 24. 27., 

as one of the places whose governors joined in 
writing the letter to King Artaxerxes to stop 
the Jews from rebuilding their city and temple ; 
on the pleas that if they were rebuilt, the Persian 
monarch would have no passage into Celosyria 
and Phenice ; and that in past years, the Jewish 
kings had exacted tribute from such as dwelled 
in these provinces. Celosyria is likewise fre- 
quently spoken of in the Maccabaean history, and 
appears in those times to have been often under 
the same governor with Phenice, 1 Mace. x. 69. ; 

2 Mace. iii. 5., iv. 4., x. 11. Authors differ much 
in settling the limits of Celosyria (or Ccele-Syria 
as it is better written), according to the period 
when they wrote, and the extent in which they 
used the term. Properly speaking, Strabo says 
it inckxded only the countries between the ranges 
of Libanus and Anti-Libanus, until these opened 
into Arabia; but it is commonly applied to the 
whole of Southern Syria betAveen Phenice, J udsea, 
and Arabia. 



CEi^CHREA. 



CESAREA PHILIPPT. 77 



CENCHREA, a small but very important 
toAm at the N.E, extremit}^ of the Peloponnesus, 
close to the isthmus which connected it "with the 
mainland of Greece. It was on the E. shores of 
Achaia, or rather Corinthia, upon the Saronic 
Gulf or Gulf of Egina, and formed the E. port 
of Corinth. By its means communications were 
kept up with all the islands of the iEgsean Sea, 
with Asia, and the countries lying on the Euxine. 
It was about 8 miles from the capital, and is still 
called Kekreh. The other port of Corinth was 
called Lech^eum, now Balaga ; it lay to the N. 
of the city, and was the great emporium of its 
traffic with the W. parts of Greece, as well as 
with Italy and Sicily. It was from Cenchrea, 
that St. Paul sailed to Ephesus and Csesarea, 
having there first shorn his head because he had 
a vow, Acts xviii. 18, There was here also in 
very early days a Christian church, of which that 
Phoebe w^as a servant whom St. Paul especially 
commended to the Romans, Rom. xvi. 1. 

CESAREA or C.esarea, a large and import- 
ant city of Palestine, lying upon the sea-coast, 
about midway between Sidon and Gaza, in what 
was latterly distinguished as the country of Sa- 
maria. It is sometimes by profane authors called 
Caesarea Pala^stinee, to mark it from many other 
cities of the same name. It Avas originally a 
small and insignificant though fortified place, 
called Turris Stratonis, and appears to have been 
founded by a Greek colony. It derived all its 
consequence from Hei'od the Great, Avho there 
made a commodious harbour, built a noble mole, 
and very greatly enlarged and beautified the 
city, calling it Ca3sarea, in honour of Augustus 
Caesar. It soon became the Roman metropolis 
of Palestine, and the seat of the proconsul, who 
usually resided here. Cf Acts xxv. 10. The 
Emperor Vespasian raised it to the rank of a 
Roman colony. 

It was chiefly inhabited by heathen and Sama- 
ritans, though great numbers of Jews also lived 
there. This led to continual broils between them 
in which many thousand persons w^ere killed. 
Perhaps there has not been in the history of the 
world an example of any city that in so short a 
time rose to such an extraordinary height of 
splendour, or that exhibits a more awful contrast 
to its former magnificence by the present desolate 
appearance of its ruins. Within the space of ten 
years after laying the foundation, from being an 
obscure fortress, it became the most celebrated 
and flourishing city of all Syria. Now, not a 
single inhabitant remains ; this heathen perse- 
cuting power has perished off God's land, Ps. x. 



IG., as eventually must all others like it ; and of 
its vast theatres, gorgeous palaces, and splendid 
temples, enriched with the choicest works of art 
and decorated with the most precious marbles, 
nothing remains but a heap of ruins, which 
nightly echo with the cries of Avild animals roam- 
ing for their prey. 

Caesarea is a noted place in the Gospel history. 
It Avas the residence of Philip the E\^angelist and 
many other Christian disciples. Acts viii. 40., xxi. 
8. 16., ix. 30. Here Cornelius and his kinsmen 
and neaf friends, as the first-fruits of the Gentiles, 
were converted under the preaching of St. Peter, 
Acts X. 1. 24., xi. 11. Here also lived Herod 
Agrippa, grandson of Herod the Great, and died 
in the miserable manner mentioned. Acts xii. 19. 
— 23. Caesarea is also frequently mentioned in 
the history of St. Paul, and was no doubt often 
visited in his jourueyings. Acts xviii. 22., xxi. 8. ; 
in one of which he Avas foretold by Agabus of his 
being bound at Jerusalem. Here he was first 
brought by the brethren when the Jews and the 
Grecians sought to kill him, Acts ix. 30. Here 
after the uproar in Jerusalem, he was sent by 
Claudius Lysias to Felix the governor, before 
whom he was accused as a pestilent moA^er of 
sedition by the Jews and their orator Tertullus, 
Acts xxiii. 23. 33. ; and here, after two years' 
imprisonment, Acts xxiv. 27., when he was ac- 
cused by the Jcavs before Festus the gOA-ernor, 
he made that noble defence of himself and his 
religion before him and King Agrippa, Acts 
xxv. 1. 4. 6. 13., previous to his sailing to 
Rome, Avhere he had appealed to CjBsar. 

Eusebius, the ecclesiastical historian, was a 
native of Caesarea. 

CESAREA PHILIPPI, a small city in the 
extremity of the Roman proA-ince of Batanaea or 
Bashan. It lay in the valley between the two 
mountains Anti-Lebanon and Hermon, on the 
R. Jordan, and not far from its springs. It 
was originally named Paneas, from lying at the 
foot of Mt. Paneum, Avhich is said to have been 
so called from the false god Pan, who had a 
cavern in the mountain dedicated to him, and 
was also Avorshipped in the toAAm itself. It was 
much beautified and enlarged by Herod the Te- 
trarch, who named it Caesarea in compliment to 
the Emperor Tiberius. It appears to haA-e been 
at some time raised to the rank of a Roman 
colony, and to haA'e been afterwards styled Xero- 
nias, in honour of the Emperor Xero ; but the 
old Phoenician name of Paneas seems to haA-e 
surA-iA^ed them both, as its ruins, and the few 
miserable huts in the midst of them, are still 



78 



CHADIAS. 



CHALDEANS. 



known as Banias. The Emperor Severus is said 
by many authors to have been born here . The 
population was for the most part heathen, though 
many Jews resided there. C^esarea Philippi and 
its towns were visited by our Blessed Redeemer, 
who here, or in the neighbourhood, had that con- 
versation with Peter in which He was confessed 
by the Apostle to be the Messiah, the Son of God, 
Matt. xvi. 13. ; Mk. viii. 27. Here also, accord- 
ing to lecclesiastical tradition, is said to have 
lived the woman who was healed of her issue of 
blood. Matt. ix. 20. Ca3sarea Philippi' has by 
some been identified with Dan or Laish ; but this 
latter place was somewhat farther to the K, and 
they are distinguished by Eusebius as two se- 
parate places. 

CHADIAS, a place mentioned 1 Esd. v. 20., 
the people of which returned home to Judasa 
after the captivity in Babylon. 

CHALDtEA, a name which is used with va- 
rious extent to designate the country, kingdom, 
and empire better known as Babylon, both in 
the Sacred Scriptures and profane authors. Pro- 
perly speaking, it was applied, by way of distinc- 
tion (at least in later geography) to the region 
W. of the Euphrates, and bordering upon 
Arabia ; and though there seems to be no passage 
in Holy Writ which certainly fixes the name to 
this tract of country, yet a distinction evidently 
appears to be sometimes made betwixt Babylonia 
and Chaldsea, Jer. xxv. 12=, li. 24. 35. ; Ezek. 
xii. 13., xxiii. 15. ; as well as between the Baby- 
lonians and Chaldeans ; but it is not impossible, 
that even this distinction may relate only to the 
metropolis Babylon, and the country Chaldasa, or 
else to the old Chaldean population and the new 
colonists to Babylon. By Chaldsea, however, is 
commonly meant the whole province and kingdom 
of Babylon, Jer. 1. 10. ; Ezek. xi. 24., xvi. 29., 

xxiii. 16., bounded on the N. by Mesopotamia, 
on the E. by Assyria and Susiana, on the S. and 
W. by Arabia. In Judith v. 7., the name is ap- 
plied to Abram's dwelling-place in the country of 
Ur beyond Mesopotamia. It is also called The 
Land of the Chaldeans, Isa. xxiii. 13.; Jer. 

xxiv. 5., xxv. 12., 1. 1. 8. 25. 45., li. 4. 54. ; Ezek. 
i. 3., xii. 13., an appellation not confined to the 
province or kingdom only, but apparently some- 
times extended to the whole empire. Daniel 
mentions the last as the realm of the Chaldeans, 
ix. 1. ; and Isaiah calls even the metropolis of 
Babylon itself "the beauty of the Chaldees' 
excellency," Isa. xiii. 19., and " the daughter of 
the Chaldeans," xlvii. 1. 5. The Babylonian 
army that besieged Jerusalem is constantly 



called the army of the Chaldees, 2 Kgs. xxiv. 
2. ; 2 Chron. xxxvi. 17. ; Jer. xxi. 4. 9. ; Nebu- 
chadnezzar, king of Babylon, is called a Chal- 
dean by Ezra, v. 12. ; and Belshazzar is styled 
by Daniel, v. 30., king of the Chaldeans. See 
Babylon. 

CHALDEANS, or 

CHALDEES (called Casdim in the Hebrew 
Scriptures) seem to have been the most ancient 
inhabitants of the country denominated by their 
name, as well as of all the Babylonian provinces ; 
and were, probably, the most early constituted 
and settled of any people upon earth, Jer. v. 15. 
They are thought to have been the only nation 
that did not migrate at the general dispersion ; 
though they may have once extended their do- 
minion and name over a far wider extent of 
country (according to some authors from Egypt 
to India) than we certainly know of, Hab. i. 6 — 
10. ; Jer. li. 7. 25. It is, however, supposed that 
their name was derived from Chesed, the son of 
Nahor, Gen. xxii. 22., (in Judith v. 6., the 
Jews are said to be descended from the 
Chaldeans), and that it is applied to these lands 
in Holy Writ by way of anticipation ; but this 
appears extremely doubtful. They are first men- 
tioned in Gen. xi. 28. 31., where we read that 
Terah and Abrara, with their families, went forth 
from Ur of the Chaldees, to go into the land of 
Canaan, Gen. xv. 7.; Neh. ix. 7.; Acts vii. 4. 
Cf. Josh. xxiv. 2. They are also mentioned in 
the book of Job i. 17., as a violent and predatory 
people, who fell upon the camels and servants 
of the good patriarch, and either destroyed 
or took them away. They are thought* to have 
owed the foundation of their polity and institu- 
tions to Nimrod, Gen. x. 11. ; for that at a very 
early period they were a learned and flourishing 
people there is no doubt. Jeremiah, v. 15., seems to 
call them an " ancient nation ; " and Callisthenes, 
who was with Alexander the Great when he 
took Babylon, is said to have found there as- 
tronomical observations for 1903 years, i.e. 
to the fifteenth year after the building of the 
Tower of Babel. Whether, or in what way, they 
were connected with the kingdom of Shinar, 
which is mentioned as existing in the days of 
Abraham, Gen. xiv. 1., does not appear to be 
known. 

But, whatever may have been the origin of the 
kingdom of the Chaldees, as well as their 
learning, and dominion, and government, they 
no doubt owed much of their greatness and sta- 
bility in later times to the Assyrians, Isa. xxiii. 
13., who, however, appear to have confined them 



il 



CHALDEES. 



CHEBAR, RIVER OF 79 



within much narrower bounds. On the death 
of Pul, king of Assyria, Nabonassar his son suc- 
ceeded to the throne of Babylon, b.o. 747 ; 
and then it would appear, that all the Chaldeans 
fell under the Assyrian yoke, as well as the in- 
habitants of Babylon properly so called. But the 
old inhabitants were of such power, learning, 
and influence, that their name was continually 
employed to designate the whole Babylonian 
people and realm ; so mudi so, indeed, that the 
two appellations, Chaldeans and Babylonians, 
seem indifferently used. Thus, in Holy Writ, the 
Chaldeans are described (equally with the Baby- 
lonians) as the implacable enemies of the J ews, 
Jer. 1. 10, 11., li. 24. 35. ; Dan. iu. 8. ; as God's 
instrument to chastise the Jews, 2 Kgs. xxiv. 2. ; 
2 Chron. xxx^^. 17. ; Jer. xxii. 25., xxiv. 5., 
xxxii. 4, 5. 24, 25. 28, 29. 43. ; Ezek. xii. 13., 

xxiii. 23. ; as besieging Jerusalem with their 
armies, 2 Kgs. xxv. 4, 5. 10. ; Jer. xxi. 4. 9., 
XXXV. 11., xxxviii. 2., lii 7, 8. 14. 17.; as 
holding the Jews in captivity, Isa. xlviii. 20. ; 
Jer. 1. 8. ; Ezek. i. 3. ; as threatened with de- 
struction, Isa. xiii. 19., xlvii. 1. 5., xlviii. 14. ; 
Jer. xxv. 12,, 1. 1. 25. 35. 45., li. 4. 54. ; as many 
of them having been left in Judaea after the cap- 
tivity, to keep the country, 2 Kgs. xxv. 24, 25, 
26. ; Jer. xli. 3. 

The Chaldeans, like the Babylonians, from 
their advantageous situation with respect to the 
E. Euphrates, Tigris, and the Persian Gulf, were 
noted for their commerce and as a naval power, 
Isa. xliii. 14. Like them, also, they were fierce 
and warlike, Hab. i. 6 — 10. : idolatrous. Josh. 

xxiv. 2. ; Ezek. xxiii. 14. ; and very learned, 
Isa. xlvii. 10. ; Dan. i. 4. But what distinguished 
them more than any other branch of their skill 
and ^dsdom was, their great Imowledge of astro- 
nomy. They appear to have been worshippers of 
the host of heaven, and to have believed that 
each star was the abode of a spirit, who governed 
the earth according to his rank or order, and was 
a mediator between man and his Maker ; so that 
the affairs not only of indi^-iduals, but of cities 
and empires, were affected by the movements of 
the heavenly bodies. Hence they became sooth- 
sayers and astrologers, emplo}ing their skill and 
wisdom not only in aid of their false religion, but 
to impose on and deceive the credulou.3 multitude. 
Thus the name Chaldean's came to be em- 
ployed not only as a national distinction, but to 
signify such as were learned in. astronomy, astro- 
logy, and such natural science as was then 
kno-wn ; so that even kings consulted them, and 
trusted to their predictions, Dan. ii. 2. 4, 5. 10., 
iv. 7., V. 7. 11. 



CHANAAN", Acts vii. 11., xiii. 19.; 1 Mace, 
ix. 37. ; Judith v. 3. 9, 10. ; and 

CHANAAXITE, Judith v. 16. See Canaan. 

CHAR AC A, mentioned 2 Mace. xii. 17., as a 
town and fortress of the Jews called Tubieni, 
whence J udas Maccabteus drove Timotheus, and 
where his captains slew 10,000 men. Some sup- 
pose it to have been the same -with Charac-Moab, 
now called Kerek, about 20 miles E. of the S. 
end of the Dead Sea ; others identify it with Sela 
or Petra, now Wady Mousa, about 70 miles S. 
of the Dead Sea, in Idiimsea ; and others rather 
place it in the Desert on the borders of the 
Ammonites and Arabia: but nothing is known 
Avith any certainty concerning its locality. 

CHARASHIM, VALLEY OF (i.e. of the 
Craftsmeii), 1 Chron. iv. 14., which was inhabited 
by the descendants of Joab, the great-grandson 
of Othniel. Its situation does not appear to be 
known, but it is enumerated by Xehemiah, xi. 
35., amongst the places which were inhabited by 
the children of Benjamin after the Babylonian 
captivity. 

CHARCHEMISH, by Euphrates, 2 Chron. 
XXXV. 20. See Carchemish. 

CHARIOT-CITIES, certain cities built in 
Juda?aby Solomon, where he kept his chariots (of 
which he possessed 1400), though some were 
likewise with the king at Jerusalem, 1 Kgs. x. 
26. ; 2 Chron. viii. 6., ix. 25. Their names are 
not preserved. They may have also served as 
depots for his standing army, which consisted of 
24,000 men from each tribe, i. e. 288,000 men in 
all. Cf. 1 Chron. xxvii. 1—15. 

CHARRAN, Acts vii. 2. 4. See Haean. 

CHEBAR (or Chobak), RIVER OF, frequently 
mentioned by the prophet Ezekiel as the place 
where himself and many of the captive Jews had 
been located, and where he was favoured with 
some of his wonderful visions, Ezek. i. 1. 3., iii. 
15. 23., X. 15. 20. 22., xliii. 3. It was in the land 
of the Chaldeans, and Tel-abib was by or upon 
it; but othermse, its situation is not known 
with any certainty. By some it is identified with 
the Nahr-Malka, or Royal River, which, accord- 
ing to Plin}^, was a large canal cut from the 
Euphrates to the Tigris by the prefect Gobar, 
to prevent the waters of the former river from 
inundating the metropolis of Babylon, where 
Ezekiel is said to have dwelt. Others make it to 
be the Euphrates itself. And others, again, sup- 
pose it to have been the same with the R. 
Chaboras of profane geography, now knoT\-n as 



80 CHELLIANS, LAND OF THE. 



CHERUB. 



Khahour, which enters the Euphrates at Carche- 
mish; and is thought to be described in the 
Bible as the R. of Gozan, by which in Habor, the 
kings of Assyria placed some of the Jews whom 
they had carried away captive from beyond 
Jordan and from Israel, 2 Kgs. xvii. 6., xviii, 
11., 1 Chron. v, 26. 

CHELLIANS, LAND OF THE, mentioned 
Judith ii. 23, as a place toward the Wilderness, 
where dwelt the children of Ismael, whom Holo- 
fernes destroyed. Nothing is known of its si- 
tuation though from the people and countries 
joined with it, it is conjectured to have been on 
the borders of Idumjea, and the Desert of Sinai. 

CHELLUS, Judith i. 9., the inhabitants of 
which were summoned by Nabuchodonosor to 
assist him in his war against Arphaxad. Its 
locality is not known. Some suppose it to refer 
to Galilee. Others are led to place it near 
Alush, which is mentioned Gen. xxxiii. 13, 14., as 
a station of the Isi-aelites in their journey through 
the Wilderness. In the J erusalem Targum this 
desert is called Allush. See Alush. 

CHELOD, THE SONS OF, composed of very 
many nations, Judith i. 6., who came to Nabu- 
chodonosor's assistance when summoned against 
Arphaxad. Where they dwelt is not known, 
though conjecture places them near the W. and 
S. shores of the Caspian Sea. 

CHEMOSH, THE PEOPLE OF, an epithet 
applied to the Moabites from their worshipping 
the false god of this name, both by Moses and 
Jeremiah when foretelling their coming deso- 
lation, Num. xxi. 29.; Jer. xlviii. 7. 13. 46. 
Chemosh is repeatedly called in Holy Writ the 
abomination of the Moabites, 1 Kgs. xi. 7. 33. ; 
2 Kgs. xxiii. 13. 

CHEPHAR-HAAMMONAI, a city of the 
Benjamites, mentioned in the catalogue of their 
possessions. Josh, xviii. 24., but not otherwise 
known. 

CHEPHIRAH, a city of the Gibeonites, that 
made the league with Joshua, ix. 17., which on 
the division of the land was assigned to the tribe 
of Benjamin, Josh, xviii. 26. After the captivity 
in Babylon, some of its inhabitants returned 
home, Ezra ii. 25. ; Neh. vii. 29. 

CHERETHIMS, Ezek. xxv. 16., and 

CHERETHITES, 1 Sam. xxx. 14., Zeph. ii. 

5., another name for the Philistines ; possibly a 
patronymic, froiu their having been a branch of 
the larger family of the Casluhim, Gen. x. 14. ; 
1 Chron. i. 12. See Caphtor. 



CHERETHITES was also the name given to 
certain troops of David and the kings of Judah, 
in common with that of the Pelethites, and pos- 
sibly the Gittites, 2 Sam. viii. 18., xv. 18., xx. 
7. 23. ; 1 Kgs. i. 38. 44. ; 1 Chron. xviii. 17. 
They are supposed to have been the same with 
the footmen, or runners, or guard of Saul, 1 Sam. 
xxii. 17., whom he commanded in vain to slay 
the priests of the Lord, and to have obtained the 
appellation from thdH Philistine origin ; but if 
so, they must surely have become proselytes to 
the Jewish religion, as it is hardly conceivable 
that either Saul or David would have retained 
near their person a body of Canaanitish idolaters. 
Others imagine, that they were old adherents of 
David, when he sojourned among the Philis- 
tines, and that having followed the fortunes 
of the monarch, he made them a distinct 
corps of household troops in his army. The 
Pelethites are conjectured to have derived their 
name from their commander, one of David's 
companions at Ziklag ; but this is more uncer- 
tain than that the Gittites were so called from 
Gath. The Cherethites, Pelethites and Gittites, 
are thought to have been the king's body guard, 
and to have been quartered at the entrance of 
the palace, to be ready on any emergency. Cf. 1 
Kgs. xiv. 27. The number of the two former 
seems to have been about 500, jvidging from 
the number of gold targets and shields made 
by Solomon, as it would seem for the use of 
his state guard, 1 Kgs. x. 16, 17. ; the Gittites 
were 600. They appear to have followed 
the fortunes of David, when he fled from 
Absalom, and when he appointed Solomon to 
be his successor ; and at all other times to have 
been faithful to their trust. The Targum reads 
Archers and Slingers, where we have Cherethites 
and Pelethites ; so that their arms are conjec- 
tured to have been bows and slings. 

CHERITH, THE BROOK, a stream which 
runs down from the hilly parts of Mt. Ephraim 
into the R. Jordan on its right bank, and which, 
like all its neighbouring streams, is dried up in 
summer ; it is now called W. Kelt. It was here 
that Elijah hid himself for a time from the fury 
of King Ahab, and was miraculously fed by 
ravens until commanded by God to go to Za- 
rephath, 1 Kgs. xWi. 3. 5. 

CHERUB, a place mentioned with others, 
Ezra ii. 59., Neh. vii. 61., as having been the re- 
sidence of certain persons who returned to Jeru- 
salem with Ezra after the captivity in Babjdon. 
They were probably Israelites of some of the Ten 
Tribes, who having been carried away captive 
long before the captivity of Judah, had somehow 



CHESALON". 



CIIINNEROTH, SEA OF. 81 



or other lost the genealogy of their families, and 
so could not claim a particular possession in the 
land. The situation of Cherub is not known, 
though it was probably either in Mesopotamia 
or Chalda3a. Cf. Ezek. iii. 15. 

CHESALON, another name for Mt. Jearim, 
Josh. XV. 10., which here formed part of the 
N. W. border of the tribe of Judah, separating 
it from that of Dan and Benjamin. 

CHESIL, a town in the inheritance of the 
tribe of Judah, Josh. xv. 30. It seems to be the 
.■same Avith Bethel, Josh. xix. 4., which Avas after- 
wards assigned to the Simeonites. 

CHESIJLLOTH, a town apparently of the 
tribe of Issachar, on its border towards Zebuluu, 
Josh. xix. 18. It is supposed by some to be the 
same with Chisloth-tabor, Josh. xix. 12., and 
Tabor, Josh. xix. 18. ; 1 Chron. vi. 77. ; the last 
being a Levitical city. 

CHETTIIM, LAND OF, whence in 1 Mace, 
i. 1., Alexander the Macedonian is said to have 
come. See Chittim. 

CHEZIB, the birth-place of Shelah, the son of 
Judah and Shuah, Gen. xxxviii. 5. It was 
probably somewhere in the inheritance of Judah, 
and may have been the same with Achzib, 
Josh. XV. 44., Mic. i. 14., within the limits of 
that tribe. It is also identified by some with 
Chozeba, 1 Chron. iv. 22. 

CHIDOX, THRESHING-FLOOR OF, where 
when David was bringing the ark from Kirjath- 
jearim, the oxen that dreAv the cart stumbled ; 
and Uzza, puttmg forth his hand to hold it, was 
smitten dead ; wherefore David called that spot 
Perez-Uzza, 1 Chron. xiii. 9. In 2 Sam. vi. 6., it 
is called Nachon's Threshing-floor ; but whether 
these are the names of men or places, is doubtful. 
It appears to have been but a short distance 
from Kirjath -jearim, on the borders of Judah 
and Benjamin. 

CHILMAD, one of the famous places men- 
tioned by Ezekiel, xxvii. 23,, to which Tyre 
traded for merchandize. Nothing is known 
about its situation, but according to the Sep- 
tuagint and Chaldee, it is Car mania, now Ker- 
man, a province of Persia at its S.VV. coast, 
towards the entrance of the Persian Gulf. 

CHIMHAM, HABITATION OF, Jer. xli. 
17., a place near Bethlehem, whither Johanan 
and such of the Jews and Chaldeans as had 
escaped from Ishmael, went and dwelt before 
they passed uato Egypt. It is supposed to have 
obtained its name from Chimliam, the son of 



BarzIUai, having been settled here by King 
David, in return for the generous assistance liis 
father had given to the exiled monarch during 
the war with Absalom, 2 Sam. xix. 37 — 40. 
CHINNERETH, Deut. iii. 17. ; Josh. xix. 35. ; 

or 

CHINNEROTH, Josh. xi. 2., a fenced city 
belonging to the tribe of Naphtali. It seems to 
have given name to the surrounding country ; 
since we read, 1 Kgs. xv. 20., that Benhadad, 
king of Syria, at the solicitation of Asa, king of 
Judah, attacked and smote all Cinneroth, with 
all the land of Naphtali ; and the same region 
appears to have been called the land of Gen- 
nesaret in the New Testament times, Matt. xiv. 
34. ; Mk. vi. 53. This name, which was also 
applied to the neighbouring lake, Lu. v. 1., 
makes it not improbable that the city was like- 
wise called Gennesaret, or Gennesar as the word 
is written 1 Mace. xi. 67., and by Josephus. 
It is thought to have stood a few miles from the 
entrance of the Jordan, and on the N.W. side of 
the lake : some, however, place it where Tiberias 
afterwards stood, but without sufficient grounds. 

CHINNERETH, SEA OF, Num. xxxiv. 11. ; 
Josh., xiii. 27. ; or 

CHINNEROTH, SEA OF, Josh. xii. 3., so 
designated from the fore-mentioned city. It 
once formed the limit, in this du*ection, of the 
kingdom of Sihon ; and was afterwards touched 
on by the tribes of Gad and Manasseh beyond 
Jordan; as well as by Naphtali, Zebulun, and 
Issachar, on this side. In the New Testament, 
it is called the Lake of Gennesaret, Lu. v. 1. ; 
the Sea of Galilee, Matt. iv. 18., xv. 29. ; Mk. 1. 
16., vii. 31.; Jo. vi. 1.; the Sea of Tiberias, 
Jo. vi. 1., xxi. 1. ; sometimes simply The Lake 
or The Sea ; and was the scene of some of our 
Blessed Redeemer's wonderful works, both before 
and after His resurrection. Its waters, which 
were sweet and very cold, were famous for their 
fish, which is said to have been very abundant, 
and to have resembled that caught in the R. 
Nile; hence there were man}'^ fishermen em- 
ployed in its waters, from amongst whom the 
Saviour chose some of His disciples. It is subject 
to sudden and severe squalls, which rendered its 
navigation (now seldom attempted) dangerous, 
Matt. viii. 24. ; Mk. iv. 37. ; Lu. viii. 23. There 
was a ferry or passage over it, which united the 
roads from the Mediterranean coast to Damascus, 
Arabia, and the East, and which latterly was 
formed by the Romans. It was here that 
Matthew collected the toll. In 1 Mace. xi. 67., 
it is called the Water of Gennesar. It was 
G 



82 



CHIOS. 



CHOZEBA, THE MElsT OF. 



about 17 miles long, of an average breadth of 
5 miles, and was traversed by the E. Jordan, 
which entered it near Bethsaida, and quitted it 
towards Gamala: it is now called the Lake of 
Tabaria. 

CHIOS, a large, fruitful, and beautiful island 
in the iEgtean Sea, off the coast of Ionia in Asia 
Minor, from which it is separated by a narrow 
channel. It lay between Lesbos (in which was 
the town of Mitylene) and Samos, and was 
passed by the Apostle Paul on his voyage from 
Macedonia to Palestine, Acts xx. 15. It was 
famous for its vines and its marbles; and was 
one of the many places which contended for the 
birth-place of Homer, whose school was long 
shown there. It is now called Scio. 

CHISLOTH-TABOE, a town in the inherit- 
ance of the tribe of Zebulim, probably towards 
the borders of Issachar, Josh. xix. 12. It is sup- 
posed by some to be the same with Chesulloth 
and Tabor, Josh. xix. 18. 22. The last men- 
tioned was a Levitical city, given to the children 
of Merari, 1 Chron. vi. 77. 

CHITTIM, the name of a people, country, and 
islands in Holy Scriptvire, the situation of Avhich 
is much disputed. They were so called from the 
Kittim, the sons of Javan and grandsons of Ja- 
pheth. Gen. x. 4. ; 1 Chron. i. 7. ; who settled, 
as is thought, on the S. coast of Asia Minor, 
where Homer mentions a people called Cetii, and 
Ptolemy the country of Cetis; and also in the 
island of Cyprus, where we meet with the well- 
known towns Citium, now Chiti, on the Citius 
Sinus, and Cythera. Josephus, Epiphanius, Je- 
rome, and others also are for fixing the Chittim 
in Cyprus ; the Vulgate and Chaldee read Italy, 
and the Apocrypha in 1 Mace. i. 1. speaks of 
Macedonia as the land of Chettiim; and in 
1 Mace. viii. 5., of Perseus, king of Macedon, as 
king of the Citims. But there seems to be little 
doubt from the manner in which the name 
Chittim is employed in the Bible, that it em- 
braces many countries and coasts of the Mediter- 
ranean to which the colonists of this people 
went ; and that it is employed in a general way 
to designate Greece, Italy, Cyprus, Crete, Corsica, 
&c. It first occurs in Balaam's prophecy, Num. 
xxiv. 24., where it is foretold that ships shall 
come from the coast of Chittim, and should afflict 
Asshur and Eber, i.e. the Assyrians and the 
Hebrews ; which was fulfilled in the Greek and 
Roman invasions. Isaiah likewise speaks of the 
land of Chittim, xxiii. 1., and Chittim, xxiii. 12. 
as revealing to Tyre her miserable overthrow, 
and not furnishing her a resting-place; which 



appears to have been fulfilled in the destraction 
of the New City by Alexander the Great. Daniel 
prophesied, xi. .80., that the ships of Chittim 
should come against the King of the North; 
which is supposed to have been fulfilled when 
the Romans interfered to stop the plans of An- 
tiochus Epiphanes, by means of the Macedonian 
fleet which they had captured, and which then 
lay in the harbours of Macedon. J eremiah, ii. 10., 
speaks of the Jews having no example even in 
the Isles of Chittim of such unreasonable con- 
duct in regard to religion as their own ; and 
Ezekiel, xxvii. 6., describes the benches made by 
the Asshurites for Tyre as being of ivory from 
the Isles of- Chittim; in both which passages 
the coast and islands of the Mediterranean in 
general are probably meant. 

CHITTIM, ISLE OF, Jer. ii. 10.; Ezek. 
xxvii, 6. See'^ Chittim ; [and also Isles of 
THE Gentiles. 

CHOBA, Judith iv. 4., whither the Jews sent 
to stir up its inhabitants against Holofernes ; 
supposed to be the same with 

CHOBAI, Judith xv. 4, 5., the people of which 
assisted Ozias in his pursuit and slaughter of the 
Assyrians after the death of Holofernes. Both 
ai'e identified by some with Abel-meholah, a 
town of Manasseh on this side Jordan, near 
Bethshan; others place them in Galilee; and 
others, again, suppose they refer to Hobah, Gen. 
xiv. 15., on the left hand of Damascus, whither 
Abram pursued the four kings and their ad- 
herents, who had ravaged Sodom and Gomorrah 
and captured Lot. 

CHORASHAN, a place to his friends in 
which David sent some of the spoils he had taken 
from the Amalekites after their assault upon 
Ziklag, 1 Sam. xxx. 30. It is thought to have 
been the same with a Levitical city in the tribe 
of Simeon called Asiian ; which see. 

CHORAZIN, a town of Galilee, against which 
woe was denounced by Christ for its impenitence 
even -in the midst of the mighty works He did 
there, Matt. xi. 21. ; Lu. x. 13. It is connected 
in the Gospel narrative with Bethsaida, and was 
therefore probably on the W. coast of the Sea of 
Tiberias, in Galilee. Jerome sets it only 2 miles 
from Capernaum; near which, at a spot now 
called Ain Tahiglia, are ruins which are thought 
to be those of Chorazin ; others are for placing it 
much further N., and identify it with Harosheth, 
Judg. iv. 2. Origen writes the name Chora-Zin. 

CHOZEBA, THE MEN OF, mentioned 1 
Chron. iv. 22., as descended from Shelah. They 



CHUB. 



CITIES OF THE PLAIN. 83 



seem to have been potters, and to have dwel 
among plants and hedges, working for the kmg. 
Some identify it with Chezib, the birth-place of 
Shelah, Gen. xxxviii. 5. ; which see. 

CHUB, a country only spoken of by Ezekiel, 
XXX. 5., as one of the helpers of Egypt. Hence 
it was no doubt in the neighbourhood of that 
country, as well as of Ethiopia, Libya, and Lydia, 
with Avhich it is conjoined. Nothing is really 
known concerning its situation ; some place it 
near the L. Mareotis on the W. of Egypt, where 
Ptolemy has a people called Cobii; others in the 
neighbourhood of Cobe, a sea-port in Ethiopia, 
near C. Guardafui, the E. extremity of Africa ; 
and others, again, think it the same with the 
country of Nubia, to the S. of Egypt. 

CHUN", a city of Hadadezer, king of Zobah, 
1 Chron. xviii. 8. ; 2 Sam. viii. 8., marg., taken 
ty David as he went to recover his border at the 
B. Euphrates. It seems to have been about 30 
miles to the S. of Damascus, towards Hauran and 
the Desert of Arabia; and is probably the same 
with the Berothai of 2 Sam. viii. 8., and Berothali 
of Ezek. xlvii. 16 ; which see. 

CHUSI, a place upon the Brook Mochmur, 
over against Ekrebel, where the Edomites and 
Ammonites encamped when aiding Holofernes 
against the Jews at the siege of Bethulia, 
Judith vii. 18. It may have been some few miles 
to the W. of the Lake of Gennesaret, but where 
is not known. 

CILICIA, the south-easternmost province of 
Asia Minor, bounded on the E. by Syria, on the 
S. by the Mediterranean, on the W. by Pam- 
phylia, on the N. b}'- Cappadocia and Phrygia. 
It corresponded, in a general way, with the 
modern Turkhh province of Itshili. Its W. part 
was called Cilicia Trachea, from its ruggedness ; 
and the E., which was more level and fertile, was 
styled Cilicia Campestris. The latter is probably 
the Upper Cilicia mentioned in Judith ii. 21., as 
near an encampment of Holofernes. Its inhabit- 
ants were styled one of the three bad Kappas, 
Crete and Cappadocia being the other two. They 
are said to have been cruel, dishonest, and barba- 
rous in their manners ; and in conjunction with the 
neighbouring Isauri were for the most part bold 
and successful pirates, amassing great wealth by 
their robberies. They thus drew u.pon themselves 
the vengeance of the Romans, by whom they 
were mostly subdued under Pompey, when the 
greater part of their country was declared a 
Roman province, of which Cicero subsequently 
was made the proconsul. Vespasian completed 
their subjection. It was a fertile country, and 



famed for its saffron and hair-cloth. Its metro- 
polis was Tarsus, now Tersoos, so interesting as 
the birth-place of St. Paul, Acts xxi. 39., xxii. 
3., xxiii. 34. According to the Apocrypha, the 
inhabitants of Cilicia were amongst those sum- 
moned by Nabuchodonosor to help him against 
Arphaxad, Judith i. 7. Their country is also 
spoken of in the account of the Maccabsean wars, 
1 Mace. xi. 14.; 2 Mace, iv, 36. But what 
makes Cilicia much more interesting, is the fre- 
quent mention of it in the Acts of the Apostles. 
We find that some of its inhabitants were 
amongst those who disputed with Stephen, Acts 
vi. 9., and it is not improbable that Paul was 
one of those who were overcome by the wisdom 
of that protomartyr. After his conversion, Paul 
seems to have himself introduced the gospel into 
his native country. Acts ix. 30., xv. 23. ; Gal. i. 
21. ; as he frequently travelled there both alone 
and with Silas, Acts xv. 41., not only planting, 
but confirming the churches. 

CILICIA AND PAMPHYLIA, SEA OF, the 
name given to that channel of the Mediterranean 
which flows between Cyprus and Asia Minor, 
from its lying off" the two cognominal provinces 
in the latter country. It was known as the 
Anion Cilicius or Mare Cilicium, in profane geo- 
graphy. Through it St. Paul sailed, when on 
his way as a prisoner to Rome, Acts xxvii. 5. 

CINNEROTH, the country round the city 
and lake of that name in Galilee, which was ra- 
vaged by Benhadad, at the instigation of Asa, 
king of Judah, 1 Kgs. xv. 20. 8ee Chtnne- 

RETII. 

CIRAMA, 1 Esd. v. 20., many of the people 
of which returned home after the Babylonian 
captivity. It is thought to be a corrupt read- 
ing for Ramah, Neh. vii. 30.; and if so, it was 
probably the city of Benjamin of that name, 
which lay on the borders of Judah. 

CIRCUMCISION, THE, Rom. iii. 30., iv. 9. ; 
Gal. ii. 7, 8. 9. ; Eph. ii. 11. ; Col. iii. 11., iv. 11. ; 

another appellation for the Jews. See Israel. 

CITIES OF THE PLAIN, a name applied 
Gen, xix. 29., to the five cities of Sodom, 
Gomorrah, Admah, Zeboiim, and Bela or Zoar, 
which stood in the beautiful and fertile vale 
of Siddira, until (with the exception of the last- 
mentioned) ihey were destroyed by God for their 
wickedness, and the vale was turned into the Salt 
Sea. They seem to have been leagued together, 
and conjointly were very powerful ; but they were 
rendered tritutaiy by Chedorlaomer, king- of 
Elam, for twelve years ; until, as it is likely, as- 
G 2 



84 



CITIMS. 



coRmxii. 



sisted by many of their neighbours, they cast off 
the yoke. He, however, called to his aid three 
other kings, and these four overcame the five and 
plundered their cities. It was in this encounter 
that Lot was taken prisoner. The valley or 
plain through which the Jordan runs, and which 
begins to expand just below the Lake of Genne- 
saret, becomes much wider where these five 
cities stood {cf. Deut. iv. 49.), but narrows again 
as it enters the Wilderness of Edom, and is shut 
in by the rugged mountains of Seir. 

The term Cities of the Plain, is also em- 
ployed to designate all the cities lying in the 
plain or valley of Jordan, on its E. side, from 
Aroer to Mt. Hermon, Deut. iii. 10., iv, 49. ; 
Josh. xiii. 2L These were taken by Moses from 
Og and Sihon, and by him allotted to the Isra- 
elites who settled beyond Jordan. 

CITIMS, the name given in 1 Mace. viii. 
5. to the Macedonians, of whom Perseus was 
king. See Chittim. 

CLAUDA, a small island in the Mediter- 
ranean, lying off the harbour of Phenice on 
the S. coast of Crete. It was passed by Paul 
in his tempestuous voyage to Rome, Acts 
xxvii. 16. It seems to have been known by 
the name of Gaudos in profane geography, and 
is now called Gozzo. 

CNIDUS, a famous Dorian city of the province 
of Caria in Asia Minor, on its S.W. promon- 
tory, Triopium, now C. Krio. It was celebrated 
for the worship of the heathen goddess Venus, 
■yvhose temple, and statue by Praxiteles, were 
visited by travellers from all parts of the world. 
The latter was reckoned so valuable, that Nico- 
medes, king of Bithynia, offered to pay all the 
debts of the city, if the Cnidians would give it 
him. Cnidus was passed by St. Paul, Acts 
xxvii. 7., when on his way as a prisoner to Rome. 
It was one of the places to which the Romans 
wrote in behalf of the Jews, 1 Mace. xv. 23. 

COLA, mentioned Judith xv. 4., as a place 
to which, in conjunction with others, Ozias sent 
messengers to stir up the Jews against the 
Assyrians after the death of Holofernes. Where 
it was situated is not known. 

COLLEGE, THE, a building in Jerusalem 
(probabl}^ near the courts of the Temple), 
where it is supposed some of the subordinate 
priests dwelt, and to which schools were attached. 
It is mentioned in 2 Kgs. xxii. 14., 2 Chron. 
xxxiv. 22., as the abode of Huldah . the pro- 
phetess, to whom King Josiah sent Hilldah the 
high priest, after he had found the Book of the 
Law, to inquire concerning the matter. In the 



margin it is called The Second Part, or The 
School. 

CO LOSS E, a city of Asia Minor, in the 
S.W. part of the province of Phrygia. It stood 
on the R, Lycus, about 20 miles above its 
junction with the Masander ; and near it, the 
former river is said to have disappeared under 
groiind for the distance of 5 stadia. It is de- 
scribed both by Herodotus and Xenophon as a 
flourishing city in their days. A Christian 
church, of which Epaphras was the minister, Col. 
i. 7., iv. 12, 13., was very early planted at 
Colosse, though whether or not by St. Paul is 
a matter of discussion {cf. Acts xvi. 6., xviii. 23. ; 
Col. ii. 1.) ; but the Apostle sent them, about a.d. 
64, his well-known Epistle to the Colossians, 
touching some important matters of doctrine 
which appear to have been misrepresented by 
false teachers, Col. i. 2. It was in a measure 
connected ecclesiastically with Laodicea and 
Hierapolis, from both of which it was about equi- 
distant. According to Eusebius, all three cities 
were destroyed by an earthquake in the tenth 
year of the Emperor Nero, i.e. about one year 
after the date of St. Paul's Epistle. The ruins 
of Colosse are now called Khonus. 

COOS, a small Dorian island at the entrance 
of the JEgsean Sea, off the S.W. point of the 
coast of Asia Minor, opposite Halicarnassus, 
between Ephesus and Rhodes. It was passed 
by St. Paul on his voyage from Macedonia to 
Jerusalem, Acts xxi. 1. It is now known as 
Stanco. The name is usually written Cos by 
profane authors; and also in the Apocrj^pha, 
1 Mace. XV. 23., where it is mentioned as one of 
the places to which the Romans wrote in behalf 
of the Jews. The island was very fertile, and 
famous for its sanative wine, as well as for its 
manufactures of beavitiful transparent silk and 
cotton. 

CORINTH, a city of the Peloponnesus, close 
to the isthmus which separated it from the 
mainland of Greece, and between the Corinthian 
and Saronic Gulfs, whence it obtained the epithet 
Bimaris, i.e. on Two Seas. It was anciently 
called Ephyre, and is said to have existed long 
before the siege of Troy. It was once the me- 
tropolis of a small but independent and wealthy 
state, vying even with Athens in the splendour 
of its architecture, as well as the genius and 
luxury of its people. It Avas noted for its com- 
merce, which existed from very early times, 
owing to the hazard of ships doubling the 
Peloponnesus ; merchandize was therefore landed 
at its ports, which led to its becoming one of the 



CORINTHIANS. 



CRETE. 



85 



most important entrepots in ancient times. The 
W. harbour was on the Gulf of Corinth, and 
was named Lechaeum. It was used by all vessels 
coming from, or going to, the W. shores of 
Greece, Italy, Gaul, &c. The other harbour 
was on the Saronic Gulf, and was called Cen- 
chrea. Acts xviii. 18. ; Rom. xvi. 1. ; which was 
the port of all ships to and from the E., as Asia 
Minor, the Euxine, Syria, Egypt, &c. Corinth 
stood at the foot of a lofty rock, whereon was 
built a citadel, reputed impregnable, named 
Aero- Corin thus, which, as it commanded the 
great passage into the Peloponnesus, is frequently 
styled one of the Gates of Greece. The isthmus 
itself was celebrated for its games, which were 
held here from a very early period, and con- 
tinued in vogue when the other gjmmastic con- 
tests of Greece had been given up. St. Paul is 
thought to allude to them in his Epistles, 1 
Cor. ix. 24. 27. ; Phihp. iii. 12. 14. ; 2 Tim. ii. 
o., iv. 7, 8. ;Heb. xii. 1, 2, 3. 12, 13. 

The arts and sciences flourished to an extra- 
ordinary degree at Corinth, and learning was 
so cultivated, that Cicero styles the city, " the 
Light of all Greece ; " but the people were ex- 
travagant and dissolute even to a proverb. Cf. 
also 1 Cor. vi. 9, 10. It was frequently involved 
in wars with its neighbours, but remained inde- 
pendent until mastered and annexed to Macedon 
by one of Alexander's successors. From this 
thraldom it was liberated by the Romans after 
the battle of Cynoscephalse ; it then soon became 
the chief organ of the Ach^an League, until 
provoking the vengeance of the Romans, it was 
taken, plundered, and burnt by the consul 
Mummius, b.c. 146. Julius Csesar restored 
and rebuilt it, sending many colonists there, 
and procuring it many great privileges. This 
led to its rapidly recovering much of its former 
greatness, and to its becoming the capital of the 
Roman province of Achaia. — St. Paul appears 
on his first visit to Corinth to have continued 
there eighteen months, lodging with Aquila 
and his Avife Priscilla, who, as well as himself, 
were tent-makers, Acts xviii. 1, 8., xix. 1. 
He appears to have visited it twice afterwards, 
Acts XX. 2. ; 2 Cor. i. 23., xii. 14., xiii. 1. ; 
2 Tim. iv. 20. ; and thence to have -wi-itten 
his Epistle to the Romans ; and according 
to some, his two Epistles to the Thessa- 
lonians. His two Epistles to the Corinthians, 
1 Cor. i. 2. ; 2 Cor. i. 1., n\. 11., were written to 
correct some sad disorders among them, pro- 
bably about A.D. 59 and 60 ; and were sent, as is 
said, from Philippi. 

CORIXTIIIAXS. Set CoKiNTH. 



CORXER, THE, a part of the new wall of 
Jerusalem, described by Nehcmiah, iii. 24. 31, 
32., as having been repaired under his direction. 
It seems to have been near or the same with the 
Turning of the Wall, mentioned iii. 24. ; and to 
have been towards the S.E. angle of the city, 
between the House of Eliashib and Ophel. The 
" Going up of the Corner " appears to have been 
between the two gates Miphkad and the Sheep 
Gate. 

CORNER GATE, a gate of Jerusalem, be- 
tween which and the Gate of Ephraim, Jehoash, 
king of Israel, after he had conquered Amaziah, 
king of Judah, at Bethshemesh, broke down the 
wall of the city for 400 cubits, and then entering 
the city, rifled the Temple and the king's house, 
2 Kgs. xiv. 13.; 2 Chron. xxv. 23. After 
Amaziah's death, it seems to have had a fortified 
tower built for its defence by Uzziah, in con- 
junction with other gates of the city, 2 Chron. 
xxvi. 9. ; and it is one of the gates spoken of by 
Zechariah, xiv. 10., in his wonderful prophecy 
concerning Jerusalem in the latter days. It is 
identified by some with the Old Gate, Neh. 
iii. 6., xii. 39. ; but this is doubtful. 

CORRUPTION, MT. OF, a name applied 
2 Kgs. xxiii. 13., to the Mt. of Olives, from 
Solomon having built altars on it to Ashto- 
reth, the abomination of the Zidonians, Chemosh 
of the Moabites, and Milcom or JMolech of the 
Ammonites, 1 Kgs, xi. 7. ; which Josiah defiled 
and destroyed. 

COS, 1 Mace. XV. 23., an island at the entrance 
of the-iEg£ean Sea, on the Asiatic side, now called 
Stanco, to w^hich the Romans sent a letter in 
favour of the Jews. See Coos. 

CRAFTSMEN, VALLEY OF, 1 Chron. iv. 
14., marg. ; Neh. xi. 35. See Charashim. 

CRETE, a large and noble island of the Medi- 
terranean, at the S. extremity of the ^Egfean 
Sea, and as it were blocking up its entrance ; its 
greatest length is 140 miles, its average breadth 
about 20 : it is now called Candia. It is very 
fertile, abounding in wine, oil, and fruits, and its 
climate is of a most happy temperature ; hence 
it was styled Macaronesus, the Happy Island. 
It was also surnamed Hecatompolis from its 
hundred cities ; and was famed for ha-\-ing given 
birth to the heathen god Jupiter, and as the 
place wdiere (upon Mt. Ida) he Avas brought 
up, and where his tomb Avas shown. It was 
celebrated for its excellent legislative code 
(from Avhich Lycurgus borroAved ir.any of his 
institutions) drawn up by its king ]Miiius, said to 

G 3 



86 



CUSH. 



have been a son of Jupiter and Europa, who also 
established religious rites, many of which were 
copied by the Greeks. The inhabitants in the 
earlier part of their history, are reputed to have 
been a wise and just people, but they degenerated 
so far as to be charged with the grossest vices. 
They formed one of the three bad Kappas, Cap- | 
padocia and Cilicia being the other two. St. ' 
Paul in his Epistle to Titus, i. 12., quotes Epi- : 
menides, one of their own poets, as a witness 
against their falsehood, gluttony, and general 
sensuality. Minos is said to have reduced the 
neighbouring pirates and set up a powerful 
navy. This may have led to the Cretans becom- 
ing such expert sailors, and their ships visiting 
almost every coaft. They were also excellent 
light troops, especially skilled in archery, and 
readily offered their services for hire to any 
nation that needed them. 

Crete is thought by some to have been first 
colonized by the Caphtorim, Gen. x. 14., but this 
is doubtful. It appears to have always formed 
an independent state, governed in various ways, 
until reduced by the Komans, B.C. 67, when it 
formed a province of the Eoman empire. It is 
mentioned 1 Mace. x. 67., as the abode of the 
younger Demetrius. A Christian church was 
planted in the island in very early times, of which 
Titus was appointed the first bishop, Tit. i. 5. 
On the Day of Pentecost, certain Cretes were 
amongst those who heard and saw the wonders 
of that season. Acts ii. 10. St. Paul on his tem- 
pestuous voyage to Rome, sailed under Crete over 
against Salmone, which is its E. promontory. 
Acts xxvii. 7., to a harbour called the Fair 
Havens, near the city Lasea, which were both on 
the S. side of the island ; but leaving it in order 
to run into the neighbouring port of Phenice, 
they were caught by the tempestuous wind 
which put them in such peril, Acts xxvii 12, 13. 
21. 

CUSH, the countries peopled by the de- 
scendants of Cush, the son of Ham, Gen. x. 6, 7, 8. ; 
1 Chron. i. 8. ; and generally called Ethiopia in 
our translation of the Bible. Owing to the 
many families of the Cuohites and their various 
migrations, it is not easy to define the regions 
mentioned by this name. Indeed, it is thought 
by many that the Hebrews used the word as 
extensively and indefinitely as the Greeks did 
that of Ethiopia, and we that of the Indies ; and 
that they called every country of the Torrid 
Zone, and all their inhabitants who were black 
or tawny, Cush and Cushan. Hence, perhaps, 
the prophet Jeremiah, xiii. 23., asks, "Can the 



Ethiopian [the Cushite] change his skin?" 
From this circumstance, also, the eunuch Ebed- 
melech the Ethiopian, who was so compassionate 
to Jeremiah when put into the dungeon, may 
have received his epithet, Jer. xxxviii. 7. 10. 12. 
The difficulty of fixing the meaning and extent 
I of Cush is increased, owing to the almost ex- 
' elusive application of the term Ethiopia by the 
: Greek and Koman writers to the regions in 
Africa S. of Egypt. At one time the whole 
country E. of the R. Tigris and the Nile, seems 
to have been called Cush; but in process of 
years, the name was used in a more confined and 
divided way, from the immigrations of other 
families separating the several bands of the 
Cushites one from the other. The only passages 
in which our version retains the original word 
Cush, are. Gen, ii. 13., marg. ; Num. xii. 1. ; 
Isa. xi. 11, ; Jer. xlvi. 9., marg. ; and Hab. iii. 7. 
But as one word alone is employed in the 
original, it may be convenient here to speak of 
the two names Cush and Ethiopia as one general 
term. It seems, then, agreed upon, that there 
are at least three great divisions, under which 
the name is used in the Bible, and under which, 
likewise, it will be attempted to class the follow- 
ing references; viz., the Eastern, the Arabian, 
and the African Cush. 

I. The Eastern Cush. In Gen. ii. 13., 
the R, Gihon, i.e, the Tigris, is said to compass 
the whole land of Cush, which can, as it would 
appear, refer only to Assyria, In Isa, xi. 11., 
and Zeph. iii. 10., the promised restoration of 
Israel from Cush is thought to refer to India ; 
and so the word is rendered in the Syriac and 
Chaldee versions. In Zeph. ii. 12., where de- 
struction is threatened against the Ethiopians, 
they are connected with Assyria and Nineveh. 
The same countries seem referred to in Ezek. 
xxxviii. 5., where Ethiopia is spoken of as 
swelling the armies of Gog against Israel ; and 
in Amos ix. 7., where the house of Israel are 
compared to the children of the Ethiopians. 

II. The Arabian Cush. In Num. xii. 1,, 
the wife of Moses is called an Ethiopian, which, 
as she came from Midian, must refer to Arabia ; 
and Hab. iii. 7., uses the appellation in the same 
way, expressly joining Cushan and Midian in 
one sorrow. Job, xxviii. 19., speaks of the topaz 
of Ethiopia, alluding, as it is thought, to the 
precious stones which came from the mines in 
the S. parts of Arabia. In Ezek. xxix. 10., God 
threatens to waste Egypt from the Tower of 
Syene, i.e. its S. border, to the border of Ethiopia, 
its E, limit, which would niake it Arabia. In 
2 Chron. xxi. 16., the Ethiopians are mentioned 

i 



CUSHAN. 



CYPRUS. 



87 



as near the Arabians, which can hardly be said of 
Cush in Egypt, from which the latter were sepa- 
rated by the Red Sea ; nor of the Eastern Cush, 
from which they were divided by an enormous 
desert. In 2 Kgs. xix. 9., and Isa. xxxvii. 9., 
Tirhakah, king of Ethiopia, is mentioned as 
coming out to battle against the Assyrians, then 
ravaging Judsea; and in 2 Chron, xiv. 9. 12, 13., 
xvi. 8., Zerah the Ethiopian, is described as 
coming with a host of a million of men against 
Asa, king of Judah, who conquered him and 
drove him back ; in both which histories, Arabia 
seems more suitable than any other land. In 
Ps. Ixviii. 31., Ixxxvii. 4., the progress of the 
gospel in Ethiopia seems to allude to Arabia, as 
do also the passages in Isa. xliii. 3., xlv. 14. ; the 
first of which speaks of God's giving Ethiopia 
for the ransom of Israel, and the second, of the 
merchandize of the Ethiopians and Sabeans. 

III. The African* Cush. It is conjectured 
that these crossed the Red Sea from Arabia 
at its narrow strait, now called Babelman- 
deb, and settled S. of Egypt, on the upper 
branches of the Nile, Judith i. 10., where after- 
wards was the famous kingdom of Meroe, in 
Nubia and Sennaar. The inhabitants of these 
regions still distinguish their country by the 
name of Itiapia and Ghez (Cush?), and call 
themselves Agazi and Itiopiawan. To this locality 
we may probably refer Esth. i. 1., viii. 9., which 
describe the empire of Ahasuerus as extending 
from India to Ethiopia ; also Isa. xviii. 1., xx. 3, 
4, 5. ; Ezek. xxx. 4, 5. 9., which denounce woe 
against Ethiopia, and the land " shadowing with 
wings beyond the rivers of Ethiopia ; " and 
2 Chron. xii. 3., where the Ethiopians are de- 
scribed as following with the army of Shishak, 
king of Egypt, in his attack on Rehoboam, king 
of Judah. The following passages, likewise, ^ 
connecting as they do Egypt and Libya with j 
Ethiopia, appear to have more reference to the 
countries on the is ile than any other, Jer. xlvi. 9. ; | 
Nah. iii. 9. ; Dan. xi. 43. The Ethiopian noble- 
man whom Philip baptized, Acts viii. 27., who 
was the treasurer of the queen of the Ethiopians, 
is also reputed to have come from these parts, 
and to have carried back the gospel into 
Abyssinia. 

CUSHAN, Hab. iii. 7. See Cush. 
CUSHITE, Num. xii. 1. See Cush. 
CUTH, 2 Kgs. xvii. 80. ; or 

CUTHAH, 2 Kgs. xvii. 24., a province of the 
Ass}T.-ian empire, which probably derived its name 
from Cush, some of Avhose descendants are 
thought to have settled here. Its ancient name 

I 



is preserved in those of Susiana and Cissia, by 
which it is known in the classical authors; as 
also in that of the Cossasi, a hardy and brave 
race of men, who dwelled in its N. part, and 
extended into Assyria. It is now called Khu- 
zistan, a province of Persia, at the entrance of the 
Euphrates into the Persian Gulf From it, as well 
as from other adjacent countries, Esarhaddon, 
the Assyrian monarch, Ezra iv. 10., brought 
men to Palestine, B.C. 678, about forty years 
after Shalmaneser bad carried the Ten Tribes 
captive to Cuthah and other provinces of his do- 
minions. These Cuthasans were settled by him 
in Samaria, where the}' continued to worship the 
false gods of their own land; for which pro- 
vocation, lions were sent among them by God to 
destroy them, 2 Kgs. xvii. 26. When Esar- 
haddon heard this, he appointed one of the 
priests of Israel to go and teach them the true 
religion ; but the people mingled the worship of 
the God of Israel with that of their own heathen 
deities. This they did for a long period, until 
at length they appear to have mostly renounced 
their heathen rites and idolatry together, keep- 
ing to the law of Moses alone. After the 
return of the two tribes from the Babylonian 
captivity, the Cuthteans, or Samaritans as they 
were now called, wished to assist them in re- 
building the Temple at Jerusalem ; but Zerub- 
babel refused to allow these adversaries of Israel 
to join in the work, Ezra iv. 3. ; Cyrus, king of 
Persia, having given permission to Jews only to 
build the Temple. This led to their using all 
means in their power to hinder the building, in 
which they su.cceeded until the second year of 
the reign of Darius ; the feud between the Jews 
and Samaritans continuing to the latest period of 
their history, Jo. iv. 9. The Cuthaeans do not 
appear to have built one common temple on Mt. 
Gerizim, until the second Temple at Jerusalem 
had been completed. Indeed, Josephus states 
that they did not do so until the time of 
Alexander the Great. 

CYAMOX, a place in the S. of Galilee, on 
the borders of Samaria, and near Esdraelon, 
in the Great Plain. It formed one extremity 
of the camp of Holofernes Avhen besieging 
Bethulia; the other reaching to the cit}- 
itself, Judith vii. 3. 

CYPRUS, which still retains its old name, 
is the second island in size in the Medi- 
terranean, Sicily being the first. It lay to the 
W. of Phoenice in Syria, and S. of Cilicia in 
Asia Minor, being separated from the latter 
by a narrow channel, called anciently Anion 
G 4 



88 



CYPEUS. 



CYRENE. 



Cilicius iu the classical authors, but the Sea of 
Cilicia and Pamphylia in the Acts of the Apos- 
tles, xxvii. 5. Its situation at the E. end of the 
Great Sea, bordering upon Asia Minor, Syria, 
and Egypt, rendered it a very important 
island ; whilst its amazing fertility and its own 
internal resources were so great, that probably 
no country surpassed it in the number and 
excellence of its natural productions. It was 
stated to be the only place in the known world 
which could fit out a ship without foreign 
assistance. Its wine, oil, wool, and honey, w^ere 
very much prized ; but especially its copper 
(said to have derived its name, cuprum, from 
the island), which was purer and more 
flexible than that of any other country. Cy- 
prus is thought by many to have been the 
original abode of the Chittim, Gen. x. 4. ; 
1 Chron. i. 7., since there seem to be many 
traces of their name in it, as Citium, Citius 
Sinus, and Cythera. But this is disputable. 
See Chittim. 

The earliest known inhabitants of Cyprus, 
were the Phoenicians, who are said to have 
been joined by some Greeks shortly after the 
siege of Troy. It was subsequently conquered 
successively by the Egyptians, the Persians, 
the Macedonians, and the Eomans, the last 
mentioned making it a consular province. It 
is one of the countries mentioned in the Apo- 
crypha as having been written to by the 
Eomans in behalf of the Jews, 1 Mace. xv. 
23. Cf. also 2 Mace. iv. 29., x. 13. The in- 
habitants were exceedingly ingenious and in- 
dustrious, but much given to pleasure and 
dissipation. Their chief deity was Venus, 
whom the mythologists represent as ha\ang 
been born in the island, and to whom it was 
especially devoted. Her chief temple was at 
Paphos. Cyprus is frequently mentioned in 
the Acts of the Apostles. The Apostle Bar- 
nabas was a Levite of this island, Acts iv. 
36., as appear also to have been some of the 
persecuted Christians. On the death of Stephen, 
these last having been driven from Judaea, 
resorted hithei". Acts xi. 19, 20., xxi. 16., 
preaching the gospel to the Jews only, but 
afterwards travelled to Antioch, and there 
preached to the Greeks. When Paul and Bar- 
nabas, accompanied by Mark, were sent forth 
to go to the Gentiles, they came to Cyprus, 
Acts xiii. 4. ; visiting Salamis and going 
through the isle, until they came to Paphos, 
the chief city of Cyprian idolatry. Here the 
deputy Sergius Paul us was converted on the 
preaching of Paul, and Elymas the Sorcerer 



was struck blind. After the separation of Paul 
and Barnabas, it Avas again visited by the 
latter in company with Mark, Acts xv. 39., 
and according to tradition, Barnabas v/as here 
stoned to death by the Jews. Subsequently, 
Paul sailed past the island twice; on his 
voyage from Macedonia to Jerusalem, Acts 
xxi. 1 3., and from Ca^sarea to Rome, Acts 
xxvli. 4. 

CYEENE, a country of Libya, on the IT. 
coast of Africa, between Egypt and Tripoli. 
It derived its name from its chief city Cyrene, 
which was founded by a Dorian called Battus, 
who was its first king, and was succeeded 
by seven others. On the death of the last, 
CjTene, together with the neighbouring cities, 
ApoUonia, Ptolemais, Teuchira, and Berenice, 
formed a league, hence surnamed the Penta- 
polis from the Jive cities composing it ; or some- 
times Cj'rene and Cyrenaica. St. Luke pre- 
sences the old name, calling it the parts of 
Libya about Cyrene, Acts ii. 10. Cyrene was 
mastered by the Persians, but preserved its 
existence by the payment of a tribute. It had 
a sharp struggle with Carthage, of which it 
was a powerful rival, but preserved its inde- 
pendence until conquered by the kings of 
Egypt, one of whom Apion, dying without 
issue, bequeathed it to the Eomans. The lat- 
ter people left it to enjoy most of its inde- 
pendence, until through the restless turbulence 
of the Cyrenians they were driven to take pos- 
session of it, and together with Crete united it 
into one province, governed by the same pro- 
consul, and constituted the city Cyrene their 
metropolis of Libya. 

The inhabitants of Cyrene were rich and 
luxurious, but ingenious and industrious, and 
cultivated the arts and sciences with great 
success. Their commerce also was very ex» 
tensive, and their ships were found riding on 
every sea. The country immediately about 
it Avas very fertile, and was the reputed site 
of the famous Gardens of the Hesperides. Its 
horses were amongst the finest in the world, 
and often gained the prize in the games of 
Greece. 

Cyrene was the dwelling place of many Jews 
after the return from Babylon, 1 Mace. xv. 23. ; 
2, -Mace. ii. 23. It is often mentioned in the New 
Testament. It was from Cyrene that Simon 
came, who for awhile was compelled to bear 
the cross on which the Blessed Saviour was 
about to suffer. Matt, xxvii. 32. ; Mk. xv. 21. ; 
Lu. xxiii. 26. Some of its devout Jews were 



CYRENIANS. 



DAMASCUS. 89 



present at Jerusalem on the memorable Day 
of Pentecost, Acts ii. 10. ; others of them Avere 
numbered with those who disputed with Ste- 
phen, and stirred up the people to stone him, 
Acts vi. 9. ; others, again, who had been con- 
verted to the Christian faith, travelled as far 
as An tioch after the protomartyr's death, preach- 



ing the gospel of Jesus Christ, Acts xi. 
20. ; and one of its inhabitants Lucius, is ex- 
pressly mentioned as having been a prophet 
and teacher in the church at Antioch, Acts 
xiii. 1. 

CYRENIANS, Mk. xv. 21.; Lu. xxiii. 26.; 
Acts vi. 9. ; 2 Mace. ii. 23. See CyPwENE. 



DABAREH, a town in the inheritance of the 
tribe of Issachar, which was eventually assignod 
to the Levites of the family of Gershon, Josh, 
xxi. 28. It seems to be the same with Daberath 
mentioned in Josh. xix. 12., as lying on the 
border of Zebulun, and in 1 Chron. vi. 72., as a 
city of the Gershonites. 

DABBASHETH, a town of the tribe of Ze- 
bulun, on its border, apparently towards Asher, 
Josh. xix. 11. 

DABERATH, Josh. xix. 12. ; 1 Chron. vi. 72. 
See Dabareh. 

DAGON, TEMPLE OF, 1 Mace. x. 84., xi. 4., 
or Beth-dagon, x. 83., an idol temple of the false 
god Dagon, who was called also Derceto, Athara, 
Atargatis, and as some suppose Ashtaroth or 
Astarte, in Ashdod, which remained until the 
time of the Maccabaean wars, when it was burnt 
by Jonathan. We read in 1 Sam. v. 2., of the 
temple of Dagon at Ashdod, into which the 
Philistines took the ark of the covenant, and in 
Judg. xvi. 23., of a temple of Dagon, appa- 
rently at Gaza, the roof of which was pulled 
down upon the Philistines by Samson at his 
death. See Beth-Dagon. 

DALMANUTHA, a place in Galilee, whether 
a town or a district is uncertain. It was on the 
shores of the Sea of Tiberias, which the Divine 
Redeemer crossed to arrive at it, after haAdng 
miraculously fed the four thousand, Mk. -viii. 10. 
It is cpnjectured to have been the same with, or 
near to, Magdala, Matt. xv. 39. ; as what is said 
of the " parts of Dalmanutha " in the former 
passage is repeated of the " coasts of Magdala " 
in the latter. Dalmanutha is placed by some at 
the modem Khan el Minyah. 

DALMATIA, a province lying along the E. 
shores of the Adriatic Sea, touching Macedonia 
on the S., Moesia on the E., and Liburnia on the 
N. It now forms a district in the S. part of the 
Austrian dominions, which is still called Dalmatia, 
as well as the Turkish provinces of Herzegovina, 
Croatia, and Bosnia. Dalmatia is stated to have 
derived its name from the city Delminium, 



which was destroyed by C. M. Figulus. Dal- 
matia and Liburnia constituted the two great 
di\asions of Illyricum, being separated from 
each other by the small river Titius, now Kerka. 
The inhabitants were brave and hardy, and 
are represented sometimes as savages and rob- 
bers ; a pretext which was used by the Romans 
for attacking them, though it was many years 
before they brought them into subjection. Their 
country was noted for its fine marble. At Salona, 
which still keeps it name, one of its N. towns on 
the coast of the Adriatic, the Emperor Diocletian 
was born. After his abdication, he retired to 
the neighbouring city Spalatum, now Spalatro, 
where he built himself a magnificent palace. 

St. Paul in his Epistle to the Romans, xv. 19., 
writes that from Jerusalem round about unto 
Illyricvim, he had fully preached the gospel of 
Christ. Whether this refers to Dalmatia we do 
not know; but in 2 Tim. iv. 10., he speaks of 
Titus as having departed to Dalmatia. 

DAMASCENES, 2 Cor. xi. 32., the inhabit- 
ants of the city of Damascus ; which see. 

DAMASCUS, a country and kingdom of 
Syria, and hence called Syria-Damascus, and its 
inhabitants the Syrians of Damascus, 2 Sam. 
viii. 5, 6. ; 1 Chron. xA^iii. 5, 6. ; and sometimes 
merely Syrians, 2 Sam. viii. 5, 6. It derived its 
name from Damascus, its chief city, which 
indeed was for a long time -vdrtually the me- 
tropolis of Syria — at all events, after the ruin 
of its neighbour Zobah. Neither its extent nor 
direction is well understood ; but it seems to 
have stretched chiefly to the N. of the capital, 
and to have been bounded on the W. by Phcenice 
and Rehob, on the N. by Hamath, on the E, 
by Hamath-Zc-bah, and on the S. by Zobah. 
Damascus is one of the most ancipjit cities in 
the world, being mentioned in the historj'- of 
Abraham as near Hobah, whither he pursued 
the kings who had plmidered Sodom and carried 
Lot captive, Gen. xiv. 15. ; and also as the birth- 
place of his stCAvard Eliezer, xv. 2., which may 
have led to the common but groundless tra- 
dition among the Arabs, that Abraham built it. 



90 



DAMASCUS. 



From lying in a delightful, luxurious, and most 
productive country, on the high road between 
the hither and further Asias, Africa, and Arabia, 
it soon grew into importance, both as a place 
of commerce and a political post. Hence the 
Emperor Julian called it the Eye of the East, 
and the Orientals style it the Paradise on Earth. 
It seems to have been governed in very early 
times by its own rulers, probably in subjection 
to Zobah, its more powerful neighbour, the 
king of which at one time had such influence 
over many of the surrounding countries that 
their kings are called his servants in 2 Sam. x. 19. 

But we do not read of Damascus as an inde- 
pendent state until the time of David, when 
Eliadah, who had been a servant of Hadadezer, 
king of Zobah, fled from him to Damascus, and 
gained such power as to become its king, 1 Kgs. 
xi. 23, 24. ; though it afterwards, probably from 
a common interest in the struggle, sent assist- 
ance to Hadadezer, when he opposed David as 
he went to recover his border at the E. Euphrates. 
Upon this occasion David slew 22,000 of the 
Syrians of Damascus, put garrisons in their 
country, and brought the people into tribute and 
subjection, 2 Sam. viii. 5, 6. 12. ; 1 Kgs. xi. 24. ; 
1 Chron, xviii. 5, 6. But in the latter years of 
Solomon's reign, God was pleased to stir up 
Eezon, Eliadah's son, as an adversary against 
him, when Damascus threw off the J ewish yoke, 
greatly annoyed Israel, and became such a 
powerful kingdom as to rule over Syria, 1 Kgs. 
xi. 23 — 25., XV. 18. Some years afterwards 
Asa, king of Judah, with a large present hired 
Benhadad, now styled king of Syria, dwelling 
at Damaseus, to come and help him against 
Baasha, king of Israel, under the plea that there 
was a league existing between them, as there 
had been between their fathers ; when Benhadad 
attacked and plundered the cities in the N. 
tribes of Israel near his border, 1 Kgs. xv. 18 — 
20. ; 2 Chron. xvi. 2 — 7., proceeding even as far 
as Samaria, in which he is said to have built 
streets for himself, 1 Kgs. xx. 34. This conquest 
seems to have been for a time maintained ; and 
from this time forward, we find the two king- 
doms of Israel and Damascus repeatedly at war 
with each other; the sovereigns of the latter 
country now usually assuming one common 
surname, like the Pharaohs of Egypt and the 
Ctesars of Kome, viz. that of Benhadad. The 
second king of this name seems to have greatly 
increased his dominions, having thirty-two 
kings under him, 1 Kgs. xx. 1., by whose help 
he went and attacked Samaria in the reign of 
Ahab; but was conquered and driven back by 



him twice, 1 Kgs. xx. 20, 21, 22, 23. 26, 27, 28, 
29. 31., taken prisoner, and reduced to sue for 
his life on the terms that he would restore all 
the cities of Israel which his father had taken, 
and that Ahab should build streets in Damascus 
as the first Benhadad had done in Samaria, 

1 Kgs. XX. 34. — a treat}^ which cost Ahab his 
life, 42. But after three years' peace between 
the two kingdoms, upon Benhadad's not fulfil- 
ling his treaty, but keeping Ramoth-Gilead, 
Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, joined Ahab in an 
attack upon the king of Syria, when Ahab was 
slain, and the Israelites were driven back, 1 
Kgs. xxii. 1. 3. 11. 31. 35.; 2 Kgs. v. 1, 2.; 2 
Chron. xviii. 10. 30. 34. 

In the reign of Jehoram, king of Israel, the 
Syrians of Damascus again made two attacks 
upon Israel ; in one of which through the mi- 
raculous knowledge of Elisha, 2 Kgs. vi. 8, 9. 1 1. 
23., and in the other by an alarm which the 
Lord made them to hear, 2 Kgs. vi. 24., vii. 4, 5, 
6. 10. 12. 14, 15, 16., they were repulsed. Some 
years afterwards, when Elisha went to Damascus, 

2 Kgs. viii. 7. 9., Benhadad, who was sick, sent 
Hazael to him with a present to know if he 
should recover; but the prophet foretelling his 
perfidy and cruelty, 2 Kgs. viii. 13., (Elijah 
having been commissioned to anoint him to be 
king of Syria, 1 Kgs. xix. 15.), Plazael mur- 
dered his master, and reigned in his stead. 
Hereupon he began greatly to afiiict Israel, 
again successfully contesting Ramoth-Gilead 
with Ahaziah, king of Judah, and Joram, king 
of Israel, 2 Kgs. viii. 28, 29. ; 2 Chron. xxii. 5, 
6. ; and afterwards, in the days of Jehu, cutting 
Israel short on all their E. border, 2 Kgs. x. 32. ; 
Amos i. 3. ; advancing even to Judah, where he 
took Gath, and would have sacked Jerusalem 
but for the bribe which Jehoash, king of Judah, 
gave him to go away, though he still destroyed 
all the princes and sent the spoil of them to 
Damascus, 2 Kgs. xii. 17, 18.; 2 Chron. xxiv. 
23, 24. He likewise greatly oppressed the king- 
dom of Israel under Jehoahaz, destroying 
nearly all their army, and making them like the 
dust by threshing; until at the prayer of Je- 
hoahaz, the Lord was pleased to deliver Israel 
out of the Syrians' hands, 2 Kgs. xiii. 4, 5. 7. ; 
Amos i. 3. 

Indeed, during all the reigns of Hazael and 
his son Benhadad, Israel was more or less 
scourged by them, 2 Kgs. xiii. 3. 22. 24, 25. ; 
though the latter was beaten three times, and 
the cities of Israel were taken from him by 
Jehoash, king of Israel, according to the pre- 
diction of Elisha, 2 Kgs. xiii. 14 — 19. Jeroboam, 



DAMASCUS. 



91 



tlie second king of Israel of this name, pressed 
liim still harder, possessing himself even of 
Damascus and Hamath, 2 Kgs. xiv. 25. 28. j 
But on his death the S}-rians imder Eezin again 
recovered their independence, and forming a ! 
league with Pekah, king of Israel, invaded the j 
Je\nsh territory, even threatening Jerusalem, 
2 Kgs. XV. 37., xvi. 5, 6. ; Isa. yH. 1, 2. 4, 5. 
8., ix. 12. ; Ezek. xvi. 57., smiting Ahaz, and 
carrying away a great multitude captive to 
Damascus, 2 Chron. xx\dii. 5, Cf. Amos iii. j 
12., V. 27. Upon this, Ahaz in his extremity i 
sent a present to Tiglath-Pileser, king of 
Assyria, with an urgent demand for assistance 
against his enemies; whereupon the latter 
attacked and took Damascus, carried the in- 
habitants captive to Kir, the original seat of 
the Syrian race, and united the country with 
his own empire, B.C. 7i0, 2 Kgs. xvi. 7 — 9. ; 2 
Chron. xxviii. 16. 20, 21. ; Isa. x. 9. From that 
time, as Isaiah predicted, xvii. 3., " the king- 
dom ceased from Damascus," it never having 
since been an independent state ; and many of 
the woes denounced against it were then ful- 
filled, Isa. vii, 4, 5. 8., viii. 4, x\ai. 1. ; Amos 

i. 3 — 5., ix. 7. 

After the conquest, Ahaz, persisting in that 
idolatrous wickedness which had brought snch 
troubles xipon him, went to Damascus to meet 
Tiglath-Pileser, and there not only sacrificed, 
in his superstition, to the gods of Damascus, 
but seeing in the city an idol altar, he caused 
the fashion of it to be copied, and set up 
in the Temple at Jerusalem, offei'ing sacrifices 
on it, and removing the brazen altar from its 
place, 2 Kgs. xvi. 10, 11, 12. ; 2 Chron. xxviii. 
22, 23 — 25. Damascus appears, however, to 
have recovered from these misfortunes which 
befell it. In the Apocrypha, it is mentioned as 
having been summoned to his aid by Isabu- 
chodonosor, Judith i. 7., which it probably 
refused, as its plain was ravaged by Holofernes, 

ii. 27. ; Jeremiah, xlix. 23, 24. 27., denounces woe 
against it. Ezekiel speaks of it as a rich and 
flourishing city, xxvii. 18. ; pointing it out also 
as part of the J^.E. border of the Holy Land in 
the latter days, xlvii. 16, 17, 18.. xlviii. 1. 
After the Jews' return from the captivity in 
Babylon, Zechariah, ix. 1., foretold some of the 
calamities Avhich should befall it, and which no 
doubt came to pass during some of the many 
masters it now had. 

On the downfall of the Assyrian monarchy, 
Damascus became a province successively of 
the Chaldean, Persian, and Macedonian empires. 
At the death of Alexander the Great, it fell 



into the hands of the Seleucidsc, Antiochus 
making it his residence. It now became the 
residence of many Jews; and during the com- 
motions in Syria under Demetrius II., the Mac- 
cabees seem to have got possession of Damascus, 
1 Mac. xi. 62., xii. 32., but hoAV long they held 
it is not known. On the decline of the power of 
the Seleucida?, Damascus and a large portion 
of Syria fell into the grasp of Tigranes, king of 
Armenia, from w^hom it was taken by the 
generals of Pompey, B.C. 64. Augustus be- 
stowed it on Herod, from whose son Antipas, 
it was taken by his father-in-law Aretas, king of 
Arabia, when Antipas connected himself with 
Herodias, to the neglect of the Arabian king's 
daughter. Cf. Matt. xiv. 3. ; 2 Cor. xi. 32. It 
was eventually recovered by the Eomans, who 
made it a colony, and granted it large privileges, 
especially the Emperor Julian. They con- 
stituted it the metropolis of that part of Coele- 
Syria, which from it was called Damascene ; 
thotigh in later times, the limits and names of 
the Syrian provinces were often changed. Da- 
mascus continued in the possession of the 
Romans until taken by the Saracens, a.d. 634., 
when they made it the capital of their empire. 

DAMASCUS, one of the oldest and most mag- 
nificent cities in the world, was the metropolis of 
the foregoing kingdom, and for a long period of 
all Syria, whose kings generally resided here. 
It is called in the Hebrew and in the margin of 
our Bible Dammesek, 2 Kgs. XA-i. 9., or Dar- 
mesek, 2 Chron. xvi. 2., xxiv. 23., xx-siii. 5. 23. ; 
and is still known by the name of Damascus, or 
Demesk as the Arabians write it, though they 
likewise give it the appellation of Sham. It is 
situated in a plain of such extraordinary beauty 
and fertihty, as to be styled one of the four 
Paradises of the Earth. It lay at the foot of the 
ridge of Mt. Hermon, overlooked as it were by 
Mt. Lebanon, on which there seems to have been 
a beautiful tower looking towards the city, 
which is mentioned in the So. of Sol. vii. 
4. Damascus Avas watered by a river now called 
Barada, but by the Greeks Chrysorrhoas, or the 
Golden River, from its fertilising Avaters, and by 
the Syrians Pharpar, 2 Kgs. \. 12. A little 
below the city, this riA-er is joined by the Abana, 
noAV El Berde ; and the united Avaters, together 
with many other connecting streams, floAV into 
a beautiful lake noAV called Bahr el 3IerJ, i. e. 
the Lake of the Meadows. OAving to its importiuit 
position betAveen Palestine and the kingdoms 
beyond the Euphrates, the city of Damascus Avas 
constantly mixed up Avith the afiairs of the Jcavs, 



92 DAMASCUS, WILDERNESS OF. 



DAN. 



being in the hand of God a great instrament for 
afflicting them ; and it was also repeatedly 
changing its masters, as may be gathered from 
its political history in the preceding article. Its 
inhabitants were celebrated for their commer- 
cial enterprise, their riches, their skill and 
bravery, as well as for their superstitious idolatry, 
1 Kgs. X. 29. ; 2 Kgs. v. 1., xvi. 10. ; 2 Chron. 
i. 17., xxviii. 23. ; Isa. viii. 4. ; Jer. xlix. 24 —26. ; 
Ezek. xxvii. 16. 18. ; Amos i. 3. 

After their return from the Babylonian cap- 
tivity, it gradually became the abode of many 
Jews, especially after the days of the Maccabees, 
and at the first promulgation of the gospel, when 
they had many synagogues there, Acts ix. 2. 20. 
But the chief interest attached to the mention of 
Damascus in the New Testament, is its connec- 
tion with the history of the Apostle Paul, who 
was intercepted in his career of persecution, and 
miraculously converted near the city. Acts ix. 2. 
3. 8. 10. 19., xxii. 5, 6. 10, 11., xxvi. 12. It was 
also the scene of his baptism, his first sermon 
and his earliest labours in the cause of Chris- 
tianity, Acts ix. 18. 20. 22. 27., xxvi. 20. ; Gal. 
i. 17, 18. The governor of the city, being stirred 
up, as is most likely, by the unbelieving Jews 
(and according to tradition, by their reporting 
that he was a spy of the Romans, from whose 
client Herod Antipas, Aretas, the kin^ of Arabia, 
had lately taken Damascus), endeavoured to ap- 
prehend Paul ; but he was let down in a basket 
over the wall, and so escaped from his enemies' 
hands, 2 Cor. xi. 32. Many places are still shown 
in the city in connection with the Apostle's 
wondrous history; but however doubtful their 
identity may be, "the street" which was called 
" Straight," Acts ix. 11., is said still to remain, 
being more than a mile in length, and as straight 
as a dart. 

DAMASCUS, WILDERNESS OF, 1 Kgs. 
xix. 15., whither the prophet Elijah was com- 
manded by God to return from Horeb, and when 
he came there, to anoint Hazael to be king over 
Syria. It was probably the void open country 
to the S. of the metropolis, bordering upon the 
vast Arabian desert. 

DAMMESEK, 2 Kgs. xvi. 9., marg., the 
Hebrew form of the name Damascus ; which see. 

DAMMIM, COAST OF, 1 Sam. xvii. 1., marg., 
the same with Ephes-dammim and Pas-dam- 
niim, 1 Chron. xi. 13. ; which see. 

DAN (i. e. Judging), one of the twelve tribes of 
Israel, the most numerous after that of Judah. 
It derived its name from Dan, the fifth son of 
Jacob, by Bilhah, Rachel's maid, Gen. xxx. 6., 



XXXV. 25. ; 1 Chron. ii. 2. ; who though he seems 
to have had but one son (Hushim, Gen. xlvi. 
23., or Shuham, Num. xxvi. 42.), yet, when they 
came out of Egypt about 260 years after the birth 
of Dan, the tribe contained 62,700 fighting men, 
Num. i. 12. 38, 39., ii. 26. When they were num- 
bered again in the Plains of Moab, about thirty- 
eight years afterwards, their number was 64,400, 
Num. xxvi. 42, 43. They marched under their 
own standard, being the tenth tribe as ranged in 
the order of their journeyings, followed by Aslier 
and Naphtali ; these three tribes forming the 
rereward of all the camps ; and when encamped, 
they pitched their tents on the N. side of the 
Tabernacle, Num. ii. 25. 31., x. 25. The total 
number of the whole camp of Dan was 157,600 
fighting men. The offerings of the tribe of Dan 
for the service of God on the occasion of the 
dedication of the Tabernacle in the Wilderness 
were made on the tenth day, vii. 66. One of 
the Danites was chosen by Moses, and sent from 
Kadesh, to spy out the Promised Land, Num. 
xiii. 12., together with eleven more men from 
the other tribes. The young man who was 
stoned for blasphemy during the wandering in 
the Wilderness, and whose father was an Egyp- 
tian, was the son of an Israelitish woman of the 
tribe of Dun, Lev. xxiv. 11. When the Israelites 
crossed the Jordan, the tribe of Dan was one of 
the six appointed to stand upon Mt. Ebal to 
curse, Deut. xxvii. 13. 

They were a wise, and brave, and warlike 
people, 1 Chron. xii. 35., as may be also inferred 
not only from their history, but from the bless- 
ings pronounced upon them by Jacob, Gen. xlix, 
16 — 18., and Moses, Deut. xxxiii. 22. ; and from 
their being appointed to bring up the rear of the 
nation, as Judah lead the van. From Jacob's 
emblem, that Dan should " be a serpent by the 
way and an adder in the path," it would appear 
that this tribe was to excel in stratagems as well 
as in open war ; though their character as given 
hj Moses, was that they should be as " a lion's 
whelp," and should leap from Bashan. The truth 
of these compai'isons is evident in the history of 
Samson, and of the detachment that seized 
upon Laish ; but their propriety would no doubt 
appear far more striking, if the historj'- of the 
whole tribe had been left on record. Samson, 
who was a Judge in Israel, and such a scourge 
to its enemies, was a Danite, Judg. xiii. 2. 24. 
(hence, perhaps, called Bedan, 1 Sam. xii. 11,, i. e. 
Ben-Dan or the son of Dan), and in him was ful- 
filled the prediction of Jacob. They seem also to 
have been famed for their ingenuity and skill as 
workmen, since Aholiab, one of the two men 



DAN. 



93 



chosen to make and superintend the work of the 
Tabernacle, was of this tribe, Ex, xxxi. 6., xxxv. 
34,; and Hiram, whom Solomon fetched out of 
Tyre to assist in the building of the Temple at J e- 
rusalem, was the son of a widow woman of the 
daughters of Dan, 2 Chron. ii. 14., whose father 
was of Tyre ; though in 1 Kgs. vii. 14. she is said 
to have been of Naphtali— a difference arising 
possibly from a former husband having been of 
the latter tribe. They appear in later years to 
have possessed shipping ( Joppa was a gi-eat port 
in their country), since Deborah charged them 
with remaining in it instead of helping th^ir 
country against its enemies, Judg. v. 17.; and 
they were also much engaged in merchandize. 
Jerome and others suppose them to be the people 
mentioned by the prophet Ezekiel, xxvii. 19., as 
contributing to the rich supply of Tyre, but this 
seems most unlikely. 

Upon the division of Canaan by Eleazar and 
Joshua, the prince of the tribe of the children 
of Dan was associated with them, together with 
the princes of the nine other tribes whom it con- 
cerned, to distribute b}' lot their inheritance to 
each, Num. xxxiv. 22. The portion of Dan was 
then assigned it in the S.W. part of the country, 
bounded on the N. by Ephraim, on the E. by 
Benjamin and Judah, on the S. by Simeon, and 
on the W. by the Great Sea, Josh. xix. 40—46. ; 
having been apparently cut off from the posses- 
sion at first allotted to Judah. Cf. Josh. xv. 
33 — 46. It was a very rich and fertile land 
abounding in corn, Avine, oil, fruits, and all the 
necessaries of life ; and some of its vineyards, as 
Timnath, Eshtaol, and Eshcol, were especially 
fained for their grapes. It included four Levitical 
cities, which were assigned to the Kohathites, 
viz. Eltekeh, Gibbethon, Aijalon, and Gath- 
rimmon. Josh. xxi. 5. 23, 24. The Danites, 
however, could not drive out the Amorites from 
their possessions, but were long forced by the 
latter people into the mountainous parts, until 
by the help of Ephraim, they were made tribu- 
tary, Judg. i. 34, 35. In the time of David, one 
of their princes was appointed to be ruler over 
the whole tribe, probably for civil purposes, 
which was the case apparently with all the 
others, though Asher and Gad are not mentioned, 
1 Chron. xxvii. 22. 

But the country which had been assigned to 
the tribe of Dan proving too small for them (and 
indeed the whole of their inheritance not having 
as yet fallen to them, Judg. xviii. 1.), after 
having first sent spies before them, a detachment 
of them went up to the N. of the Promised Land, 
on the borders of Phoenice and Syria-Damascus, 



towards the source of the R. Jordan. Here they 
took the city of Laish or Leshem, which was in 
the valley by Beth-rehob, but too far from Zidon 
to get help in time; they smote the inliahitants, 
burnt the city, and built a new one, whicli they 
named Dan, colonizing the country all around it. 
Josh. xix. 47, 48.; Judg. xviii. 2. 11. This 
Laish was a very old city, being called Lasha, 
Gen. X. 19., and said to be one of the borders of 
the old Canaanites. It is also mentioned in the 
history of Abram, though under its new name of 
Dan, as the place whither he chased, and where 
he overtook, the four kings that had plundered 
Sodom and taken Lot prisoner, pursuing them 
afterwards to Hobah, Gen. xiv. 14. This mi- 
grating party having left their own original 
inheritance in the S. about Zorah and Eshtaol, 
went and pitched for a time in Judah, near 
Kirjath-jearim, in a place which was thenceforth 
named the camp of Dan, or Mahanehdan, Judg. 
xviii. 12. ; and which seems to have been the 
neighbourhood where, in later times, Samson 
was first moved to begin his career, Judg. xiii. 

25. It was this detachment of the Danites that 
robbed Micah of his priest and consecrate things, 
which they bore off to their new settlement at 
Laish or Dan ; there setting up idolatry, which 
continued all the time the house of God was in 
Shiloh, Judg. xviii. 1. 7. 11. 14. 16. 22, 23. 25, 

26, 27. 29, 30, 31. The city of Dan, Avhich stood 
on what is sometimes denominated the Little 
Jordan, and near its springs, grew gradually into 
importance, not only from its belonging to one 
of the strongest and most numerous tribes in 
Israel, but from its being on the confines of 
Phoenice and Syria. Hence, forming as had been 
promised in Gen. x. 19., one of the bounds of 
the land of Judaea, as Beersheba did its S. frontier, 
the expression " from Dan to Beersheba." is often 
used to denote the whole length of the country, 
Deut. xxxiv. 1. ; Judg. xx. 1. ; 1 Sam. iii. 20. ; 
2 Sam. iii. 10., xvii. 11., xxiv. 2. 15. ; 1 Kgs. iv. 
25. ; 1 Chron. xxi. 2. ; 2 Chron. xxx. 5, ; and the 
prophet Isaiah, x. 30., speaks of Laish as in the 
utmost borders of the land. It is thought to 
have been the same with Dan-jaan, 2 Sam. xxiv. 
6., and to have derived this name from being 
close to the woods of Lebanon. 

After the revolt of the Ten Tribes from Reho- 
boam, Jeroboam set up in this city of Dan one 
of the two golden calves he made, as represen- 
tations of - the gods which (as he said) had 
brought Israel out of Egypt, and in order to 
keep them from going to worship at Jerusalem ; a 
transgression which brought down both upon hira 
and his people the vengeance of the Almighty, 



94 DAN", CITY OF. 



DATHEMA. 



1 Kgg. xii. 29, 30. ; 2 Kgs. x. 29. ; Jer. iv. 15., 
viii. 16. ; Amos viii. 14. The other gohlen calf 
was set up in Bethel, a city then in the tribe of 
Ephraim; and for this reason, perhaps, the 
names of the two tribes of Dan and Ephraim 
are omitted in the sealing vision of the Apostle 
John, Kev. vii. ; because they were the two 
great centres, and so far the promoters, of 
idolatry in Israel: and for the same reason 
(as is supposed) its genealogy is omitted among 
that of the other tribes in 1 Chron. ii.— vii., 
though Ephraim's is mentioned there. The city 
of Dan, however, thus became a much-frequented 
and wealthy place; though from lying close 
to the "entrance of Hamath," on the very 
borders of hostile countries, it was repeatedly 
subject to invasion, and had to bear the first 
brunt of many an encounter. It was attacked 
and smitten by Benhadad at the instigation 
of Asa, king of Judah, 1 Kgs. xv. 20. ; 2 Chron. 
xvi. 4. Its situation is often confounded by 
many with that of Paneas, or Csesarea Philippi 
as it was afterwards called ; but the latter city 
stood a few miles further to the S., and Eusebius 
mentions them as distinct places. The whole 
tribe was carried captive to Assyria, B.C. 721, 
by Shalmaneser, together with the rest of the 
kingdom of Israel. In the prophetical division 
of the Holy Land by Ezekiel, the tribe of Dan 
is placed the first in order on the N., im- 
mediately above the portion of Asher, xlviii. 
1, 2. ; and one of the gates of the New City on 
the E. side, is to be called the Gate of Dan, 82. 

DAX, CITYOF. See T) AN. 

DAN, CAMP OF, Judg. xiii. 25, or Ma- 
haneh-Dan, xviii. 12., where the Spirit of the 
Lord first began to move Samson, probably in 
the performance of some of his wondrous feats. 
See Dan. 

DAN, GATE OF, Ezek. xlviii. 32., one of the 
three gates on the E. side of the New City of 
Jerusalem. 

DAN, a country and people described by the 
prophet Ezekiel, xxvii. 19., as furnishing Tyre 
with some of her valuable merchandize. It is 
not at all likely that the tribe of Dan is meant : for 
Judah and the land of Israel, together with the 
commodities they supplied, are mentioned sepa- 
rately at verse 17.; whilst this Dan is connected 
with Javan, i.e. the S.W. part of Asia Minor, 
and Greece, and is described as bringing to the 
Tyrian fairs, bright iron, cassia, and calamus. 
Nothing whatever is known of its situation ; 
though some conjecture it refers to the Danai ; 
others look for it in the neighbourhood of Mt. 



Taurus, in Asia Minor, where in the province of 
Cappadocia, was the ancient city Tyana or 
Dana ; whilst others place it in Arabia. 

DANITES, Judg. xiii. 2., xviii. 1. 11.; 
1 Chron. xii. 35. ; the people of the tribe of Dan. 
See Dan. 

DAN-JAAN, a place visited by Joab and the 
captains of the host, when numbering the people 
of Israel at the command of David, 2 Sam. 
xxiv. 6, It was evidently in the N. part of the 
Holy Land, between Gilead and Zidon, and is 
supposed to have been the same with the city 
of Dan mentioned above, or the whole district 
around it belonging to the tribe, and to have 
been styled Dan-jaan from its neighbourhood to 
the woods of Mt. Lebanon. 

D ANN AH, a town in the mountainous part 
of the inheritance of the tribe of Judah, cata- 
logued in connection with Debir, Josh. xv. 49. 

DAPHNE, a sanctuary mentioned 2 Mace. iv. 
33., as Ij'ing by Antiochia, whither Onias with- 
drew after reproving Menelaus for stealing some 
of the golden vessels out of the Temple at Je- 
rusalem ; but being persuaded to leave it, he was 
treacherously murdered by Andronicus. Daphne, 
now called Doneir, was opposite Antioch in 
Syria, on the S. side of the R. Orontes. It was 
celebrated for its grove of bay-trees intermixed 
with cypress, which in the mythology of the 
Greeks was said to have been the scene of 
Daphne's metamorphosis when pursued by 
Apollo. It was a delightful place, surrounded 
by beautiful buildings, in the midst of which 
rose the famous temple of Apollo and Diana. 
Pompey, who visited the grove, was so struck 
with its beaut}', that he gave a piece of land for its 
enlargement, and many of the Roman emperors 
are said to have here forgotten for a time the cares 
of government : but it became at last devoted to 
such infamous dissipation as to give rise to the 
proverb " Daphnici mores." 

DARKON, THE CHILDREN OF, Ezra ii. 
56. ; Neh. vii. 58. ; some of whom returned home 
after the seventy years' captivity. They are 
mentioned as being part of " Solomon's servants," 
an expression which is thought to refer to the 
descendants of those artificers who were em- 
ployed in the building of the Temple, and who, 
becoming proselytes, were with their children 
and posterity, appointed by Solomon for its 
perpetual conservation and reparation. 

DARMESEK, marg. of 2 Chron. xvi. 2., 
xxiv. 23., xxviii. 5. 23., the Hebrew form of the 
name Damascus ; which see. 

DATHEMA, a fortress in Galaad or Gilead, 



DAVID, CITY OF. 



95 



whither the Israelites fled from the heathen 
Avhen attacked by them, 1 Mace. v. 9., upon the 
occasion of Judas Maccabseus smiting some of the 
neiglibouring nations. 

DAVID, CITY OF, a name given to Beth- 
lehem, from King David's having been born and 
brought up there, Lu. ii. 4. 11. See Bethlehem. 

DAVID, CITY OF, the name given by David 
to the S. W. part of the city of Jerusalem, which 
he so much strengthened and beautified. The 
old city of Jehus, which stood on lower ground 
towards the N., having been destroyed and burnt 
by the tribe of Judah, Judg. i. 8., a new city ap- 
pears to have been rebuilt by the Benjamites on 
the same spot. Josh, xv, 63. ; Judg. i. 21. But Ju- 
dah and Benjamin were not able still to drive out 
the old inhabitants entirely ; for the Jebusites re- 
treated to the loftier position of Mt. Zion, which, 
in addition to its natural strength, was fortified 
by them with great care, and which they now 
defended with a "castle," 1 Chron. xi. 5. 7. 
Here they maintained their ground, dwelling 
together with Judah and Benjamin, until the 
time of David, who, after he had subdued all the 
surrounding regions, still found himself shut out 
of the " Stronghold of Zion." So impregnable 
was it deemed by the Jebusites, that when he 
summoned it to surrender, they replied, except 
he took away the blind and the lame, he should 
not come in there ; i. e. even if their army Avas 
destroyed, the blind and the lame would be able 
to defend so strong a post against him, 2. Sam. 
V. 6. ; 1 Chron. xi. 4, 5. But on David pro- 
mising that whoever took it, should be chief and 
captain, Joab went up and took it, 2 Sam. v. 8. ; 
1 Chron. xi. 6. David then took possession of it, 
and dw6lt there, surrounding it with a lofty wall 
well fortified, and calling it henceforth " The City 
of David," 2 Sam. v. 7. 9. ; 1 Chron. xi. 7. It 
was thus united with the rest of the metropolis 
of Israel, containing within its circuit many 
splendid edifices, Ps. xlviii. 12, 13., as well as the 
royal palace or " House of David," 2 Sam. v. 
11.; 1 Chron. xiv. 1.; 2 Chron. viii. 11.; Neh. 
xii. 37. ; where Solomon seems to have brought 
the daughter of Pharaoh, until he could build a 
separate house for her outside the walls of the 
city of David, 1 Kgs. iii. 1., ix. 24. ; 2 Chron. 
viii. 11. 

■ It was hither that David brought the ark 
of the covenant from the house of Obed-edom, 
having pitched a tent for it, 2 Sam. vi. 10. 12. 
16. ; 1 Kgs. viii. 1. ; 1 Chron. xiii. 13., xv. 1. 
29. ; 2 Chron. v. 2. ; and here it remained until 
Solomon removed it into the Temple. 



Here also, in the city of David, were the 
sepulchres of the sons of David, 2 Chron. xxxii. 
33. ; Neh. iii. 16. ; where, either in the chief 
burial-place, or in those tombs which had been 
prepared for them, the ashes of so many of the 
kings of Judah were laid. Here David himself 
was buried, 1 Kgs. ii. 10. ; and Solomon, 1 Kgs. 
xi. 43. ; 2 Chron. ix. 31. ; and Rehoboam, 1 Kg.s. 
xiv. 31. ; 2 Chron. xii. 16. ; Abijam, 1 Kgs. xv. 
8. ; 2 Chron. xiv. 1. ; and Asa, 1 Kgs. xv. 24. ; 
2 Chron. xvi. 14. ; and Jehoshaphat, 1 Kgs. 
xxii. 50. ; 2 Chron. xxi, 1. ; and Joram, 2 Kgs. 
viii. 24.; 2 Chron. xxi. 20.; and Ahaziah 
2 Kgs. ix. 28. ; and Joash, xii. 21. ; 2 Chron. 
xxiv. 25. ; and Amaziah, 2 Kgs. xiv. 20 ; 
2 Chron. xxv. 28. ; and Azariah, 2 Kgs. xv. 7. ; 
2 Chron. xxvi. 23. ; and Jotham, 2 Kgs. xv. 38. ; 
2 Chron. xxvii. 9. ; and Ahaz, 2 Kgs. xvi. 20. ; 
and probably some others concerning whom it is 
not so recorded, as Plezekiah, Josiah, &c., who 
are merely stated to have slept with their 
fathers, or to have been buried in their sepul- 
chres. Here, also, they bui-ied Jelioiada the 
priest in the days of Joash, because he had done 
good in Israel both toward God and toward his 
house, 2 Chron. xxiv. 16. Hence, perhaps, 
Nehemiah, ii. 5., calls Jerusalem "the city of 
his fathers' sepulchres." The walls by which 
the city of David were surrounded, seem to 
have been kept in good order, and the breaches 
which were made in them by time, or from their 
elevated position, were carefully repaired by 
Solomon, 1 Kgs. xi. 27. ; by I'lezekiah, 2 Chron. 
xxxii. 5. ; Isa. xxii. 9. ; and by Manasseh, 
2 Chron. xxxiii. 14. There appears to have 
been a descent on the S. side by stairs from the 
cit}' of David into the valley below, which are 
called " the stall's of the city of David," Xeh. 
iii. 15., xii. 37, ; and on the W. side the whole 
of Zion seems to have been latterly supplied 
with water, from the upper water course of Gi- 
hon, 2 Chron. xxxii. 30. ; Isa. xxii. 9. 11. The 
city of David is also called the city of Judah, 
2 Chron. xxv. 28. ; or Zion, 1 Kgs. viii. 1. ; 
2 Chron. v. 2. ; or the castle of Zion, 1 Chron. 
xi. 5. 7. ; or the stronghold of Zion, 2 Sam. v. 
7.; 2 Chron. xxxii. 10., marg. ; Mic. iv. 8.; 
or the Fort, 2 Sam, v. 9. The name seems to 
have been preserved to the times of the Mac- 
cabees, 1 Mace. xiv. 36. 

The city of DaA-id was separated towards the 
N.E. from the rest of the capital, by a ravine 
which Josephus calls TjTopoeon, or the Valley 
of the Cheesemongers, and over which one of the 
causeways or bridges appears to have led into 
the lower cit}-. The height of the city of David 



96 DAYID, HOUSE OF. 



DECAPOLIS. 



above the level of the sea, has been calculated 
by modern travellers to be about 2540 feet, or 
about 170 feet lower than the highest point of 
the Mt. of Olives. 

DAVID, HOUSE OF. See City of David. 

DAVID, SEPULCHRES OF. See City of 
David. 

DAVID, TOWER OF, So. of Sol. iv. 4. See 
Armoury. 

DEAD BODIES, VALLEY OF THE, or 
Valley of the Ashes, mentioned by the pro- 
phet Jeremiah, xxxi. 40., as a place that should 
be holy unto the Lord at the coming restoration 
of Jerusalem. It was adjacent to the Brook of 
Kidron, and is thought to have been the same 
with Tophet, a long and narrow valley on the 
S. side of Jerusalem, which latterly was made a 
common burying-place, and the receptacle of the 
ashes and filth of the city. It was considered to 
form the border between the two tribes of Ben- 
jamin and Judah, and was naturally a most 
pleasant place, rich in gardens and groves. It 
was dedicated by the children of Hinnom to 
their idol Molech, and here they made their off- 
spring pass through the fire. The apostate Is- 
raelites celebrated these horrid sacrifices during 
the days of their kings, until Josiah defiled the 
place, 2 Kgs. xxiii. 10., i.e. polluted it, or un- 
consecrated it, by burning and burjdng dead 
bodies there, 16. And aftei-wards, when great 
numbers were here slain in the siege of Jerusalem 
by the Chaldeans, or died in the famine that fol- 
lowed, it became a common burying-place of the 
Jews, Jer. xix. 6, 7., whereby was fulfilled the 
prophecy of Ezekiel, vi. 4, 5. 13., that God would 
lay the dead carcases of the children of Israel be- 
fore their idols. Cf. Lev. xxvi. 30. See Hinnom. 

DEBIR, an old Canaanitish royal city in the 
S. and mountain-part of Judah, not far from 
Hebron, inhabited by giants of the race of Anak, 
Josh. xi. 21. It was taken, and its king slain, 
and the inhabitants -were utterly destroyed, by 
Joshua, X, 38, 39., xii. 13. It would appear, how- 
ever, to have again been possessed by some of the 
Canaanite tribes ; for upon its falling, x. 38, 39., 
xii. 13., by lot to Caleb (whence the neigh- 
bouring district was called Caleb, 1 Sam. xxx, 
14. ; 1 Chron. ii. 24.), he promised to give his ; 
daughter Achsah to whomsoever should take it, 
and smite it ; whereon his nephew Othniel cap- 
tured it, Josh. XV. 15.; Judg. i. 11, 12. It was 
likewise called Kirjath-Sepher, Josh. xv. 15, 16. ; 
Judg. i. 11, 12.; and Kirjath-Sannah, Josh. xv. 
49. It was subsequently made a Levitical city, 



and assigned to the children of Aaron, the priests, 
Josh. xxi. 15. ; 1 Chron. vi. 58. 

DEBIR, a place in the inheritance of the tribe 
of Gad, bej'ond Jordan, which extended from its 
border to Mahanaim, Josh. xiii. 26. Whether it 
was a city or not is not known, though some fancy 
it is the same place with Lo-debar, 2 Sam. ix. 4, 
5., xvii. 27., where Mephibosheth, the son of 
Jonathan, was residing when David sent for 
him. 

DEBIR, a town belonging to the tribe of Ben- 
jamin, on the borders of Judah, Josh. xv. 7., 
between the valley of Achor and Gilgal. 

DEBORAH, THE PALM-TREE OF, a place 
in Mt. Ephraim, between Ramah and Bethel, 
where Deborah the prophetess dwelt when the 
children of Israel came up to her for judgment, 
Judg. iv. 5. 

DECAPOLIS, an extensive district in the 
Holy Land, so called from its containing Ten 
Cities, which had united themselves into a confe- 
deration to resist the oppressions of the Macca- 
bees. It lay on both sides of the R. Jordan, 
though chiefly on the further side, in Peraea, and 
bordered upon Galilee and Syria. Great multi- 
tudes came from it to hear and follow our Blessed 
Redeemer, when he first began His ministry. Matt, 
iv. 25. It was afterwards visited and traversed 
by Him, and here He did some of His mighty 
works, as the healing of the demoniac of Gadara, 
Mk. V. 20., vii. 31. It is not at all agreed upon 
which were the Ten Cities that constituted tliis 
league, though they were all chiefly inhabited by 
Syrians and other heathens, as well as by Roman 
soldiers and mercenaries ; a circumstance which 
may account for the foreign name of the district, 
and also for the numerous herds of swine kept 
there ; a practice forbidden by the law of Moses, 
though, as it is thought, encouraged by the Romans 
and the neighbouring nations. The cities usu- 
ally mentioned as forming this confederacy, were 

J f Damascus or 5. Gadara. 

(Capitohas. 6. Pella. 

2. Canatha. 7. Dium. 

g fRaphanaor 8. Scythopolis. 

lAbila. 9. Gerasa. 

4. Hippos. 10. Philadelphia. 

But it does not seem at all likely that Damascus 
was one, being so far away, and because Scytho- 
polis is called by Josephus the largest city of the De- 
capolis. Scythopolis (the ancient Bethshan) was 
also usually reckoned the metropolis of the whole, 
and was the only one of the Ten Cities on this side 
Jordan, The Romans included them all in their 



DECISION", VALLEY OF. 



DERBE. 



97 



province of Ccele-Syria ; and tliough ihcy gave 
Herod the Great some of tliem, yet upon his 
death, even these were Avithheld from his heirs. 

DECISION, VALLEY OF, Joel iii. U. See 
Valley of Jehoshaphat. 

DEDAX, the name of a people, or country, 
or city frequently mentioned in the Old Tes- 
tament, the situation of which is much disputed. 
There seem to have been two distinct fami- 
lies of this name ; one descended from Cush, the 
other from Shera ; though many writers identify 
the two. — I. Dedan, the son of Eaamah, the son 
of Cush, Gen. x. 7., I Chron. i. 9., is thought to 
have settled in Arabia Deserta, on the W. shores 
of the Persian Gulf; in a harbour of which 
is an island now called Bahrein, but anciently 
and in the middle ages, known by the name 
of Daden. To this localitj^, perhaps, may be 
referred Ezek. xxvii. 15. 20., which speaks of 
the merchants of Dedan supplying Tyre with 
ivory, ebony, and precious clothes for chariots ; 
and also xxxviii. 13., in which Dedan is numbered 
with other rich traders, as reproaching Gog for 
his malice and envy, and yet coming to his 
camp as to a market. 

II. Dedan, the son of Jokshan, the son of 
Abraham by Keturah, Gen. xxv. 3., 1 Chron. i. 
32., appears to have tixed his abode in Ara- 
bia Petrasa, in the neighboiirhood of Edom; 
and is supposed to be alluded to by Isaiah, 
xxi. 13., Avhen he speaks of the travelling com- 
panies of Dedanim as lodging in the forest of 
Arabia; as also by Jeremiah, xxv. 23., xlix. 8., 
and Ezekiel, xxv. 13., when denouncing the 
judgments of God upon Dedan, and admonish- 
ing them to flee. 

DEDANIM, Isa. xxi. 13. See Dedan. 

DEHAVITES, Ezra iv. 9., one of the na- 
tions whom Asnapper brought over and set in 
the cities of Samaria after Israel had been 
taken captive to Assyria. Cf. 2 Kgs. xxii. 24. 
They joined with the eight other nations 
there mentioned, in writing the letter to Ar- 
taxerxes, king of Persia, representing the Jews 
as a rebellious and mischievous people; thus en- 
deavouring to hinder the rebuilding of the Temple 
at Jerusalem, when Judah returned from Baby- 
lon, because they were not allowed by Zerub- 
babel to join in the work, ' Their conspiracy suc- 
ceeded, and the building was stopped until the 
second year of Darius, king of Persia, when after 
a second effort of their adversaries against them, 
the Jews were permitted to complete their 
Temple. Whence the Dehavites came is not at all 



known. Some suppose tliem to hnve been the in- 
habitants of Ava or Ivah, 2 Kgs. xvii. 24., xviii. 
34. ; others that they dwelt originally in the 
district Adiabene, in Assyria, about the banks 
of the R. Diabas or Zabus, now the Great Zub, 
which flows into the Tigris ; others again (with 
much less probabilit}'), place their former abode 
amongst the Dai or Daha?, a nomadic people 
of Margiana, near the Caspian Sea, in the 
modern Persian province of Khorasan. 

DEKAE, THE PITRVEYORSHIP OF THE 
SOX OF, 1 Kgs. iv. 9., one of the twelve 
districts into which Solomon divided all Israel, 
for the purpose of supplying the king and his 
household with victuals, each one a month in 
the year. See Ben-Dek.^r. 

DELAIAH, CHILDREN OF, who returned 
with Zerubbabel to Judaja after the Babylo- 
nian captivity. They had probably been taken 
away from Israel long before the captivity of 
Judah; but by length of time, or some mis- 
fortune, losing the genealogy of their families, 
they could not claim a settlement and particu- 
lar possession in the land, as the other Israel- 
ites did, though they were desirous of living 
amongst them, and seeing the worship of God 
restored, Ezra ii. GO. ; Neh. vii. 62. 

DELUS, one of the places to which, accord- 
ing to 1 Mace. XV. 23., the Romans wrote in 
favour of the Jews. It was one of the group 
called Cyclades, from their surrounding Delos as 
with a circle. It was much famed in pagan 
mythology, as it contained the venerated shrines 
of the Apollo and Diana, to whom Latoua Avas 
said to have here given birth. So great was the 
respect in which this temple was held, that it 
was the great scene of religious worship for 
all the neighbom-ing people; and when it fell 
into the hands of the Persians, though they 
had profaned all the temples of Greece in their 
power, yet they never oflfered any ^nolence to the 
shrine of Apollo here. As early as the days of 
Homer, Delos was the great rendezvous of the 
lonians, who here celebrated their national festi- 
val; and after the Persian war the Athenians 
here established the treasury of the Greeks, and 
held all the meetings of their confederacy. It 
lies between Tenos and Naxos, in the centre of 
the ^gfean Sea, and is still known by the name 
of Delos. 

DERBE, a city of Lycaonin, in Asia Miner, on 
the N. side of Mt. Taurus, and said to have once 
been a strong and important place, though it has 
long been in ruins, and even its site is as yet un- 
H 



98 



DESERT, THE. 



DIBOK 



discovered. It was near Lystra, and to the S. of 
Iconium, and was the place where Paul and 
Barnabas took refuge when they fled from their 
persecutors in the last-mentioned cities, Acts 
xiv. 6. 20. It was again visited by St. Paul 
about six years afterwards, when on his mis- 
sionary tour through Asia Minor ; upon which 
occasion he appears to have first met with 
Timothy, Acts xvi. 1., whom tradition reports to 
have been born here. It was also the residence 
of Gaius of Derbe, Acts xx, 4., who appears to 
have accompanied St. Paul on a part of his 
journey from Ephesus to Jerusalem. 

DESERT, THE, a name especially and parti- 
cularly applied to that wide tract of desert 
country between Egypt and the Holy Land, 
where God appeared to Moses in the burning 
bush, and commissioned him to go and deliver 
his brethren out of their bondage in Egypt, Ex. 
iii. 1. It was traversed in various directions by 
the Israelites for nearly forty years, being the 
scene of their continual rebellions, and of some 
of the Lord's greatest miracles in their behalf, 
Ex. V. 3. ; Deut. xxxii. 10. ; Ps. Ixxviii. 40., cvi. 
14. ; Isa. xlviii. 21. ; Jer. ii, 6. ; Jo. vi. 31. It is 
described in Holy Writ as a waste howling wil- 
derness, and very terrible ; a land of pits and 
drought, and of the shadow of death ; a land 
that no man passed through, and where no man 
dwelt, and wherein were fiery serpents and 
scorpions, Deut. viii. 15., xxxii. 10. It was oc- 
casionally inhabited in parts by roving tribes of 
Arabs, and of the mingled people who dwelt in 
its more fertile and settled portions, Jer. xxv. 
24. It formed the boundary of the Promised 
Land towards the S., Ex. xxiii. 31. ; which may 
have led Uzziah, king of Judah, who seems to 
have endeavoured to recover his dominions in 
this direction, to build towers and dig wells 
here for his cattle and their keepers, 2 Chron. 
xxvi. 10. It is likewise frequently called the 
Wilderness; and also, the Wilderness of Shur, 
the Wilderness of Beersheba, the Desert or 
Wilderness of Sinai, the Wilderness or Desert 
of Sin, the Wilderness of Paran, the Wil- 
derness of the land of Egypt, the Wilderness 
of Zin, the Wilderness #f Edom; though no 
doubt, some of these latter appellations were 
occasionally restricted to the neighbourhood of 
the particular places whence they derived them. 
It was from this great desert country to the S. 
of it, that the most violent storms came, to 
which Judasa was subject, Isa. xxi. 1. ; Job 
xxxvii. 9. ; Zech. ix. 14. See Wilderness. 

DESERT OF THE SEA, an appellation 



applied by the prophet Isaiah, xxi. 1., to Baby- 
lon and the adjacent country, when predicting 
its final overthrow. It may have been used 
b)'' him, either because Babylon was shortly to 
become desert, Isa. xiii. 21., Jer. 1. 12. 39., and 
a marsh full of pools of water, as if converted 
into a lake or inland sea (as is its condition at 
this day) ; or because it stood in a large plain, 
which was frequentl}'- overflowed by the Eu- 
phrates and Tigris, and which though it had been 
drained at great expense, was still in many parts 
a great flat morass. 

DESSAU, a to^Ti of Judtea, whose situation 
is altogether unknown. Here Judas Maccabseus 
and his troops came up with the forces of 
Nicanor, with whom Simon had joined battle, 
which ended in a temporary peace between the 
•lews and their enemies, 2 Mace. xiv. 16. 

DESTRUCTION, CITY OF, a name thought 
to be applied by the prophet Isaiah, xix. 18., 
to the city of Aven or Heliopolis, in Lower 
Egypt, when foretelling, as it appears, the 
progress of the true religion in that country. 
In the margin it is called the Citj'' of Heres or 
the City of the Sun ; and many suppose that the 
title of " the City of Destruction," is substituted 
for it (the two names in the Bebrew language 
bearing great affinity to each other) by way of 
reproach, implying, moreover, that the idol there 
worshipped should be utterly destroyed. In the 
same way Beth-el, i.e. the House of God, is called, 
when it came to be the seat of idolatry, Beth- 
aven, i.e. the House of Vanity. The name may 
likewise be used as a warning against its coming 
destruction by the king of Babylon. See Aven. 

DIBLATH, a town of Moab, in the borders of 
a wilderness so desolate, that God compares 
with it the desert state to which, for their sins, 
he will reduce the land of Israel, Ezek. vi. 14. 
It is stated by Jerome to have still existed in 
his day. It is supposed to have been the same 
with Beth-diblathaim, Jer. xlviii. 22. ; and in 
the neighbourhood of Almon-diblathaim, Num. 
X xxiii. 46, 47. ; which see. 

DIBON, a city of Moab, apparently on its S. 
frontier, and on the edge of the Plain of Medeba, 
Num. xxi. 30. ; Josh. xiii. 9. It was in a fertile 
and pasturing country, which, having been 
taken by Moses from the Amorites, w^as sought 
after, amongst other places, by the two tribes 
and a half, because of their cattle. Num. xxxii. 3. 
It is supposed to be the same place with Dibon- 
gad, a station of the Israelites between lim and 
Almon-diblathaim, Num. xxxiii. 45, 40.; and 



DIBOX. 



DISPEnSED, THE. 



9!) 



appears to have been at first given to the 
children of Gad, "vvho are said to have built it, or 
repaired and enlarged it, after its destruction in 
the Trar -uith Sihon, xxxii. 3-i. ; but it was 
eventually allotted to the tribe of Reuben, Josh, 
xiii. 17. It fell afterwards into the hands of the ! 
]Moabites, when it again became one of their high 
places, and was in great renown, but was 
threatened with destruction for its wickedness, 
Isa. XV. 2. ; Jer. xlviii. 18. 22. Some suppose it 
to have been the same place called Dimon by 
Isaiah, xv. 9. ; and they identify the " Waters 
of Dimon" -\dth the R. Arnon. Dibon is 
described by Eusebius as a large town on the 
R. Arnon, and its ruins appear still to remain 
imder the little-altered name of DJdban. 

DIBOX, a town of the tribe of Judah, men- 
tioned in connection with Kirjath-arba. Here 
some of the chikh-en of Judah took up their 
dwelling after the return from the seventy 
years' captivity, Xeh. xi. 25. It is thought 
to be the same with Dimonah, mentioned by 
Joshua, XV. 22., as one of the cities of the 
tribe of Judah. Others, however, identify it 
with Debir or Ku-jath-Sepher, obseiwing that 
the Septuagint calls that place Dibon, which 
is Debir in the Hebrew, Josh. xiii. 26. 

DIBOX-GAD, a station of the Israelites 
after they had got within the border of Moab, 
between lim and Almon-diblathaim, Xum. 
xxxiii. io, 46. It is thought to be the same 
with Dibon, near the R. Arnon, and to have 
derived the name of Gad from this tribe, to 
which it was at first given. 

DILEAX, a town in the inheritance of 
Judah, Josh. xv. 38., not otherwise known. 

DIMXAH, a city of Zebulun, which was 
eventually given to the Levites of the family 
of Merari, Josh. xxi. 35. 

DIMOX (Blood), Isa. XV. 9., a place in 
Moab, upon which God threatens to bring 
special destruction. It is supposed to be the 
same with Dibon, xv. 2. The additional ca- 
lamities here threatened, may have been per- 
haps fulfilled by lions being sent among the 
IMoabites, as in Samaria afterwards, 2 Kgs. 
xvii. 25., or they may relate to that fearful 
desolation which Xebuchadnezzar was to bring 
upon them, according to the predictions of Je- 
remiah. 

DDIOX, THE WATERS OF, Isa. xv. 9., 
are identified by many with the R. Arnon, 
on the frontiers of Moab ; but others suppose 
the name to refer to a small river running 



through the midst of Moab, past some of its 
chief cities into the E. shores of the Salt Sea- 
On the desolation of the country, the prophet 
declares they were to be filled with blood. 

DIMOXAH, a city of the tribe of Judah, 
i Josh. XV. 22. It is thought to be the same 
with Dibon mentioned by Xehemiali, xi. 25., 
as a place to which some of the Jews re- 
turned after the Babylonian captivity. See 
Dibon. 

DIXAITES, one of the nine foreign nations 
transplanted to Samaria by Asnapper, 2 Kgs. 
xvii. 2-i., after the kingdom of Israel had 
been carried captive by Shalmaneser, king of 
Assyria. "WTien Zerubbabel refused their prof- 
fered assistance to help him in the rebuilding 
of the Temple, they conspired with the eight 
other nations against the work and against 
the Jews, and wrote a letter to Artaxerxes, 
accusing the Jews of rebellion and sedition, 
whereupon the building ceased imtil the second 
year of Darius, king of Persia. But many 
years afterwards, on their making a second un- 
successful attempt of the same kind, Ezra v. 
8, G., they were compelled by Darius to render 
all needful help from the country's and the 
king's resources which the Jews might demand, 
upon pain of death to all opposers and hinder- 
ers of the rebiailding of the house of God, vi. 
8 — 12. Xothing is known about the Dinaites 
but what is recorded in Holy Scripture. 

DIXHAB.IH, a royal and very ancient city 
of Edom, where Bela the son of Beor, and also 
some of his successors, reigned before there 
reigned any king over the children of Israel, 
Gen, xxx-si. 32. ; 1 Chi-on. i. 43. It is placed 
to the E. of Mt. Seir, in Arabia Pefrcea, around 
the ruins in the modern Tojilah, about 20 
miles S. of the Dead Sea. 

DISPERSED, THE, Jo. vii. 35., a name ap- 
lied to all those Israelites who had been scat- 
tered amongst the Gentiles after the three 
great captivities of Tiglath-Pileser, Shalmaneser, 
and Xebuchadnezzar, God had threatened 
them that he would thus deal with them if 
they rejected him, Lev. xxvi, 33. ; Deut. iv. 
27., xxviii. 63—68.; the two tribes of the 
kingdom of Judah being sentenced to a cap- 
j tivity of sevent}- years, 2 Chron. xxxvi. 21. ; 
Jer. XXV. 12., xxix. 10. ; Dan. ix, 2. ; the re- 
maining ten tribes of the kingdom of Israel, 
for a period the duration of which does not 
appear to be expressed. And so it happened ; 
they were all twelve scattered among the 
n 2 



100 DIZAIIAB. 



DOR. 



nations, Estli. iii. 8.; Isa. xi. 12.; Jev. xxiii. 
1, 2., XXX. 11., 1. 17.; Ezek. xi. 16., x%ai. 21.; 
xxxiv. 5, 6., xxx^^. 19. ; Zech. i. 19. 21., vii. 14. 

And thougli, on the edict of Cyrus at the com- 
pletion of the seventy years, a large number 
of Judah and Benjamin returned home, mth 
Zerubbabel and Ezra, 2 Chron. xxxvi. 22, 23. ; 
Ezra i. 1., vii. 6, 7., \iii. 1.; yet the greater 
part of these two tiibes appears to have re- 
mained behind, as did also twenty out of the 
tAventy-four courses of priests; and (with a 
very small exception) the entire mass of the Ten 
Tribes. It is to the latter, probably, whose 
present situation is not known, that the Jews 
alluded in our Lord's days, Jo. vii. 35., though 
it is to the whole nation scattered abroad 
wherever they might be, that St. James addressed 
his Epistle, 1. 1., and St. Peter also his fii'st 
Epistle, i. 1. But the day would seem to be at 
hand, when both the " dispersed of Judah'' 
and the " outcasts of Israel," shall be gathered 
together in their own land, Isa. xi. 11 — 16. ; 
Jer. xxxi. 18—21. 81 — iO. ; Ezek. xxxvii., 
xlviii. ; Zech. x. 5—12. See Israel. 

DIZAHAB, a station of the Israelites in the 
Wilderness, in the plain over against the Red 
Sea, mentioned in connection .with Paran and 
other encampments as a place where Moses, in 
the end of the fortieth year of their wander- 
ings, rehearsed the history of God's dealings 
with them. It is thought to have been in 
the neighbourhood of Ezion-geber, near the 
E. head of the Red Sea; but others place it 
further S., near Mt. Horeb, where is still a 
place called Rahab or Dsahab. 

DOCUS, a small port a little distance to the N. 
of Jericho, where Simon Maccabgeus and his two 
sons were treacherously murdered, 1 Mace. xvi. 
15. 

DODANIM, the name of one of the sons or 
families of Javan, the son of Japheth, Gen. x. 4. ; 
1 Chron. i. 7. There is much discussion as to 
where they were seated, and as to what places 
are called after them. In some of the manu- 
scripts and versions of Scriptm-e, and in the 
margin of our own translation, the word is 
written Rodanim ; which has occasioned certain 
critics to fix this people about the R. Rhodanus 
or Rhone, in the S. of France ; but this seems 
evidently an improbable locality for their settle- 
ment. Some identify them with Dedan and 
the Dedanim in Arabia; but these were de- 
scended from Cush, Gen. x. 7., and from Abra- 
ham, XXV. 3. Others, again, trace their name 
in that of the island of Rhodes, off the coast of 



Asia Minor ; and others in that of Dodona, in 
the N. of Epiru.s, where was the celebrated 
temple of Jupiter, and his oracle the most 
ancient in all Greece. But the most likely con- 
jecture seems to be that of the Dodanim having 
settled in the S.W. corner of Asia Minor and its 
neighbouring isles, and there having given name 
to the Dorians, some of whom migrated to many 
parts of Greece, but especially to one of its 
provinces N. of the Isthmus of Corinth, called 
Doris; and also to the Peloponnesus. All the 
inhabitants of the latter country are frequently 
styled Dorians by profane authors ; as, indeed, 
is the whole Greek nation. 

DOPHKAH, an encampment of the Israelites 
between the Wilderness of Sin and Alush, Num. 
xxxiii. 12, 13., probably in the neighbourhood of 
Mt. Sinai. 

DOR, a city in the W. of Canaan, Josh. xi. 2., 
on the shore of the IMediterranean (to a part of 
which it gave the name of "the coast of Dor," 
xii. 23.), about midway between C. Carmel and 
Cffisarea. It stood on a small peninsula, which 
jutted out into the sea, and rendered it a very 
strong and defensible place. It was the capital 
of one of the Canaanite kingdoms, when the 
Israelites took possession of the countrj^, and it 
joined Jabin, king of Hazor, in endeavouring to 
resist them ; but it was eventually conquered and 
taken by Joshua, xii. 23., who allotted it to the 
half tribe of Manasseh, though properly within 
the limits of Asher, xvii. 11. ; 1 Chron. vii. 29. 
Manasseh, however, did not drive out the old 
inhabitants from it, but when that tribe w;as 
strong enough, it put them to tribute, Judg. i. 27. 
In the time of Solomon, Dor gave name to the 
" region of Dor," which was governed by one of 
his twelve great officers, who provided victuals 
for the king and his household. He was called 
Ben-Abinadab, and married Solomon's daughter, 
Taphath, 1 Kgs. iv. 11. Dor was destroyed 
when the Ten Tribes were taken captive ; but 
afterwards it recovered much of its greatness 
and strength, having many masters in succes- 
sion, as the Egyptians and Seleucidse, until it was 
taken by Antiochus Epiphanes. Tryphon, who 
usurped the kingdom of Syria, and ptit Jonathan 
the Maccabaean to death, here took refuge ; but, 
being besieged by land and sea, he was at last 
vanquished and slain by Antiochus Sidetes, 1 
Mace. XV. 11. 13. 25. It was in the possession 
of the Jews when Pompey entered Syria ; and 
received many privileges from the Romans when 
they took possession of the country, being en- 
larged, made nominally independent, and fur- 



DOU, COAST OF. 



DUNG-GATE. 



101 



nished with a harbour. It is now a ruinated 
place, still retaining traces of the old name in 
that of Tor turn. 

DOE, COAST OF, Josh. xii. 23. ; and 

DOR, KEGION OF, 1 Kgs. iv. 11. See Dor. 

DORA, 1 Mace. xv. 11. 13. 25., the same with 
Dor ; which see. 

DOTEA, Judith iii. 9., marg., otherwise 
Dothaia, called in the text Judiea, a place over 
against the hill country styled the " Great Strait 
of Judiea," and in the neighbourhood of Esdra- 
elon and Scythopolis. It was near this town 
that Holofernes pitched his camp when about 
to attack Bethulia, the other extremity of his 
lines being at Belmaim. It seems to be the 
same with 

DOTHAIM, Judith iv. 6., vii. 3. 18., situated 
towards the open country, near to Betomestham. 
Eusebius and Jerome describe it as being 12 
miles N. of Samaria. It is identified with 

DOTHAX, where Joseph's brethren were 
feeding their father's flock when they seized 
him, and sold him to the Ishmaelites, Gen. 
xxxvii. 17., and where, 800 years afterwards, 
the prophet Elisha smote with blindness the 
army of the king of Syria which had been sent 
to apprehend him, because of his revealing their 
purposed movements to the king of Israel, 
2 Kgs. \i. 13, 

DRAGON WELL, mentioned by Nehemiah, 
ii. 13., as having been visited by him at night 
when he went out to survey the ruins of Jeru- 
salem, after Artaxerxes had given him leave to 
return thither from Shushaii and rebuild it. It 
seems to have been situated no great way from 
the gate of the valley, probably on the W. side of 
Jerusalem, and perhaps obtained its name from 
it5 shape. 

DUMAH, a city in the mountainous part of 
the inheritance of the tribe of Judah, Josh. xv. 52. 
According to Eusebius and Jerome, it was 
17 miles from Eleutheropolis in Daromas. 

DUMAH, the name by which the prophet 
Isaiah, xxi. 11., distinguishes a country against 
which he utters a warning. That it is the same 
■vdth Iduma?a or Edom, seems plain from the 
mention in the same verse of Seir, which is the 
name whereby this country is commonly dis- 
tinguished in Holy Writ. It is thought to have 
been so called after Dumah, a son of Ishmael, 
Gen. XXV. 14. ; 1 Chron. i, 30. ; who may have 
settled on the borders of Edom and Arabia. 
Ptolemy has a place called Dumj^tba in this 
neighbourhood; and there is a district here- 



abouts, which the Arabs still call The Iloclii/ 
Dumuth, or Syrian Vumath; it being on the 
borders of Syria and Arabia Petraea. 

DUNGEON, THE, a part of the Prison, or 
Court of the Prison, or Prison-house, in Jeru- 
salem. It is conjectured to have been the lowest 
part of the building, to which access was only 
gained by a circular hole in the roof, through 
which the culprit was let down ; having pro- 
bably at its sides several cabins or cells, Jer. 
xxxvii. 16., marg. The bottom had indeed no 
water, but was full of deep mud and filth, and 
withal a most horrible, dark, and deadly place. 
Hence it is often alluded to as a pit, a place in 
which there seems no hope. Hence we read 
that Jeremiah, who was cast into this lowest and 
worst part of the prison by King Zedekiah, for 
reproving him, and predicting the overthrow of 
Jerusalem by the Chaldeans, petitioned earnestly 
that he might not be detained there lest he should 
die, xxxvii. 20. He was let down into the 
dungeon with cords, and then sunk into the 
mire; where he would have died of cold and 
hunger (as probably his persecutors meant he 
should, xxxviii. 4 — 6. 16.), but for the compas- 
sion of Ebed-melech the Ethiopian, at whose suit 
the prophet was drawn up out of the dungeon, 
and confined for a time, until Jemsalem was 
taken, in the Court of the Prison, Jer. xxxii. 
2. 8. 12., xxxiii. 1., xxx\iii. 6, 7. 9, 10, 11, 13., 
xxxix, 14. ; Lam. iii. 53. 55. (c/l Isa. xxiv. 22., 
xlii. 7., li. 14., Ixi. 1.) ; Zech. ix. 11. ; Neh. iii. 25. 
There seem to be many other such dungeons 
spoken of in Scripture, such as that into which 
Joseph was cast, Gen. xxxix. 20., xl. 15., xli. 14., 
as well as the chief baker and butler; those 
which were in use among the Egyptians for the 
confinement of their captives, Ex. xii. 29., called 
in marg. the house of the pit; and that "inner 
prison "' at Phihppi into which Paul and Silas 
were thrust by the gaoler, who was afterwards 
converted. Acts x^sa. 24. 

DUNG-Gi\.TE or Dung-Poet, one of the gates 
of the city of Jerusalem, on its E. side (though 
many place it on the W.), which is supposed to 
have derived its name from the filth and ofl- 
scouring of the victims that were offered in 
sacrifice, being carried through it from the 
Temple to the Valley of Hinnom or Jehoshaphat. 
It was visited by Nehemiah when he returned 
from Shush an, and by night took a survey of 
the ruins of Jerusalem, ii. 13. It was afterwards 
repaired imder his direction by Malchiah, the 
son of Recluib, iii. 13, 14. ; and Avas one of the 
points where, at the solemnity of the dedication 
H 3 



102 



DURA, PLAIN" OF. 



EAST, THE. 



of the walls, he stationed some of the princes of 
Judah, xii. 31. 

DUEA, PLAIi^ OF, where Nebuchadnezzar 
set up his celebrated golden image, commanding 
all to fall down and worship it, Dan. iii. 1. 
There is much discussion as to where this plain 
was situated ; some placing it in the open 
country, on the W. bank of the K. Euphrates, 
and beyond the city ; others, upon the testimony 
of the historian Polybius, in Mesopotamia, at 
the mouth of the R. Chaboras; and others, 
again, in Susiana, where Ptolemy marks a place 
of this name. But the most likely conjecture is, 
that it was in the midsc of the city of Babylon 
itself ; and was that large circular plain around 



the great idol-temple, of which there are con- 
siderable traces yet remaining. It does not seem 
likely that the dedication of so large and costly 
an image, probably of Bel, at least 90 feet high 
and 9 feet broad, would take place in some 
distant spot, and that then the bulky idol should 
be conveyed to its appointed abode ; rather, one 
would suppose, it would receive the homage of 
its worshippers on the very ground where it had 
been constructed, and was in future to stand, or 
at least near it. Hence, in one of the versions, 
we read that the image was set up in the " Plain 
of the Precincts." Diodorus Siculus says, that 
Xerxes took away from Babylon an image of 
gold 40 feet high, when he demolished the 
temple of Belus in that city. 



EAST, THE, is the term often employed in 
Holy Writ to designate all the countries lying 
to the E. of Palestine, more especially those 
adjacent to it; just as in these days, we 
commonly use the same term in a general way, 
meaning many and different lands, when we 
speak of the East, In the same manner, the 
inhabitants of all those regions are called the 
Childken of the East, or the Men of the 
East; and their country the East Country, 
or the Land of the Children of the East. 
Regard, therefore, must be had to the history 
and subject in hand, before this general term 
can be applied to any one particular locality. 

Mesopotamia seems to be meant in Gen. xxix. 
1., when it is said, Jacob came into the land of 
the People of the East, i.e. to Haran, where 
Laban dwelt; and in Num. xxiii. 7., where 
Balaam says he had been brought from the 
Mountains of the East, in Aram; or, ac- 
cording to Deut. xxiii. 4., in Mesopotamia. 

Chaldea and Babylon are thought to be 
signified in 1 Kgs. iv. 30., Avhere Solomon's 
wisdom is declared to have excelled that of all 
the Children of the East Country ; in Isa. ii. 6., 
where the Jews are charged with being re- 
plenished from the East, i. e., filled with 
heathenism, idolatry, and divination: in Isa. 
xli. 2., where God speaks of His having raised 
up the righteous man, i.e. Abraham, from the 
East ; or, if Cyrus be intended, as some argue, 
then the passage would refer to Persia: in 
Ezek. XXV. 4. 10., where the Ammonites and 
Moabites are threatened with, being delivered 
into the hands of the Men of the East, for their 
rejoicing against Jerusalem ; in Dan. xi. 44., 



where the great persecuting power of the latter 
days is represented as being troubled by tidings 
out of the East : and in Matt. ii. 1. 2. 9., where 
the Wise Men of the East come to worship the 
Blessed Saviour at His Nativity. 

Arabia is probably signified in Gen, xxv. 6., 
by the East Country, whither Abraham sent 
the sons of his concubines : in Judg, vi. 3. 33., 
vii. 12., viii. 10., where the Children of the East 
are mentioned as uniting with the Midianites 
and Amalekites to oppress Israel, until they 
were conquered by Gideon, and 120,000 of them 
slain : in Job i. 3., where this patriarch is called 
the greatest of all the Men of the East : in 
Isa. xi, 14., where, at the victorious restoration 
of Israel, the prophet foretells their spoiling them 
of the East: and in Jer. xlix. 28., where 
Nebuchadnezzar is appointed to smite and spoil 
the Men of the East. 

Persia and India appear to be designated in 
Gen. X. 30,, where the dwellings of Joktan are 
described as extending to Sephar, a mount of 
the East: in Isa, xlvi. 11,, where the calling 
and conquests of the ravenous bird from the 
East, i. e, Cyrus, are predicted : in Isa. Ixiii. 5., 
and Zech. viii. 7., where God declares He will 
save His people, the Jews, from the East 
Country: and in Rev. xvi. 12., where the R. 
Euphrates is to be dried up, that the way of the 
Kings of the East may be prepared. 

Syria and the neighbouring countries are sup- 
posed to be alluded to in Dan. viii. 9., where the 
Little Horn is represented as waxing great in 
power towards the East. — The Mt. of Olives 
and adjacent country seem pointed out in Ezek. 
xliii. 2., where the glory of the Lord is fore- 



EAST GATE, THE. 



EBEN-EZER. 



103 



shown as returning to Jerusalem in the latter 
days from the way of the East (c/! xi. 23.) : and 
in xlvii. 8., where the holy waters issuing from 
the Temple are represented as first flowing 
toward the E. Country. 

EAST GATE, THE, Jer.'xix. 2., one of the gates 
of the city of Jerusalem, called the Sun Gate in 
the Hebrew; through which Jeremiah was com- 
manded to go with the ancients of the people and 
of the priests, when by breaking the potter's 
vessel, he thus foreshadowed the desolation of 
the Jews. It lay towards the Valley of the Soa 
of Hinnom, and is mentioned by Nehemiah, iii. 
29., in his account of the rebuilding of the wall 
of Jerusalem. 

EAST SEA, THE, mentioned by the pro- 
phet Joel, ii. 20., as a place in the direction of 
which God would drive that great and terrible 
Northern army of locusts, and other devasta- 
tors He was about to bring upon the land of 
Judaea. It is also described by Ezekiel, xlvii. 
18., as a part of the border of the Promised Land, 
when the Jews return to their inheritance. In 
the prophecies of Zechariah, xiv. 8., it is called 
the Eastern Sea in the margin, though in the 
text we read the Former Sea ; and toward it in 
the latter days, one half of the living waters 
which shall issue from Jerusalem, are to go. It 
is, no doubt, the same with the Salt Sea, or as 
we now call it the Dead Sea. 

EAST STREET, THE, one of the streets of 
Jerusalem, where King Hezekiah, in the first year 
of his reign, assembled the priests and Levites, 
exhorting them to sanctify themselves, and 'to 
cleanse the house of God ; confessing the sins of 
his fathers, and declaring his own purpose of 
making a covenant with the Lord, 2 Chron. 
xxix. 4. It was apparently close to the Temple, 
between it and the Sun Gate ; and was perhaps 
the same with what are called the Eastern 
Cloisters. 

EBAL, MT., a mountain in the inheritance 
of the tribe of Ephraim, towards the frontiers of 
Manasseh, constituting a part of the long broken 
chain Avhich runs more or less through the whole 
centre of Canaan from N. to S. It is about 
midway between Mts. Ephraim and Gilboa. Im- 
mediately to the S. of it stretches Mt. Gerizim, 
from which it is separated by a long narrow 
valley only 200 paces wide, and between them 
lay the old Canaanite city of Shechem or Sychar, 
whose ruins are not far from the modern Na - 
polose or Nablous. Ebal is xocky and barren, 



Gerizim fertile and beautiful ; the neighbouring 
plain Avas called the Plain of Moreh. It was 
upon these two mountains that Moses, not long 
before his death, commanded the children of 
Israel, when they were come into Canaan, to put 
the blessing and the curse (the blessing upon Mt. 
Gerizim, the curse upon Mt. Ebal), Deut. xi. 29., 
six tribes (or men chosen from them) standing 
on each. On Gerizim were to stand, to bless the 
people, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Joseph, 
and Benjamin; on Mt. Ebal to curse, Keuben, 
Gad, Asher, Zebulun, Dan, and Naphtali, Deut. 
xxvii. 12, 13. The people were also commanded 
by him to set up great stones in Mt. Ebal, 
plastering them with plaster, and writing upon 
them all the words of the law which he gave 
them; and likewise to build there an altar of 
unhewn stones to the Lord, whereon they were 
to offer burnt offerings and peace offerings, 
and there to rejoice before the Lord, Deut. 
xxvii. 4. 

These ordinances were all carried out by 
Joshua, apparently in the same year, soon after 
the taking of Jericho and Ai. The whole nation 
of Israel, as well as the strangers among them 
(in all, some millions), were gathered together in 
this valley, ranged no doubt in their order, and 
with their banners, as appointed, Joshua being 
at their head ; whilst the ark of the covenant, 
with the priests and Levites, was in the centre. 
The hills are at such a small distance from each 
other, that the voice might be heard from them 
distinctly on a calm day by all IsraeL Cf. Judg. 
ix. 7. It would appear, that Joshua then read 
out to this vast host the words of the law, the 
priests and Levites reciting with a loud voice the 
words of the curse ; to which the people answei'ed 
Amen, Josh. viii. 33. The Samaritans pre- 
tended, as indeed Avas written in their Pentateuch 
(no doubt, by interpolation), that Bloses com- 
manded, and Joshua erected the altar on Mt. 
Gerizim ; because here, about 1100 years after- 
wards, they built their altar and sanctuary, when 
Zerubbabel had declined their offers of assist- 
ance in rebuilding the Temple at Jerusalem. Cf. 
Jo. iv. 20. 

EBEN-EZER {the Stone of Help), the 
name given by Samuel to a place between 
Mizpeh and Shen, in the tribe of Judah, 
close on the borders of Benjamin and Dan, 
to commemorate the miraculous help and the 
victory, which God had given the Israelites 
over the Philistines, when he thundered with 
a great thunder, and discomfited them, 
1 Sara. vii. 12. It was in the same spot, 
H 4 



104 



EBER. 



EDAR, TOWER OR 



that, twenty years before, tliey had been 
conquered by the Philistines, when the ark of 
God was taken, and Hophni and Phinehas, the 
two sons of Eli, were slain, 1 Sam. iv. 1., v. 1. ; 
but now, upon the repentance of the whole 
nation, and at the earnest intercession of 
Samuel, accompanied by the sacrifice of a 
lamb for a burnt oifering, God was pleased 
to give them this signal deliverance from their 
enemies; wherefore Samuel set up this stone 
in the place, saying' " Hitherto the Lord hath 
helped us." According to Eusebius and Jerome, 
Eben-ezer was not far from Bethshemesh. 

EBER, a people whom Balaam, the sooth- 
sayer, when under Divine inspiration, foretold 
should be afflicted by Chittim, Num. xxiv. 24. 
They are probably the same with 

EBER, THE CHILDREN OF, of whom it 
is written. Gen. x. 21., that Shem was the 
father of them all. Both names are thought 
to signify the Plebrews or Jews, and to have 
been derived from a word signifying heyond ; 
the Hebrews having come into the Promised 
Land from beyond the Euphrates. Cf. Josh, 
xxiv. 2, 3. 14, 15. Others imagine they de- 
rived their name from Eber, the great grand- 
son of Shem, Gen. x. 24, 25., xi. 14—17.; 
1 Chron. i. 18, 19. 25. ; Lu. iii. 35. ; but there 
seems no reason why Abraham, who was the 
sixth in descent from Eber, should take his 
ov/n name, or give name to the Jews, from 
this patriarch, more than from any other of 
his ancestors, especially Shem, who is par- 
ticularly called " the father of all the child- 
ren of Eber" — not the father of one family 
of them alone. 

EBRONAH, an encampment or station of 
the Israelites, in the Wilderness, between Jot- 
bathah and Ezion-geber; and so not far from 
the head of the E. horn of the Red Sea, Num. 
xxxiii. 34, 35. 

ECBATANA, Ezra vi. 2., marg., called in 
the text Achmetha, the place where, when the 
Samaritans had for a time succeeded in hinder- 
ing the rebuilding of the second Temple at Je- 
rusalem, search was made in the second year 
of the reign of Darius, king of Persia, for the 
decree of Cyrus touching the rebuilding of 
the Temple ; which, when it was found, induced 
Darius to make a new decree in' favour of the 
Jews, whereupon the work was finished, 1 Esd. 
vi. 23. Ecbatana is mentioned in the Apo- 
crypha, as the scene of some of the principal 
events in the life of Tobit ; it was the resi > 



dence of his father-in-law Raguel, Tobit iil, 
7., vi. 5., vii. 1., and the place where he him- 
self died some time after the taking of Nineveh, 
xiv. 12. 14. It is described in the book of 
Judith i. 1, 2. 14., as the royal city of King 
Arphaxad, who reigned over the Medes, and 
greatly beautified and strengthened this city; 
but was eventually conquered by Nabuchodono- 
sor, who reigned at Nineveh. The author of 
the second book of Maccabees, ix. 3., speaks 
of it as the spot whither Antiochus Epiphanes 
retired before he set out on his last expedi- 
tion against Jerusalem. Ecbatana was a well- 
known and famous city of Media, in the W. 
part of that province, concerning which many 
profane authors have left an interesting ac- 
count. It is now called Hamadan. See Achme- 
tha 

ED {Witness), the name by which the two 
tribes and a half called the altar they had 
built over against Canaan, on the banks of 
the R. Jordan, at the passage of the child- 
ren of Israel, Josh. xxii. 34. It was erected 
by them after the termination of the Cana- 
anitish wars, when they had been sent away 
from Shiloh; and was, perhaps, a copy of 
the altar in this latter place, 28., though of 
very much larger dimensions, 10. But it gave 
such offence to the rest of the tribes, and 
put them in such fear of drawing down God's 
vengeance upon them, that they gathered 
themselves together at Shiloh, to go up to 
war against the two tribes and a half for 
building the altar, and turning away from the 
commandments of God ; but sending Phinehas 
and ten princes before them, to reason upon 
the matter, the ambassadors were told, the 
altar was not for sacrifices, but only as a 
witness that they might do the service of the 
Lord before Him, and had as great a share 
in the public worship as the rest of Israel, 
though divided by the Jordan from them, 
Josh. xxii. 10, 11. 16. 23. 26, 27. 

EDAR, TOWER OF, or the Tower of the 
Flock, beyond which, after leaving Beth-el, 
and after the death of Rachel, Jacob pitched 
his tent. Gen. xxxv. 21. It was probably a 
watch-tower near Bethlehem, and so not far 
from the spot where the angels announced the 
Nativity to the shepherds. In the margin 
of Mic. iv. 8., we again meet with the Tower 
of Edar, or, as it is called in the text, the 
Tower of the Flock ; but there it would seem 
to be an epithet applied metaphorically to Zion, 
or the Temple or Jerusalem itself. 



EDEN. 



105 



EDEN (Delight), tliename of a country, Gen. 
ii. 8. 10., iv. IG. ; Isa. li. 3. ; Ezek. xxviii. 13., 
xxxi. 9., in which God was pleased to place 
our first parents, Adam and Eve, at their 
creation. In it he planted the Garden, or 
Paradise (which is the English form of the 
Greek or Eastern word signifying garden), Gen. 
ii. 8, 9, 10, 16., iii. 2, 3. 8. 10. ; which was also called 
the Garden of Eden, Gen. ii. 15., iii. 23, 24. ; Ezek. 
xxxvi. 35. ; Joel ii. 3. ; sometimes the Garden 
of the Lord, Gen. xiii. 10. ; Isa. li. 3. ; and the 
Garden of God, Ezek. xxviii. 13., xxxi. 8, 9. 
Here man first fell from his allegiance to 
his Maker, and here that ever Blessed and 
Eternal Saviour was first promised, who, in 
the fulness of tiine, came to deliver man from 
the guilt and dominion of his transgression to 
the favour and love of God. Hence, the abode 
of the departed faithful is in the New Testa- 
ment, termed Paradise, Lu. xxiii. 43. ; 2 Cor. 
xii. 4. ; or the Paradise of God, Rev. ii. 7. 

That it was a wonderful and delightsome 
place, worthy of the Almighty Wisdom that 
deigned to plant it and to visit it, we may be 
very sure from the declarations of the preced- 
ing texts of Scripture, as well as from the compa- 
rison and descriptions there given, and alluded 
to in other parts of Holy Writ. But where 
it was situated is a matter of wide discussion, 
and still wider tradition; for independently of 
the fancies which would locate it in the mid- 
dle regions of the air, or in the moon, or in 
the third heavens, there is hardly any part of 
the old world in which it has not been placed : 
in Palestine, in Syria, in Mesopotamia, in Baby- 
lonia, in Arabia, in Persia, in Ethiopia, in Tar- 
tary, in Cashmere, on the banks of the Ganges, 
in Ceylon, under the Equator, in Armenia, 
Chaldoea, &c. The Jewish historian Josephus 
has contributed his share towards adding to 
the number of conjectural localities, by ab- 
surdly identifying the two other rivers of Pa- 
radise, the Pison and Gihon, with the Ganges and 
the Nile. Out of these and others it is unneces- 
sary to name, nine principal hypotheses are 
gravely supported by one or another ; of which it 
maybe sufficient here to mention only two, since 
they principally relate to two of the rivers de- 
scribed by Moses, viz. the Euphrates and Tigris. 
And though it is very true that the Deluge may 
have very much altered the face of these regions, 
yet Moses describes all the rivers as existing 
in his da}-, mentioning the directions in Avhich 
they run, and the countries they pass in the 
case of the three less known, but giving no 
further account of the fourth than that it was 



Euphrates. It is evident, therefore, that he 
not only knew something of the spot where the 
site of the Garden was to be sought for, but 
endeavoured to bring it before the minds of his 
own hearers and readers. 

It is written in Gen. ii. 10., that the river which 
went out of Eden to water the Garden, was 
thence parted and became into four heads — i.e. 
as it would appear, the holy inclosure was 
watered by one river, which, when it quitted 
the Garden, became four principal streams : 
hence, such as thus translate the original, seek 
for Eden on the lower part of the course of the 
Euphrates and Tigris. But others take the 
word to mean fountains or sources, a sig- 
nification of the Hebrew word by no means 
necessary: hence they look for the site of 
Paradise towards the sources of these two 
great rivers. About the Euphrates, or Pe- 
rath, as it is called in the original, there can 
be no doubt, as that is expressly mentioned 
by its present well-known name Euphrates 
or Frat. And there is as little doubt about 
the propriety of identifying the Hiddekel with 
the Tigris, not only from its going before As- 
syria (or Eastward to Assyria in respect of 
the place where Moses was then writing), — 
but from its appearing to be mentioned by 
Daniel, x. 4., as the great river, by the side 
of which he was favoured with one of his 
wonderful visions ; as also from other names 
by which it has been, and is now, known, such 
as Diklat or Diglath, under which it is men- 
tioned by Josephus and the Chaldee paraphrasts ; 
Diglito, by which its upper course is designated 
by Pliny ; Degil and Degola, as the Orientalists 
call it ; and Diglath, by which it is sometimes 
distinguished in the East at the present day. 
The Euphrates and Hiddekel being thus iden- 
tified, it remains, then, only to fix on the 
situation of the two rivers Pison and Gihon, 
in order to have some more sure ground for 
conjecturing the locality in which lay the Gar- 
den of Eden. 

1. Those who look for it about the springs 
or sources of these rivers make the R. Pison to be 
the Phasis, now called Phaz, which runs down 
from the Moschic Hills through the regions 
of Colchis, into the Black Sea; and by the land 
of Havilah, where there is gold, they would 
understand Colchis itself, so famed amongst 
profane authors for its abounding in this precious 
metal, as well as for the tradition of the Golden 
Fleece. Others, hoAvever, prefer making the 
R. Pison the same with the Cyrus, now called 
Kur, which runs iuLo the Araxes, though it is 



106 



EDEN. 



said to have formerly flowed into tho Caspian 
Sea by a separate course. The R. Gihon they 
■would identify Avith the Araxes, which is said 
to be still Cixlled Jihon by the Persians, and 
has the same meaning in the Groek -with the 
Hebrew Gihon, both denoting swiftness or 
impetuositrj. By the land of Cush or Ethiopia, 
which Moses states it to encompass, is signitied 
(as they think) the countries on the W. of the 
Caspian Sea, where are several small tribes 
and regions mentioned by the ancients, whose 
names are similar to that of Cush. This ar- 
rangement of the four rivers would place the 
land of Eden in the elevated country in the N. 
part of Armenia; but as the sources of these 
rivers are now about a hundred miles apart, 
apparently separated by very high ground, and 
there is never known to have existed any union 
of them, or perhaps possibility of union in the 
present physical face of those regions ; it has 
been further supposed, that some mighty change 
took i)laeo at the Deluge in the mountain-for- 
mations of these countries, and consequently 
in the course of the rivers, which would effec- 
tually destroy all traces of the original locality. 
Some indeed go so far as to hint, that the L. 
Arsissa, or Van as it is now called, covers the 
site of Eden; and that God may have been 
pleased to obliterate this fair portion of His 
works from the face of the earth, as in the case 
of the guilty Cities of the Plain, that both the 
site and memorial of man's transgression might 
be in this respect blotted out. 

II. Those who look for Eden on the lower 
course of the Euphrates and Tigris, place it near 
the modern town of Corny, some miles above the 
city of Bassora, at the present jmiction of these 
two rivers; their united streams being now 
called Shatt-el-Arab. Before the time of Alex- 
ander the Great, these two rivers are said to 
have entered the Persian Gulf by separate 
channels, though united near Corni/ by a small 
arm, which is conjectured to have been the 
river that ran through the Garden. The Pison, 
then, is supposed to have been the same with 
the W. com-se of the Euphrates S, of the Gar- 
den, and the land of Havilah, which it com- 
passed, is thought to refer to that adjacent part 
of Arabia on the borders of Chaldiea, which is 
distinguished by the same name in other places 
of Scripture, as Gen. xxv. 18. ; 1 Sam. xv. 7. ; 
a region which may have once abounded in 
gold, like other parts of Arabia, whereof it is 
remarked in general by the ancients, that its 
native gold was so bright and so fixed as to 
require neither fii-e nor refining to purify it. 



The Gihon is conjectured to hare been the same 
witli that loAver part of the Tigris which an- 
ciently Avas denominated Pasitigris, and the land 
of Cush (or Etliiopia), Avhich it compassed, to 
have been the Susiana of profane authors and 
Khnzistan of the present day. The Hiddekel 
Avould be thus the upper course of the Tigris, 
and the Euphrates that of the present river so 
called. In addition to this it may be mentioned 
that, Avhen Sennacherib, king of Assyria, sent 
his threatening message to Hezekiah, king of 
Judah, 2 Kgs. xix. 12., Isa. xxxvii. 12., he 
boasted that he had destroyed the children of 
Eden, Avhich Avere in Telassar or Thelasar, 
a place generally belie\^ed to be the same Avith 
the Talatha of profane geography, close to the 
union of the Euphrates and Tigris. And more- 
over the name of the island anciently formed 
by the loAA'er courses of these tAVO rivers, Avhich 
Avas IMesene, is fancied to haA^e been moidded 
after that of Eden. This latter situation, lying 
as it does due E. from the Plains of Moab, Avhere 
probably Moses Avrote the history, is more in 
accordance with his account of the Garden 
having been planted " eastAvard in Eden," Gen. 
ii. 8., than the former conjecture, Avhich fixes 
on a site nearly N". 

It ma}' not be amiss to obsen-e here, that it is 
highl}^ probable the ancient poets and philo- 
sophers deriA-ed from the history of the terrestrial 
Paradise, all their traditions concerning the 
Fortunate Islands, the Elysian Fields, and the 
MeadoAVS of Pluto, as Avell as those of the Gardens 
of the Hesperides, of Jupiter, of Alcinous, and of 
Adonis. The last, indeed, preserves such a 
similarity in its chief letters to that of Eden, as 
to leave little doubt of its derivation; and the 
custom which the Assyrians, Egyptians, and 
Greeks had, of planting little gardens in earthen 
A^essels, or in gold and silver baskets (and of 
making the whole of precious metals) to carry 
in religious processions, as well as to adorn their 
houses, seems to have obtained its origin as Avell 
as its name from another source than that of 
the heroes or demons to whom they Avere con- 
secrated, and after whom they Avere said to be 
called. A like origin may also be attributed to 
those singularly beautiful gardens made by 
Eastern princes, such as that golden one valued 
at 600 talents, Avhich Aristobulus, king of the 
Jews, presented to Pompey, and Avhich, A\"hen 
the Roman general had displayed in his tri- 
umphal procession, he consecrated to Jupiter in 
the Capitol. The Orientals still reckon four 
Paradises in Asia: one round Damascus, one 
about Ohollah in Chaldxa ; one in Shch-Baovan, 



EDEN. 



EDOM. 



107 



on the R. Nilab, a pLace in the desert of Naou- 
bendigian in Persia ; and one near Adarri's Peak, 
in the /. of Ceylon. 

EDEjST, a celebrated port and emporium for 
the traffic of the East, situated on the S. coast 
of Sheba in Arabia Felix, about 100 miles beyond 
the Strait of Bah-el-mandeh. The prophet Eze- 
kiel, xxvii. 23., mentions it as one of the great 
marts Avhither Tyre traded, and whence she 
drew some of her rich supplies. It was in the 
country of the Homeritte, and was much resorted 
to by the Egyptians and Indians, but was at 
last destroyed by Augustus : it was also called 
Arabia Felix and Adana, which latter name it 
still retains in that of Aden, the well-known 
port on the Indian Ocean. 

EDEN, HOUSE OF, Amos i. 5. See Beth- 
Edej^. 

EDEN, CHILDREN OF, who dwelled in 
Thelasar or Telassar, and whom Sennacherib 
boasted to Hezekiah that he had destroyed, 
2 Kgs. xix. 12. ; Isa. xxxvii. 12. They are 
supposed to have derived their name from 
occupying the country near the ancient Paradise, 
and so to have dwelt in the regions on the lower 
courses of the R. Euphrates and Tigris, where 
was a city named Talatha, mentioned hj the old 
geographers. Nothing further seems to be 
known concerning them. Some critics, however, 
identify Telassar with the Ellasar mentioned in 
Gen. xiv. 1. 

EDER, a town in the S. part of the inheritance 
of the tribe of Judah, towards the border of 
Edom, Josh. xv. 21. 

EDOM {Red), the name given to that S.W. 
part of Arabia Petrtea which touches on Palestine 
and Egypt, called otherwise Dumah, Isa. xxi. 
11. ; or, after the idiom ©f the Greeks, Idumsea, 
Isa. xxxiv. 5, 6. ; Ezek. xxxv. 15., xxxvi. 5. ; 
Mk. iii. 8., and in many passages in the 
Apocrypha. It was derived from Esau or Edom, 
the son of Isaac, Gen. xxv. 25. 80., xxxvi. 9. 43. 
(hence called the father of the Edomites), to 
whom it was assigned as a possession. Gen. 
xxxvi. 8. ; Deut. ii. 5 ; Josh. xxiv. 4. ; Mai. i. 
2, 3. ; on which account it is sometimes dis- 
tinguished by the appellation Esau, or the 
Mt. of Esau, Jer. xlix. 8. 10. ; Obad. 6. 8, 9. 
18, 19. 21., and the whole nation styled the 
children of Esau, Deut. ii. 4. 8. 12. 22. 29. It 
appears to have been confined at first to the 
regions about Mt. Seir, Gen. xxxii. 3., xxxvi. 8. ; 
Judg. V. 4. ; Ezek. xxxv. 15. ; whence the adjacent 
country was also called the land of Seir. The 



Horims dwelt here in ancient times, until the 
children of Esau succeeded them, after they had 
destroyed them, as the Israelites did the nations 
of Canaan, Gen. xiv. 6., xxxvi. 20, 21. 30. ; Deut. 
ii. 12. 22. 29. ; and to the S. of them, until they 
were rooted out, dwelt Esau's descendants, tlie 
Amalekites, who were the first to attack Israel 
in the Wilderness, and treacherously smote the 
hindmost and feeble among them, Ex. xvii. 8. 
14. ; Num. xxiv. 20. ; Deut. xxv. 17 — 19. ; 1 Sam, 
XV. 2. 7. In the days of its prosperity, the 
territory of Edom extended on the N. from 
the S. frontiers of Canaan, Num. xxxiv. 3. ; 
Josh. XV. 1. 21. ; and of Moab, Deut. ii. 8. ; 
Judg. xi. 18. ; 2 Kgs. iii. 8. ; Isa. xi. 14. ; Amos 
ii. 1., to the ^lanitic Gulf of the Red Sea, where 
was Ezion-geber, its chief port, 1 Kgs. ix. 26. ; 
2 Chron. viii. 17. ; and from the Great Desert of 
Arabia on the E., to the borders of Egypt and 
the shores of the Mediterranean Sea on the W. 
These bounds of Edom were much extended 
towards the N., when, during the Babylonian 
captivity, the Edomites took possession of the S. 
part of Judah, making Hebron their capital ; but 
this was only a temporary encroachment, which 
they were eventually compelled to abandon. 

The land of Edom was of a very varied cha- 
racter, including rocky and mountainous regions, 
wherein its inhabitants built their sti'ong and in 
those days almost impregnable cities, Ps. Ix. 9., 
cxiii. 10.; Jer. xlix. 16.; Obad. 3, 4. It was 
nearly surrounded by deserts, but yet according 
to the blessing pronounced on it, rejoicing in the 
fatness of the earth and in the dew of heaven 
from above, Gen. xxvii. 39.; Num. xx. 17.; 
Heb. xi. 20. It was especially rich in pasture 
for cattle ; its flocks of sheep are especially men- 
tioned, and Saul's chief herdsman was an Edom- 
ite. Num. xx. 17. ; 1 Sam. xxi. 7. ; Mic. ii. 12. 
The people seem to have risen rapidly into opu- 
lence and power, having been able to smite 
Midian, Gen. xxxvi. 35,, 1 Chron. i. 46., and 
apparently other tribes, early in their history. 
They appear to have applied themselves vigor- 
ously to agriculture and commerce, and to have 
gained such experience in shipping and know- 
ledge of the seas as to have extended their domi- 
nion over all the adjacent parts of the ocean. 
Hence probably the Arabian Gulf obtdned its 
name of the Red Sea, i, e. the Sea of Edom, as 
did also the neighbouring part of the Indian 
Ocean, and the Persian Gidf, all of Avhich were 
called by the ancients the Erythraean Sea ; a 
name which their mythologists deduced from a 
king of Arabia called Erythros, who was drouuod 
in it, and wbosc tomb was sho\\ n in the island 



108 



EDOM. 



Ogyris, near the entrance of the Persian Gulf. 
The}' were also brave and warlike, living hy their 
SAvord, Gen. xxvii. 40. ; and in some respects 
they were a cultivated people ; for the prophet 
Jeremiah, xlix. 7., speaks of the "wisdom " that 
was in Teman, one of thoir chief cities; and 
Obadiah, 8., of the "wise men" in Edom, and 
the " nnderstanding " in the Mt. of Esan. Cf. 
Bar. iii. 23. Whatever may have been the 
religion of the nation in the early period of its 
liistorv, that thpy were eventually idolaters, 
there is no doubt; for when Amaziah, king of 
Judah, conquered them, he brought away their 
false gods to Jerusalem, where he himself wor- 
shipped them, and thus brought down upon him 
the anger of the Lord, 2 Chron. xxv. 14. 20, 
The Edomites are thought to have been at first 
(and also in subsequent periods of their history) 
governed by their own heads of f;imilies or chiefs, 
called dukes in our translation, Gen. xxxvi, 15, 
16. 19. 21. ; Ex. XV. 15.; 1 Chron. i. 51. 54.; 
though afterwards by kin^-s, who reigned in their 
royal cities long before there -was any king in 
Israel, Gen. xxxvi. 31, 32.; Num. xx. 14.; 1 
Chron. i. 43. 

During the whole period that the Israelites were 
in Egypt, the Edomites were gaining strength 
as a nation, and ripening in that energetic and 
ambitious spirit Avhich fitted them to be so often 
and so long the implacable enemies of the Jews, 
though their brethren, Dent. ii. 4. 8., xxiii. 7. 
Indeed, from the days of Esau to those of Herod 
the Great (himself an Edomite), they appear to 
have set themselves resolutely against the pur- 
poses and people of God; and thus they drew 
down that terrible vengeance predicted by Plis 
prophets, Avhich has now entirel}- rooted them 
out as a nation, and turned their fruitful land 
into one wide scene of barren and hopeless 
desolation. AVhen the Israelites, after leaving 
Egypt and wandering for thirty-eight years in 
the Wilderness, approached the borders of Edom, 
they sent messengers to beg a passage through the 
country to the Land of their Inheritance, nrging 
the claims of kindred, promising to go peacefully 
along the highway, and offering to pay for the 
water they "drank ; but this was scornfully refused, 
though it would appear to have been eventually 
granted through fear ; when the king of Edom 
attacked them with a large army, and compelled 
them to turn back and take the road by Mt. Hor, 
Num. XX. 14. 18. 20, 21. 23., xxi. 4.,xxxiii. 37. ; 
Dent. ii. 4—8. 29. ; Judg. v. 4., xi. 17, IS. After 
this, no further mention seems to be made of the 
Edomites in the Bible, until the time of Saul ; 
when they were again numbered Avith the ene- 



mies of Israel, and, together witli the Amalek- 
ites, seem to have harassed the Jews nntil con- 
quered by that king, 1 Sam. xiv. 47. Some 
of them were then mingknl with the Jews; 
amongst these was Doeg the Edomite, Saul's 
chief herdsman, who was present at Nob when 
David obtained the hallowed bread from Ahime- 
lech, whom he afterwards accused, and (at Saul's 
instigation) killed, together with eighty-four 
other priests, smiting Nob itself with the edge of 
the SAVord, 1 Sam, xxi. 7., xxii. 9. 18. ; Ps. lii. 
title. But David attacked them Avith still greater 
energ3' and success, Avhen upon some proA'ocatiou 
not recorded (possibly their uniting their forces 
against him with the Syrians and other enemies, 
2 Sam, viii. 13. ; Ps. Ix. title ; Ps. Ixxxiii. 6.), 
his general Abishai slew 18,000 of them in the 
Yalley of Salt, and a great spoil of gold and silver 
AA'as taken, Avhich David dedicated to the Lord, 
1 Chron. xA-iii, 11, 12. Not CA'en their nnmntaiu 
fastnesses could defend them from the victorious 
arms of the JcAvish king, Avho has recorded his 
conquests in tAvo of his Psalms, Ix. title, 1. 9., 
CA-iii. 9, 10. ; having put garrisons in all the cities 
of Edom, and left Joab there for six months until 
he had cut ofi:' every male that had not become 
his serA-ant, 2 Sam. viii. 14. ; 1 Kgs. xi. 16. ; 
1 Chron. xviii. 13. Thus were fulfilled those 
predicted blessings of Isaac, that Esau should 
serve his brother, Gen. xxv. 23., xxvii. 29. 
37. 40.; and of Balaam, that Edom and Seir 
should be a possession for Israel, Num. xxi\\ 18. 

The Edomites remained in this state of sub- 
jection, being goA'crned by deputies or A'iceroys 
from Judah, 1 Kgs. xxii. 47., during the re- 
mainder of DaA'id's reign and the greater part of 
that of Solomon, the latter of AA^hom built a fleet 
in the great Edomite port of Ezion-geber, 1 Kgs. 
ix. 26., 2 Chron. A-iii. 17., to go to Ophir for gold. 
But at the close of Solomon's reign, they Avere 
permitted to rebel against him, because of his sins, 
and because of his manyiug strange wives from 
amongst them. They AA-ere led on by Hadad the 
Edomite, who (AA'ith others of his nation) haAang 
escaped from his comitry when it Avas being 
raA'aged by Joab, fled into Egypt, Avhere he Avas 
protected and received into alliance by Pharaoh, 
but returned home on the death of David, 1 Kgs. 
xi, 1, 14, 15, 16, 17—22, But this revolt does 
not seem to have been uniA'ersal, or completely 
successful ; for Edom appears to have been still 
ruled by the kings of Judah after the separation, 
of the Ten Tribes, Jehoshaphat sent them a de- 
puty as viceroy, and built a fleet at their port of 
Ezion-gcbcr, 1 Kgs. xxii. 47, 18.; and at the 
soUcitation of the king of Israel, against Avhom 



EDOM. 



EDOM, WILDERNESS OF. 109 



Moab had rebelled, he went with him and the 
king of Edom to attack the Moabites. It was 
upon this occasion that the prophet Elisha ob- 
tained for the distressed armies of the three 
kings a miraculous supply of water and a pro ■ 
mise of victory; whereupon they attacked and 
routed the '^Moabites, chasing them to Kir- 
haraseth, when the king of Moab, by burning the 
king of Edom's son on the wall, raised the siege, 
2 Kgs. iii. 8, 9. 12. 20. 26. ; Amos ii. 1. The Edom- 
ites completed their independence in the reign of 
Jehoram, the son of Jehoshaphat, from whom, 
on account of his wickedness, the favour of God 
was withdrawn ; then they revolted for ever, 
and made themselves a king, 2 Kgs. viii. 20, 
21, 22. ; 2 Chron. xxi. 8, 9, 10. Thus was 
fulfilled the prediction of Isaac to Esau, Gen. 
xxvii. 40., that when he had got the dominion 
he should break his brother's yoke from ofi his neck. 
They were, however, partially re-conquered by 
Amaziah, who took their strong city Selah by 
assault, changing its name to Joktheel ; he also 
slew 10,000 of them in the Valley of Salt, and 
took captive 10,000 more, whom he destroyed 
by casting down from the top of the rock, 2 Kgs. 
xiv. 7. 10. ; 2 Chron. xxv. 11, 12. 14. 19. This 
victory seems to have been followed up ; for 
Uzziah built Elath on the Red Sea, near Ezicn- 
geber, and restored it to Judah, 2 Kgs. xiv. 
22. ; 2 Chron. xxvi. 2. But the valuable port 
was again taken from them in the reign of Ahaz, 
king of Jvidah, by Eezin, king of S}Tia, who 
drove the J ews out, and peopled it with Syrians, 
2 Kgs. xvi. 6. ; whilst the Edomites went up 
and attacked Judah, and carried some of the 
people captives, 2 Chron. xxviii. 17, 

After this, during the increasing troubles which 
came upon the Jews from the Philistines and 
Phoenicians, the Assyrians and Chaldeans, Edom 
not only maintained its own independence, but 
assisted in harassing the Jews, and bought them 
for slaves when taken captive by their enemies, 
Amos i. 6. 9. (c/. Judith vii. 8.) ; and at the 
destruction of Jerusalem, they refused them as- 
sistance, rejoicing in its downfall, sharing in the 
plunder, and Mng in wait in the crossways to 
cut off such as escaped, or to deliver them up to 
the Chaldeans, Ps. cxxxvii. 7. ; Ezek. xxv. 12., 
XXXV. 15, ; Amos i. 11, ; Obad. 10 — 16. During 
the Babylonish captivity a large colony of them 
advanced into Judasa itself, in company perhaps 
with the Jews who had found a temporary refuge 
in Edom, Jer. xl. 11., having been partly driven 
onwards by the Xabathii^an Arabs, the descend- 
ants of Ishmael, who now began to encroach upon 
the possessions of the Edomites, and gradually to 



mingle with them until the Nabalh:can name 
became the prevailing one in classical history 
for all the inhabitants of this part of Arabia 
Petraja. This colony of the Edomites settled in 
the S. part of the inheritance of Judah and Si- 
meon, then stripped of its inhabitants, taking pos- 
session of the desolate country as far as Hebron, 
where they established their head-quarters. Here 
they maintained their ground, even giving the 
name of Idumaea to that part of the country upon 
which they had seized, until they received a 
check from those Jews who returned from Ba- 
bylon, Mai. i. 3, 4. But it was only by a series 
of reverses during the Maccaboean wars, that 
they were finally driven out, or else compelled to 
embrace the Jewish religion, 1 Mace. iv. 15, 29. 
61., V. 3. 65,, vi. 31. ; 2 Mace. x. 15, 16., xii, 32. ; 
though their old settlement in Juda?a still re- 
tained its name of Idumoea even to the times of 
the ISTew Testament, Mk. iii, 8. They chose for 
the most part the latter alternative, becoming 
thenceforward incorporated with the Jews; and 
one of their nation, at least by descent, Avas that 
Herod the Great, whom the Romans raised to 
the throne of Jud«a. 

The Edomites did not lose the opportunity 
which the final destruction of J erusalem afforded 
them, of letting loose their old hostility against 
Israel; for according to Josephus, they then 
pillaged the city, and committed all kinds of 
violence, until they repented of their atrocities, 
foreseeing, perhaps, that their own day was 
coming. For soon afterwards, all the prophecies 
which had been uttered against them, and which 
had begun to take hold of their nation when the 
Chaldeans and others came upon them, were 
completely fulfilled to the very letter. Before 
the first century of the Christian era was ended, 
their name as a nation was blotted out, the people 
having been either entirely destroyed, or else 
mingled with the Ai-ab tribes; and the whole 
land had become one wide scene of desolation, 
upon which the Lord had fulfilled His word, 
meting out upon it the line of confusion and the 
stones of emptiness, Isa. xxxiv. 5, 6,, Ixiii. 1, ; 
Jer. ix. 26., xxv. 21., xxvii. 3., xlix. 7, 8. 10, 17. 
20. 22. ; Lament, iv. 21, 22. ; Ezek. xxv. 12, 13, 
14., xxxii., 29., xxxv. 15., xxxvi. 5,; Joel iii. 
19,; Amosi. 6. 9. 11.; Obad. i. 8.; Mai, i, 4.; 
until that time comes when Israel shall again be 
planted in their own land, and possess, as it 
would appear, the inheritance of their ancient 
enemies, Isa. xi. 14. ; Dan, xi. 41. ; Amos ix. 12. 

EDOM, THE WILDERNESS OF, through 
which Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, and Jehoram, 



110 EDOMITES. 



EGYPT. 



king of Israel, marched with their armies, to 
attack the king of Moab, who had rebelled 
against the latter, 2 Kgs. iii. 8. It lay to the S. 
of the inheritance of the tribe of Judah and of 
the Salt Sea, on the edge of Mt, Seir, and con- 
nected the great deserts of Egypt and Arabia 
on the W. and E. It was here that Elisha 
miraculously procured water for the distressed 
armies ; and that the Moabites were so signally 
conquered, 2 Kgs. iii. 20. 24. 

EDOMITES, the inhabitants of Edom, which 
see. 

EDREI, the capital city of the kingdom of 
Bashan, one of the royal residences of Og, who 
was of the remnant of the giants, situated in 
a province of the same name, where was Ashta- 
roth, his other dwelling-place. It was fenced and 
strongly fortified, but was taken by the Israel- 
ites under Moses, after the great battle fought 
near it between them and Og ; when the latter, , 
with his sons and all his people, was slain. Num. 
xxi, 33.; Deut. i. 4., iii. 1. 10.; Josh. xii. 4., 
xiii. 12. In the division of the land, on the 
other side Jordan, before the death of Moses, it 
was assigned by him to the half-tribe of Ma- 
nasseh. Josh. xiii. 31. Eusebius and Jerome 
identify it with Adraa, a place on the E. of 
Jordan mentioned by the profane and Oriental 
geographers, 25 miles from Bostra, 9 from Abila, 
and 24 from Damascus ; the ruins of which 
place are said to be still called Draa. Its most 
probable site is a place now called Edhrda, about 
35 miles E. of the Sea of Galilee. 

EDREI, a fenced city in the N. of Canaan, 
which on the partition of the land by Joshua, was 
allotted to the tribe of Naphtali, Josh. xix. 37. 

EGLAIM, a city on the borders of Moab, 
mentioned by Isaiah, xv. 8., in his predictions 
against that country. The Seventy write the 
name Agaleim or Agalleim. Eusebius places it 
20 miles to the S. of Moab ; but nothing further is 
known about its situation, though it was pro- 
bably not far from the S. end of the Dead Sea, 
on the E. side, near the frontiers of Edom. 
Some identify it with En-eglaim, Ezek. xlvii. 
10., and with Gallim, 1 Sam. xxv. 44.; Isa. x. 
30. ; but it would appear to have been different 
from them both. 

EGLON, an ancient royal city of the Canaan- 
ites, the king of which at the solicitation of 
Adoni-zedec, king of Jerusalem, joined the con- 
federacy of the five kings against Gibeon after it 
had made the league with Joshua. They were 
all conquered by the Israelites under Joshua 
near Gibeon ; upon which occasion great hail- 



stones were cast dowa upon them from heaven, 
and the sun and moon stood still at the word of 
Joshua. The five kings were taken out of the 
cave Avherein they had hid themselves, and after 
having been put under the feet of the generals 
were hanged on five trees. Eglon was soon 
afterwards besieged and taken, and all its inha- 
bitants were put to the sword ; Josh. x. 3. 5. 23. 
34. 36, 37., xii. 12. On the division of the land, it 
was allotted to the tribe of Judah, Josh. xv. 39., 
where it is reckoned amongst their cities which 
lay in the valley. It was situated between 
Lachish and Hebron according to Eusebius, in 
whose time it was still in existence, about 10 
miles E. of Eleutheropolis. Its site is probably 
identical with some ruins called Ajlan, about 
half-way between Hebron and Ascalon. 

EGYPT, one of the oldest as well as most 
powerful and most wonderful kingdoms in the 
world. It Avas situated at the N. E. extremity 
of the continent of Africa, being separated from 
that of Asia by the R. Sihor, Josh. xiii. 3. (called 
otherwise the River of Egypt, Gen. xv. 18. ; Josh 
XV. 4. 47.), and by the Desert of Shur, Gen. xxv. 
18. ; 1 Sam. xv. 7,, xxvii. 8. (these two parting 
it from the dominions of Isi'ael, 1 Kgs. iv. 21. ; 
2 Chron. ix. 26., xxvi., 8. ; 1 Mace. iii. 32., xi. 
59.), and the Isthmus of Suez, which together 
with the Egyptian or Red Sea, formed its E. boun- 
dary. To the S. it touched upon Ethiopia ; to 
the W. on Libya and the Lib3'an Desert ; on the 
K it was washed hy the Mediterranean Sea. It 
is generally called Mizraim in the Old Testament 
Scriptures, a name which it derived from Miz- 
raim, the son of Ham, Gen. x. 6. 13. ; 1 Chron. 
i. 8. 11.; who, with his seven sons, Ludim, 
Anamim, Lehabim, Naphtuhim, Pathrusim, 
Casluhim (out of whom came Philistim), and 
Caphtorim, is thought to have settled here. It 
is also less frequently called 

Mazor, as in 2 Kgs. xix. 24. ; Isa. xix. G., 
xxxvii. 25. ; Mic. vii. 12. ; though in our version 
this name has been translated besieged place, 
fortress, defence. And hence its modern name of 
Misr, by which it is known to the natives, to the 
Turks, and indeed to all the Oriental nations. 
It is likewise styled the Land of Ham, Ps. 
Ixxviii. 51., cv. 23. 27., cvi. 22., and the people 
are designated " they of Ham," 1 Chron. iv. 40., 
whence probably the name of Chemi or Chamia, 
by which it was distinguished in the ancient 
priestly records of the country, though others 
derive it from the black appearance of the soil. 
It is also denominated Rahab, Ps. Ixxxvii. 4., 
Ixxxix. 10. ; Isa, li. 9. (and according to some 
XXX. 7., in the original) ; a word which signifies 



« 



EGYPT. 



Ill 



pride or strength, from the insolence and fancied 
security of its rulers and people. The name of 
^gyptus or Egypt, by which Ave Europeans 
have always distinguished it, is commonly said 
to be formed from the two words aia and Coptos, 
i. e. the Land of Copt, or Caphtor, Gen. x. 14. : 
Deut.ii. 23. ; i Chron. i. 12. ; Jer. xlvii. 4. ; though 
the heathen mythologists deduced it from its 
first king ^Egyptus, the son of Belus, who was 
the brother of Danaus, king of Argos. 

The land of Eg3^pt may in a general way 
be described as the long and narrow Valley 
of the R. Nile, which flows through it fiom 
Syene, now Essouan, 'on the border of Ethi- 
opia, to Migdol or the Tower, called other- 
wise Magdolum, near the shores of the Me- 
diterranean Sea, Ezek. xxix. 10., xxx. 6. 
Hence in the heathen authors it is sometimes 
styled "the Land of the Mle," for it owes 
all its amazing richness and fertility to this 
magnificent river; the whole country which is 
not watered by it, being amongst the most 
arid and desert portions of the globe. Indeed, 
the river is itself called iEgyptus by Homer 
and other classical authors; it being, as it 
were, the very parent of the whole habitable 
soil. Owing to the melting of the snow on 
the mountains about its springs and upper 
course, and still more to the heavy tropical 
rains, the R. Nile begins to swell in June, and 
continues to increase till September, when all 
the neighbouring fields and gardens are com- 
pletely submerged in water, Amos viii. 8., 
ix. 5. ; the waters remaining stationary for a 
few da3's, and by the end of November, 
leaving the land covered with a rich alluvial 
deposit of mud. Hence the numerous canals 
by which the neighbourhood of the river is 
intersected, the waters of Sihor (as the Nile 
is sometimes called in Scripture), whence the 
country drew her harvest and revenue, Isa. 
xix. 6, 7., xxiii. 3. ; Jer. ii. 18. ; and hence the 
many contrivances to irrigate the land, Ex. 
vii. 19., viii. 5.; Isa. vii. 18.; some of which 
were worked by the foot, and are alluded to 
by Moses in his comparison of Egj'pt with 
the Promised Land, Deut. xi. 10. Cf. Isa. 
xxxii. 20. Owing to these valuable inunda- 
tions, which are known to have been the 
same as to season and duration for more 
than 3000 years, the soil of Egypt far ex- 
ceeds, in the quantity and variety of its ve- 
getable productions, the most celebrated parts 
of Europe, Gen. xiii. 10., having been to many 
countries their granary of wheat, barley, maize, 
rice, kc, and abounding in many other valuable 



things, as those melons, cucunil)crs, leeks, gar- 
lic, &c., so much regretted by the Israelites in 
the Wilderness, Ex. xvi. 3. ; Num. xi. 5. 18. 20., 
XX. 5., xxi. 5. ; Deut. i. 27. Its fish and its 
paper reeds are also spoken of, Isa. xix, G, 7, 8. 10. 

Whatever may have been once the religion 
of the Egyptians, it at last degenerated into 
universal idolatry and superstition, as well as 
ATice, Ex. xii. 12. ; Lev. xviii. 3. ; Num. xxxiii. 
4. ; Deut. xxix. 16, 17. ; Ezra ix. i. ; Isa. xix. 
1. 3. ; Jer. xlii. 12, 13. ; Ezek. xvi. 2G., xx. 7. 
8., xxiii. 3. 8. 19. 21. 27., xxx. 13. They 
worshipped not only the heavenly bodies and 
the powers of nature, but beasts, birds, fishes, 
reptiles, vegetables, and indeed, as it would 
appear, every thing in which there was or 
seemed to be a living principle. That this 
varied, and in some respects gorgeous idolatry, 
was a great snare to the Israelites, not only when 
in bondage in Egypt, but long afterAvards, is 
evidentfrom many circumstances in their history ; 
and it was, apparently, for their sinful conformity 
in copjung such abominations, that they were 
permitted to be so oppressed by Pharaoh and his 
nation. At all events, it is plainly declared in 
Holy Writ, that they did at one time generally 
worship some of these Egyptian idols, and thus 
draw down God's anger upon them. Lev. x\-ii. 7. ; 
Josh. xxiv. 14. ; Ezek. xx. 7, 8., xxiii. 3. 8. 
Long before the dawn of the arts and sciences in 
other countries, they appear to have flourished 
greatly in Egypt ; and the marvellous relics of 
their skill and invention, which have withstood 
the fury of five successive conquests, and the 
destrojdng hand of time for thirty centuries, ma- 
nifest this country to have been the nursing- 
mother of genius and letters for the world. The 
priestly order especially cultivated astronomy, 
astrology, and many other arts and sciences, and 
to them may be referred the wise men, sorcerers, 
and magicians whom Pharaoh summoned to 
withstand Moses, Ex. vii. 11. 22., viii. 18, 19. ; 
2 Tim. iii. 8. They excelled particularly, not 
only in all kinds of wisdom, 1 Kgs. iv. 30., 
Acts vii. 22., but in their wonderful and vast ar- 
chitectural edifices, for some of which the children 
of Israel made the bricks, and contributed bur- 
densome labour, Ex. i. 14., v. 5. 7, 8. 18,: in 
agriculture: in the production of horses, and 
manufacture of chariots, Deut. x\ii. 16. ; 1 Kgs. 
X. 28, 29. ; 2 Chron. i. 16, 17., ix. 28. : in dne 
linen, net-works, embroidery, and carved works, 
Prov. xii. 16. ; Isa. xix. 9. ; Ezek. xxvii. 7. 
They were also celebrated for their great numbers, 
; Jer. xlvi. 25.; Ezek. xxix. 19., xxx. 10. 15., 
xxxii. 12. 16. 18. 31, 32. ; Nah. iii. 8. : for their 



112 



EGYPT. 



great wealtb, Ex. iii. 22., xxxv. 5., xxxvi. 5. ; 
Dan. xi. 43. ; Heb. xi. 26. ; their martial and am- 
bitious spirit, Isa. xix. 3. ; Jer. xlvi. 15. ; Nab. 
iii. 9. ; tbeir pomp and vain glorj^, Ezek. xxx. 
18., xxxii. 12. The diseases of Egypt seem to 
have been of a dreadful nature, the remains pro- 
bably of one of God's plagues on^the country, Ex. 
ix. 9., XV. 26. ; Deut. vii. 15., xxviii. 27. 35. 60. 

The early history of Egypt is involved in 
great obscurity and discussion, but its close con- 
nection with that of the Hebi-ew nation for 2000 
years, renders it very interesting. The country 
is thought to have been governed by the lineal 
descendants of Mizraim, until it Avas invaded 
and fell under the dominion of a foreign pastoral 
race of people, whose sovereigns are called, 
*' the Shepherd Kings," and who are sometimes 
described as the " Shepherds Philitis." This 
happened, probably, not very long before 
Abraham and Lot, with their families, driven 
from Canaan by the famine, went down into 
Egypt, B.C. 1921, where (themselves shepherds) 
they were well received by the Pharaoh, though 
Abraham w^as tempted through fear to deny his 
wife. Gen. xii. 10, 11, 12. 14., xiii. 1. Sarah's 
servant, Hagar, was an Egyptian, Gen, xvi. 1, 
3., xxi. 9., XXV. 12. ; as was also the first wife 
of Ishraael, xxi. 21. Isaac was forbidden to go 
to Egypt even when pressed by famine, xxvi. 
2.; and it was not until the days of Joseph, 
that the land seems to have been again visited 
by the people of God, by which time the Shep- 
herd race and their kings were probably driven 
out ; as then, though the Egyptians had fliocks 
and herds of their own. Gen. xlvii. 6. 16, 17., 
every " shepherd " was an abomination to the 
Egyptians, Gen. xliii. 32., xlvi,, 34.; Ex, viii. 
26. ; and the country seems to have been 
governed by native dynasties until the time of 
Sennacherib, or even Nebuchadnezzar, when it 
fell under the dominion of Babylon. 

Joseph through envy was sold to some Ish- 
maelites, who took him to Egypt, Gen. xxxvii. 
25, 28,, where he was again sold to Potiphar the 
Egyptian, 36., xxxix. 1, 2. 5. ; Acts vii. 9. He 
was brought into Pharaoh's notice through the 
interpretation of his dream, xl. 1,, xli. 8. 19. 29, 
30. 33, 34, 36. 41. 43, 44., being made viceroy of 
all the kingdom, and having an Egyptian 
woman given him for his wife, 45,46.48.53. 
54, 55, 56, 57.; Acts vii. 10. The famine in 
Canaan led to his brethren being sent to Egj'pt 
by their father for corn. Gen. xlii. 1, 2, 3., 
xliii, 2. 15,, where Joseph was made known to 
his brethren, xlv. 2, 4, 8, 9, 13. 18, 19, 20, 23, 
25, 26,; and whither Jacob with his family (in 



all seventy-five souls) eventually came down, 
being settled with their flocks in the fertile land 
of Goshen, which had possibly only lately been 
quitted by the Shepherds Philitis, Gen. xlvi. 
3, 4. 6, 7, 8. 20, 26, 27., xlvii. 6. 11. 13, 14, 15. 
20, 21. 26, 27, 28, 29, 30,, xlviii, 5,, 1, 3, 7. 11. 
14. 22. 26, ; Ex. i, 1. 5, ; Deut, x. 22,, xxvi. 5. ; 
Josh, xxiv. 4, ; Ps, cv. 23. ; Isa, Iii. 4. ; Acts vii. 
11, 12. 15. Egypt now became, as it were, the 
cradle of the Hebrew nation ; since here they 
multiplied and grew, during the space of more 
than two centuries after Jacob's migration 
thither, occasionally intermarrying with the 
Egyptians, Lev. xxiv. 10. ; Ex. xii. 38, ; and 
remaining in Goshen, until another king arose 
that knew not Joseph, Then they were in 
many ways most grievously afflicted, and used 
as slaves (a fact which they were bidden ever 
to bear in mind), Ex. i. 8. 13. 15. 17, 18, 19,, 

ii. 11, 12. 14. 19. 23. ; Deut. iv. 20., v. 6, 15„ 

vi. 12. 21,, X. 19., XV. 15., xvi. 12,, xxiv, 18. 22,, 
xxvi. 6. ; Josh. v. 9. ; Judg, vi, 9. ; 1 Sam. ii. 
27. ; 1 Kgs, viii, 51, ; Neh. ix. 9, ; Jer. xi. 4. ; 
Acts vii. 17. 24. 28, ; Heb. xi. 27. This led to 
Moses (who, as well as his mother, was born in 
Egypt, Ex, ii. 1. ; Num. xxvi. 59,) being sent 
to deliver them from their cruel bondage, Ex. 

iii. 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22., 

iv. 18, 19, 20, 21., V. 4. 12,, vi. 5, 6, 7. 11. 13. 26, 
27, 28, 29,, vii, 3, 4, 5. ; Deut, ix, 12. ; 1 Sam. xii. 
6. 8. ; Hos. xii. 13, ; Acts vii. 34. 39, 40. ; Heb. 
iii. 16. ; 2 Esd, xiv. 3. 4., when God brought his 
tremendous plagues upon Egypt, Ex. vii. 11. 18, 
19. 21, 22. 24., viii. 5, 6, 7. 16, 17. 21, 24. 26,, 
ix, 4. 6, 9. 11, 18. 22, 23, 24, 25., x. 2. 6, 7. 12, 
13, 14, 15. 19, 21, 22., xi. 1. 3, 4, 5, 6, 7. 9., xii. 
1. 12, 13. 17. 23. 27. 29, 30.; Num. iii. 13„ viii. 
17., xiv. 22. ; Deut. i. 30., iv. 34. 37,, vi. 22,, 

vii. 8. 18., xi. 3,, xiii, 5,, xxix. 2. ; Josh, ix, 9, ; 
Judg. vi. 13, ; 1 Sam. iv. 8,, vi. 6, ; 2 Sam. vii. 
23.; Ps. Ixxviii. 12, 43, 51., cv. 38., cvi. 7. 21., 
cxxxv. 8, 9., cxxxvi. 10.; Isa. x. 24,; Jer. 
xxxii. 20, 21, ; Amos iv. 10. ; Mic. vii. 15. ; 
Acts vii. 36,, xiii. 17, ; 2 Esd, xv. 10, 11, 12. ; 
Judith V. 12. The Israelites at last left it, at 
night, through the outstretched arm of God, in 
number about 600,000 fighting men, 430 years 
after Canaan was ^rst promised to Abram ; 
taking with them the bones of Joseph, Ex. xii. 
33. 35, 36. 39, 40, 41, 42. 51. ; xiii. 3. 8, 9. 14, 15, 
16, 17, 18, 19. ; Deut, xvi. 3. 6., xx. 1., xxiii. 
4., xxvi. 8,, xxix, 25, ; Josh, xxiv. 17, 32, ; 
Judg. ii. 1, 12,, vi. 8,, x, 11. ; 1 Sam. viii. 8. 
X. 18.; 2 Kgs, xvii. 36. ; Isa. xi. 16. The 
Egyptians pursuing after them were drowned 
in the Red Sea, Ex, xiv. 4, 5. 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 



EGYPT. 



113 



13. 17, 18. 20. 23, 24, 25. 27. 30, 31. ; Deut. xi. 
4. ; Josh. ii. 10., xxiv. 6, 7. ; Isa. x. 26. ; Amos 
viii. 8,. ix. 5. ; Heb. xi. 29, ; whilst the Hebrews 
escaped into the Wilderness of Shur, where they 
received the law of God, and His statutes, and 
testimonies, and judgments, and where all the 
men that had come out of Egypt, save Caleb 
and Joshua, wandered for forty years because of 
their sin, and at length died, Ex. xvi. 1. 32., 
xvii. 3., x\dii. 1. 8, 9, 10., xix. 1. 4., xx. 2., 
xxiii. 9. 15., xxix. 46., xxxii. 1. 4. 7, 8. 11, 12. 
23., xxxiii. 1., xxxiv. 18. ; Lev. xix. 34. 36., 
XXV. 38., xxvi. 13. 45. ; Num. i. 1., ix. 1., xiv. 
2, 3, 4. ]3. 19., XV. 41., xx. 15, 16., xxii. 5. 11., 
xxiii. 22., xxiv. 8., xxvi 4., xxxii. 11., xxxiii. 
1. 3, 4. 38. ; Deut. iv. 45, 46., viii. 14., ix. 7., 
26., xxiv. 9. ; Josh. v. 4, 5, 6. ; Judg. xi. 13. 16. ; 

1 Sam. XV. 2. 6. ; 2 Sam. vii. 6. ; 1 Kgs. vi. 1., 
viii. 9. 16. 21. 53., ix. 9., xii. 28. ; 2 Kgs. xvii. 
7., xxi. 15. ; 1 Chron. xvii. 21. ; 2 Chron. v. 10., 
vi. 5., vii, 22. ; Neh. ix. 18. ; Ps. Ixxx. 8., Ixxxi. 
5., cxiv. 1. ; Isa. xliii. 3. ; Jer. ii. 6., vii. 22. 25., 
xvi. 14., xxiii. 7., xxxi. 32., xxxiv. 13. ; Ezek. 
XX. 5, 6. 9, 10. 36. ; Dan. ix. 15. ; Hos. ii. 15., 
xi. 1., xii. 9., xiii. 4.; Amos ii. 10,, iii. 1.; Mic. 
vi. 4. ; Hagg. ii. 5. ; Heb. viii. 9. ; Jude 5. ; 

2 Esd. i. 7., iii. 17, 18., ix. 29., xiv. 29. ; Judith 
vi. 5. ; Esth. xiii. 16. The Israelites were for- 
bidden ever to return to Egypt of themselves, 
Deut. xvii. 16.; Hos. xi. 5. ; though God 
threatened to bring them there again, if re- 
bellious against Him, Deut. xxviii. 68. ; Hos. 
viii. 1 ix, 3. 6. But notwithstanding all their 
wrongs and sufferings, they were still forbidden 
to abhor an Egyptian, Deut. xxiii. 7. ; and, 
strange as it may seem, yet from first to last it 
is seen in their history, they yearned after Egypt 
in all their troubles, and continually hankered 
after alliance with, and help from, that early 
nursery of their nation, whenever they were 
ground down by an oppressor. 

After the settlement of the Israelites in 
Canaan, there is but little mention of 'Egypt 
until the time of David, when there seems to 
have been war between the two nations, as one 
of David's mighty men slew an Egyptian giant, 
1 Chron. xi. 23. In his days also Hadad the 
Edomite, fled from his conquering arms to that 
country, remaining there until the death of 
David, when he returned to Edom, and became 
eventually one of Solomon's adversaries, 1 Kgs. 
xi. 17, 18. 21. Solomon married a daughter of 
the then Pharaoh, who gave her the city of 
Gezer, which upon some provocation he had 
gone up and taken from the Canaanites, whom 
he destroj'ed, burning their houses with fire, 



1 Kgs. iii. 1., vii. 8., ix. 16. 24. ; 2 Chron. viii. 
11. Solomon seems to have also had, in the 
beginning of his reign, much friendly inter- 
course with Egypt, 1 Kgs. x. 28, 29. ; 2 Chron. 
i. 16., ix. 28. Towards the close of his days, 
when he sought to kill Jeroboam, after Ahijah 
the prophet had promised him, in God's name, 
the kingdom of the Ten Tribes, Jeroboam took 
refuge with Shishak, king of Egypt, Avhere he 
remained until the accession of Rehoboam, 
1 Kgs. xi. 40., xii. 2. ; 2 Chron. x. 2. In the 
fifth year of the reign of the last-mentioned 
king, Shishak came np against Judah, with the 
Lubins, Sukkiims, and Ethiopians; taking its 
fenced cities, plundering the Temple and the 
king's palace, and redvicing the Jews to tribute, 

1 Kgs. xiv. 25.; 2 Chron. xii. 2, 3. 9. The 
Egyptians seem likewise to have joined their 
neighbours the Edomites, in their assaults upon 
Israel, as the prophet Joel, iii. 19., denounces 
God's wrath against them for their violence. 
Indeed, as early as the days of David some of 
them were mingled with the Amalekites in 
their incursions upon Judah, 1 Sam. xxx. 13. 
They were also at one time confederate Avith 
Nineveh, Nah. iii. 9. ; and probably not un- 
willing to join in attacking the Israelites on 
any convenient occasion, 2 Kgs. vii. 6., when 
invited so to do. Hoshea, the last king of 
Israel, endeavoured to protect himself against 
Assyria by a league with So, king of Egypt, 

2 Kgs. xvii. 4. ; Hos. vii. 11. ; but in vain ; for 
after a short interval, Samaria was taken by 
Shalmaneser, b c. 721 ; and Egypt itself seems 
to have been soon afterwards conquered by 
Sennacherib. 

After this period, there is much uncertainty 
as to the history of Egypt, though it probably 
endeavoured to regain its independence ; at 
all events, a sense of danger from the com- 
mon enemy appears to have drawn the Jew3 
and Egyptians closer togethei", if not into a 
secret alliance. Hence the reproaches of Sen- 
nacherib, when invading Judah in the days of 
Hezekiah, for his leaning on the bruised and 
broken reed of Egypt, 2 Kgs. xviii, 21. 24. ; Isa. 
xviii. 2., xxx. 4., xxxvi. 6. 9. ; and the denun- 
ciations of the prophets against all those who 
trusted in Egypt, or went down thither for 
safety, as many of them did, Isa. xxx. 2, 3. 7., 
xxxi. 1. 3. ; Jer. ii. 18. 36. ; Hos. xii. 1. This 
friendship between the two nations seems to 
have lasted until the time of Josiah, king of 
Judah, who, persisting in opposing the progress 
of Pharaoh-Xeohoh Avhen proceeding against 
Babylon, was slain by him at Megiddo, 
I 



114 



EGYPT. 



Nechoh then " set forward against Jerusalem, 
and after having put the whole land to a 
tribute, deposed Jehoahaz, the son of Josiah, 
who died in Egypt, and advanced Eliakim, 
another son of Josiah, to the throne, whose name 
he changed to Jehoiakim; and who, when 
Urijah prophesied against Jerusalem, and fled 
into Egypt for safety, fetched him thence, and 
put him to death, Jer. xxvi. 21, 22, 23. Nechoh 
continued his campaign against Babylon, and 
thus brought on the conquest of his own 
country by Nebuchadnezzar, 2 Kgs. xxiii. 29. 
34., xxiv. 7. ; 2 Chron. xxxv. 20., xxxvi. 3, 4. ; 
Isa. vii. 18. ; Jer. xlvi. 2. 8. 13, 14. 17. 19, 20, 
24, 25, 26. ; Ezek. xix. 4. ; Hos. viii. 13., ix. 3. 
6. ; 1 Esd. i. 26. 38. 

Egypt recovered some of its power and glory 
under the second successor of Nechoh, Pharaoh- 
Hophra ; who conquered the Phoenicians, taking 
their great city Zidon by storm, and enriching 
himself with its vast treasures. Zedekiah, the 
last king of J udah, formed an alliance with him 
against Nebuchadnezzar, which brought ruin 
upon them both ; for when Pharaoh-Hophra, on 
marching to relieve Jerusalem from its siege by 
the king of Babylon, beheld the powerful 
resources of his enemy, he withdrew hastily, 
leaving his Jewish allies exposed to the fury of 
Nebuchadnezzar; who, after the conquest of 
Judiea, speedily reduced both him and his king- 
dom to subjection. These events, as well as 
those that should befall such Jews as had gone 
down into Egypt, together with the future doom 
of Egj^pt itself, were all foretold by the prophets 
Isaiah, xix. 1, 2, 3, 4. 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17., xx. 3, 
4, 5., xxiii. 5, ; Jeremiah, ix 26., xxiv. 8., xxv. 
19., xxxvii. 5. 7. 11., xliii. 10, 11, 12, 13., xliv. 1. 8. 
12, 13, 14, 15. 24. 26, 27, 28. 30. ; and Ezekiel, xvii. 
15., xxix. 2, 3. 6. 9, 10. 12, 13, 14. 19. 29., xxx. 
4. 6. 8, 9, 10, 11. 13= 15, 16. 18, 19. 21, 22, 23. 25, 
26., xxxi. 2., xxxii. 2. 12. 15, 16. 18. The 
miserable remnant of the Jews that was left in 
their own land, when the rest of their nation 
was taken captive to Babylon, fled into Egypt, 
after the murder of Gedaliah by Ishmael, under 
the leadership of Johanan, notwithstanding the 
threatenings of God by Jeremiah, 2 Kgs. xxv. 26., 
Jer. xli. 17., xlii. 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19., xliii. 6. 7. ; 
Lam. V. 6. Johanan compelled Jeremiah to go 
with him, and this prophet is believed to have 
been there put to death ; though whether by 
his own countiymen, or by the Egyptians, is un- 
known. Here they joined great numbers of Jews, 
who had either been taken captive during the 
various wars, or had at different times fled hither 
from fear of their many powerful oppressors. 



Egypt never recovered its independence again 
for any long period; but has remained amidst 
the many masters it has had the basest of king- 
doms, Ezek. xxix. 15., to our own days. From 
the Babylonians it passed successively into the 
power of the Persians under Cambyses ; and of 
the Macedonians under Alexander the Great, 
who built the famous city of Alexandria, near 
the W. mouth of the R. Nile, meaning, as is 
said, to make it the metropolis of his dominions. 
Under his successors the Ptolemies, Avho con- 
tested Palestine with the Seleucidre, Egypt re- 
gained much of its ancient greatness, Dan. xi. 8., 
and became again a great centre of the arts and 
commerce. Several of these princes are mentioned 
in the apocryphal books, where also we find many 
allusions to matters connected with Egypt, as 
well as to the part it took during the Maccabaean 
wars, Tobit, viii. 3. ; Jud. i. 9. ; 1 Mace. i. 16, 17, 
18, 19, 20., xi. 1. 13. ; 2 Mace. i. 1. 10., iv. 21., v. 
1. 8. 11., ix. 29. The Ptolemies granted many 
privileges to the Jews who were in Egypt; 
allowing them to open extensive schools of 
learning, and also to build a temple for them- 
selves at Leontopolis, after the model of that of 
Jerusalem. It was near the ancient city of On, 
or Heliopolis, on the right bank of the Nile, and 
continued open until long after the destruction 
of Jerusalem by the Romans ; its ruins are still 
called Tel Joudieh. Egypt, at last, fell under 
the power of the Romans duiing the reign of 
Augustus Caesar ; in whose days, the Redeemer 
of the world was taken down thither by His 
parents for safety, from the murderous designs 
of Herod the Great, returning thence again 
when His persecutor was dead, Matt. ii. 13, 14, 
15. 19. The gospel spread into Egypt at an 
earl}' period, some Jews from it being present on 
the great Day of Pentecost, Acts ii. 10 ; and 
large promises of increase are made to the 
church from its inhabitants, Ps. Ixviii. 31. ; 
Isa. xix. 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25., xlv. 14. ; 
Zech. xiv. 18, 19 ; as well as to the Jews who 
are now dispersed there, of their being gathered 
thence to their own land, Isa. xi. 11., xxvii. 12, 
13. ; Hos. xi. 11. ; Zech. x. 10. 11. Some of the 
seditious impostors who disturbed the peace of 
Judaea before the destruction of Jerusalem, came 
out of Egypt ; for one of whom, St. Paul was 
taken, Acts xxi. 38. It was subsequently 
ravaged by the Saracens, Turks, Mamelukes, &c. ; 
and, perhaps, will be still further devastated by 
other conquerors, Ezek. xxix. 11.; Dan. xi. 42, 
43. The great city of Antichrist, in the street of 
which the bodies of the two witnesses are to lie 
unburied for three days and a half, is spiritually 



EGYPT, FLOOD OF. 



EKRON. 



115 



called Egypt, Rev. xi. 8. ; because of its 
idolatrous persecution of the people of God after 
the manner of Egypt. 

EGYPT, ELOOD OF, a name employed by 
the prophet Amos, viii. 8., ix. 5., to designate 
the E. Nile, as some suppose, from its great 
periodical inundations; others, however, think 
the expression refers to the destruction of 
Pharaoh and his host in the Red Sea. 

EGYPT, RIVER OF, or Stream of, supposed 
by many to refer to the Nile, but it is extremely 
doubtful whether the Israelites ever had any 
power over the country touching immediately 
on the Nile ; and as the Desert of Shur is the 
natural frontier of Egypt and Judaea, there 
seems no reason why the latter should overstep 
it. The Septuagint of Isa. xxvii. 12., translates 
" to Ehinocorura," a small town far from the 
Nile, noAv called El Arish, about midway between 
Gaza and Pelusium, at the mouth of a little 
river which runs down from the Desert of Shur 
into the Mediterranean Sea. It is probably this 
little river which is so often designated the 
River of Egypt. It is often mentioned in Holy 
Scripture as the S.W. boundary of the Promised 
Land towards Egypt; as the entering in of 
Hamath, or the R, Euphrates, is given as the 
N.E. limit towards Syria or Babylon, Gen. xv. 
18. ; Num. xxxiv. 5. ; 1 Kgs. viii. 65. ; 2 Kgs. 
xxiv. 7. ; 2 Chron. vii. 8. ; Isa. xxvii. 12. ; and 
hence, on the first division of Canaan among the 
Israelites, it formed the S.W. frontier of the 
tribe of Judah towards Egypt, Josh. xv. 4. 47., 
though subsequently that of Simeon. The 
prophet Amos, vi. 14., calls it the R. of the 
Wilderness, probably from its course running 
through the Wilderness of Shur. It seems also 
to be the same with the R. Sihor, Josh. xiii. 3., 
or Shihor, 1 Chron. xiii. 5. ; though this name 
in other passages, Isa. xxiii. 3., Jer. ii. 18., is 
thought to apply to the Nile. The R. of Egypt 
is likewise mentioned Judith i. 9., as one of the 
places to the inhabitants round which Nabu- 
chodonosor sent his summons for assistance 
against Arphaxad. It seems also to be referred 
to by the prophet Ezekiel, xlvii. 19., xlviii. 28,, as 
the boundary of the Promised Land, and specially 
of the tribe of Gad, at the future glorious re- 
storation of the Jews. 

EGYPTIANS, the inhabitants of Egypt; 
"which see. 

EGYPTIAN SEA, the sea which bounds 
Egypt on the E., separating it from. Arabia. 
It is generally called the Red Sea in our transla- 
tion of the Bible, Saphah or Zuph m the 



Hebrew, or the Weedy Sea, and now commonly 
the Arabian Gulf. By the Tongue of the 
Egyptian Sea, which it is promised the Lord 
shall utterly destroy at the victorious restoration 
of Israel, Isa. xi. 15. (c/. Zech. x. 11.), is 
probably meant the N.W. horn or gulf of the 
Red Sea, now known as the Sea of Suez, which 
the Israelites miraculously crossed, diyshod, 
under the conduct of Moses, when they fled out 
of the Egyptian furnace. 

EKREBEL, a place in the immediate neigh- 
bourhood of Bethulia ; towards which the Edom- 
ites and Ammonites encamped, when assisting 
the Assyrians in their attack on the city, Judith 
vii. 18. 

EKRON, one of the five chief cities of the 
Philistines, giving name to the lordship around 
it. Josh. xiii. 3. It was the most N. of 
the five, and lay near the Mediterranean Sea, 
between Ashdod and lamnia; probably in the 
neighbourhood of the Brook Sorek. On the 
division of the countrj^ by Joshua, it was allotted 
to the tribe of Judah, Josh. xv. 11. 45, 46., 
though it eventually fell within the limits of 
Dan, Josh. xix. 43. The Philistines, however, 
do not seem to have been driven out until after 
Joshua's death, when Ekron was taken by Judah, 
Judg. i. 18. ; though apparently they recovered 
it again before the time of Samuel. After that 
fatal battle with them, in which the two sons of 
Eli were slain, the ark of God was taken to 
Ashdod, thence to Gath, and thence to Ekron ; 
when the Ekronites, through fear of the plagues 
that had fallen on all the three cities, sent it 
home to Bethshemesh, with ofierings from each 
of the five cities, conducted by the five lords, after 
it had been seven months in the country of the 
Philistines, 1 Sam. v. 10., vi. 16, 17. In the 
famous battle of Ebenezer, the Philistines wei-e 
so worsted by Samuel, that they retreated froni 
the Avhole country between Ekron and Gath, 
1 Sam. vii. 14. ; but seem to have subsequently 
got possession of it again in the time of Said, as 
they were chased to its valley and gates after 
the battle in which David slew Goliath, 1 Sam. 
xvii, 52. When David had been raised to the 
throne, he smote them in several battles, 2 Sam. 
V. 20. 25., viii. 1., xxi. 15 — 22., whereupon, pro- 
bably, Ekron fell into his possession, and con- 
tinued in that of Solomon, 1 Kgs. iv. 24. ; though 
at length under his successors, it would appear 
to have recovered its independence. Baal-zebub 
was worshipped at Ekron ; and Aliaziah, king 
of Israel, on sending to this false god to inquire 
if he should recover of his disease, had his judg- 
I 2 



116 EKEONITES. 



ELATH. 



ment declared to him from God by Elijah, 2 Kgs. 
i. 2, 3. 6. 16. For its wickedness it is threatened 
with destruction by Jeremiah, xxv. 20. ; by Amos, 
i. 8. ; by Zephaniah, ii. 4. ; and by Zechariah, 
ix. 5. 7. ; predictions which have been so fulfilled, 
that though it existed in the days of Eusebius, 
and its general position is even now pretty well 
guessed at, its site has not hitherto been found, 
because Ekron has been " rooted up." It is 
written Accaron in the Septuagint, and also in 
the Apocrypha, 1 Mace. x. 89,, where we read that 
after Jonathan had burnt Ashdod and the temple 
of Dagon, which was there. King Alexander gave 
him Accaron and its suburbs for a possession. 

EKRONITES, Josh. xiii. 3., 1 Sam. v. 10., 

the inhabitants of the city and province of 
Ekron ; which see. 

EL AH, VALLEY OF, where the Israelites 
and Philistines had a battle, and where David 
slew the giant Goliath, 1 Sam. xvii. 2. 19., xxi. 
9. It is a small narrow valley, with lofty hills 
on each side, where the tvf o armies lay encamped, 
about 3 miles from Bethlehem, on the road to 
Joppa, with a little brook running through it, 
out of which David chose the five smooth stones 
for his sling. 

ELAM, the name of an ancient kingdom on 
the E. of the Euphrates, and extending along 
the N. shores of the Persian Gulf; so called 
after Elam, the eldest son of Shem, Gen. x, 22. ; 
1 Chron. i. 17 ; who is thought to have settled 
there and laid the foundation of a dynasty, which 
lasted until overthrown by the Assyrians. It is 
mentioned in Holy Writ as early as the days 
of Abraham, and must even then have arrived 
at considerable power; for Chedorlaomer, one 
of its sovereigns, had reduced the Five Cities of 
the Plain to tribute and subjection, though they 
were at so great a distance from him. He main- 
tained his dominion over them for twelve years, 
when they rebelled against him, b.c. 1913-, 
whereupon, with the assistance of the king of 
Shinar, the king of Ellasar, and the king of 
Nations, he again reduced them to subjection, 
plundering Sodom and Gomorrah, and slaying 
their kings, routing the whole confedei-acy that 
had come to their help, and taking Lot prisoner. 
Gen. xiv. 1. 9. There is no further mention of 
Elam until the time of Isaiah, who in his pro- 
phecy stirs up its inhabitants against the king- 
dom of Babylon, xxi. 2., and against the king- 
dom of Judah, xxii. 6. He also predicts that in 
the latter days, the Jews who were taken captive 
to Elam by Nebuchadnezzar, as well as by the 
king of Assyria, shall be gathered again to 



their o^Ti land, xi. 11. Some of the inhabitants 
of Elam were amongst those whom Esar-haddon, 
king of Assyria, removed to Samaria after the 
kingdom of Israel had been destroyed. They 
joined in the letter to Artaxerxes, to hinder the 
rebuilding of the Temple at Jerusalem, because 
Zerubbabel would not allow them to take part 
in the work ; which led to the stoppage of the 
building, until the reign of Darius, king of 
Persia, 2 Kgs. xvii. 24. ; Ezra iv. 9. For this, 
and for its persecuting spirit towai'ds Israel, as 
well as for its other sins, the wrath of God is 
denounced against it by Jeremiah, xxv. 25., xlix. 
34, 35, 36, 37, 38,, who yet promises its restoration 
in the latter days, 39. ; a prophecy which appears 
to have been accomplished when it fell under 
the power of the Modes, and afterwards rose to 
greater power than before under the dominion 
of Cyrus and his successors. The Elamites, like 
their neighbours the Parthians, were very expert 
archers, Isa. xxii. 6. ; Jer, xlix. 35. After Elam 
was conquered by Babylon, the name is used 
only as that of one of the provinces of that vast 
empire, Dan, viii. 2. ; the monarchs of which, 
and of Persia likewise, resided in winter at their 
palace in Shushan, which was within its limits, 
as Ecbatana was one of their summer abodes. 
This province gave name to that of Elymais, as 
well as to the people Elymsei, mentioned by the 
classical authors ; and corresponded in a general 
way with the modern divisions of Khuzistan and 
Fars. The gospel appears to have spread into 
it at an early period ; some devout Jews from it 
were present in Jerusalem on the great Day of 
Pentecost, Acts ii. 9. See Elymais. 

ELAM, Ezra ii. 7., viii. 7., x. 26. ; Neh. vii. 
12.; and 

ELAM, THE OTHER, Ezra ii. 31. ; Neh. vii. 

34, ; the children or sons of which returned 
home after the captivity. Whether the name of 
the head of a Jewish family, 1 Chron. viii, 24,, 
or of a place in one of the tribes of Judah or 
Benjamin, is uncertain. See Nehelamite. 

ELATH or Eloth, a sea-port and haven 
of Edom, at the N. extremity of the ^lanitic 
Gulf, i.e, the E. arm or head of the Red Sea. 
It lay beside Ezion-geber, being about 5 miles 
to the S. of it. It was probably a place of con- 
siderable importance in very early times, as a 
naval or mercantile station for the trafhc between 
the countries on the Mediterranean and Indian 
Seas. It seems to have been visited by the 
Israelites in their journeying through the 
Wilderness, Deut. ii. 8. It fell into the hands of 
David, together with the rest of Edom, 2 Sam. 



EL-BETII-EL. 



ELISHAH, ISLES OF. 117 



viii. Solomon seems to have himself visited 
both it and Ezion-geber, and to have here fitted 
out a fleet, -\vhich, "\vith the assistance of the 
Tyrians, went to Ophir for gold, 1 Kgs. ix. 26. ; 
2 Chron. viii. 17. It remained in the hands of 
the Jews until the time of Joram, Solomon's 
fifth successor, when it was recovered by the 
Edomites, together with all their country, 2 Kgs. 
\'iii. 20. 22. ; 2 Chron. xxi. 8— 10. ; but it was ■ 
taken from them again about eighty years after- 
wards by Uzziah or xVzariah, king of Judah, 
who rebuilt and enlarged it, 2 Kgs. xiv. 22. ; 
2 Chron. xxvi. 2. ; and after another interval of 
eighty years, it was finally taken from Ahaz, 
king of Judah, by Eezin, king of Syria, 2 Kgs. 
xvi. 6., who chased the Jews out of it. After 
the death of Alexander the Great, it fell into the 
power of the Ptolemies, and then of the Romans, 
who here maintained a whole legion as a garri- 
son, and reckoned it to their province of Pal^estina 
Tertia. It is called ^Elana or Elana, otherwise 
Aila and Ailath, by many authors, and gave 
name to the JLlanitic Gulf, or G. of Akabah, at 
the head of which it stood. It is now replaced 
by the modern small town and castle of Akabah ; 
its ruins, which are hard by, preserving some 
traces of the old name in that of Gelena. 

EL-BETH-EL (tAe Godof Bethel), Gen. xxxv. 
7., the name given by Jacob to the altar which 
he built near Luz after his return from Laban, 
probably on the veiy spot where he had his 
dream of the ladder. Gen. xxviii. 22. See 
Bethel. 

ELEALEH, an old town of the Amorites in 
the land of Jazer, within the kingdom of Sihon, 
beyond Jordan, which was taken from them by 
the Israelites under Moses, and given by him to 
the children of Eeuben, who rebuilt and fortified 
it, Xum. xxxii. 3. 37. It appears to have subse- 
quently fallen into the hands of the Moabites, as 
it is one of the places mentioned in connection 
with them, against which Isaiah prophesied, xv. 
4., xvi. 9., and Jeremiah likewise, xlviii. 34. It 
is said by Eusebius to have been one mile from 
Heshbon ; and its ruins, now called El Aal, are 
not far from this city. 

ELEASA, 1 Mace. ix. 5., a place in the neigh- 
bourhood of Jerusalem. Here Judas Maccabieus 
pitched his tents previous to the fatal battle with 
Bacchides and Alcimus ; in which, after ha\ang 
been deserted by a large part of his army, he 
bravely met the vastly superior forces of his 
enemies, but was himself slain. Some manu- 
scripts read Alasa, which has led to the conjecture 
that it should have been written Adasa; and 



that possibly this Eleasa is the same with 
Adasa, mentioned 1 Mace. vii. 40. 

EL-ELOHE-ISKAEL (God the God of Is- 
rael), the name given by Jacob to the altar he 
erected in Shalem, in the parcel of ground which 
he had bought of the children of Hamor, Sbe- 
chem's father, Gen. xxxiii. 20. Here he pitched 
his tent for a time, until after the revenge taken 
by his sons upon the Shechemites, when he Avas 
sent by God to Bethel; and here, eventually, 
were buried the bones of Joseph and many of the 
patriarchs, and it became the inheritance of the 
children of Joseph, Josh. xxiv. 32. ; Acts vii. IG. 

ELEPH, a tow-n of the tribe of Benjamin, 
Josh, xviii. 28. 

ELEUTHERUS, THE R., which rises in 
Mt. Lebanon, and flows W. into the Mediter- 
ranean Sea, opposite the island of Cyprus. It 
formed, at one period, the common boundary 
between Syria and Phoenice, and is mentioned 
apparently in this view in 1 Mace. xi. 7,, xii. 
30. It is now called £1 Kehir, and flows through 
a large plain, called anciently Macras, the re- 
puted haunt of the enormous dragon which tra- 
dition reports was killed by St. George. ' 

ELIM, the seventh station of the Israelites in 
their journeyiugs from Eg}-pt, i.e. the second after 
they had crossed the Red Sea, Ex. xv. 27., xvi. 
1. ; Num. xxxiii. 9, 10. Here they found twelve 
fountains of water and seventy palm-trees, num- 
bers which answered to the twelve patriarchs and 
seventy elders. It was in the.X. W. part of the 
Wilderness of Sinai, not far from the Red Sea, 
on the shores of which they formed their next 
encampment. It was in the valley now called 
Gharandel, where are still many wells and some 
thousands of palm-trees. 

ELISHAH, Gen. x. 4. ; 1 Chron. i. 7. See 

ELISHAH, ISLES OF, mentioned by the 
prophet Ezekiel, xxviL 7., as the region whence 
Tyre drew its rich supplies of purple and scarlet. 
They probably derived their name from Elishah, 
the eldest son of Javan and grandson of Japheth, 
Gen. X. 4. ; 1 Chron. i. 7 ; who with his descend- 
ants is supposed to have settled in the isles of 
the iEgaean Sea, and in Greece, which from him 
obtained its name of Hellas. The sea called the 
Hellespont, the city Eleusis, the R. Ilissus, the 
province of Elis in the Peloponnesus, many places 
called Alesium and Helos, the province of JEolis 
in Asia Minor, and the appellation of Elisa, tra- 
ditionally connected with Carthage and Tyre, all 
exhibit traces of his name : and many parts of 
the coast ^of Greece, especially Laconia and 
I 3 



118 ELKOSHITE. 



ELYMEANS, THE. 



Cythera, were, according to Pliny and Pausa- 
nias, famed for the purple fish with which they 
abounded. See Isles of the Gentiles. 

ELKOSHITE, the surname by which the 
prophet Xahum, i. 1., describes himself. It is 
thought to have been derived from a to>vn 
called Elkosch, which is said by Jerome to have 
existed in his day in Galilee, and to have been 
then called Elkesi. Epiphanius, however, places 
it beyond the Jordan. Others, but with less 
probability, suppose the name to have been ob- 
tained from a place still called Alkusch in Assy- 
ria, where Nahum is stated to have died, and 
whither, to this day, great numbers of Jews go on 
pilgrimage to his grave. 

ELLASAR, the name of a country or city, the 
king of which, in the days of Abraham, was 
Arioch, who with the kings of Shinar and of the 
Nations, joined Chedorlaomer, king of Elam, in 
the confederacy against the Five Cities of the 
Plain and the adjacent regions. Gen. xiv. 1. 9. 
Nothing is known about its situation. Some 
suppose it to have been in the S.W. part of 
Arabia, where Ptolemy marks a people called 
Elisari ; others identify it with Telassar, towai'ds 
the mouth of the R. Euphrates ; and others 
place it round a city called Ellas, which Stepha- 
nas desciibes in Coele-Syria on the borders of 
Arabia. 

ELON", a town in the inheritance of the 
Danites, not otherwise known. Josh. xix. 43. 

ELON-BETH-HANAN, a district or city in 
thepurveyorship of Ben-Dekar, one of the twelve 
officers appointed by Solomon to provide his 
household with victuals, 1 Kgs. iv. 9. : it was 
probably on the borders of Judah and Simeon. 

ELONITES, THE, a family of the Zebu- 
lunites, so called after Elon the second son of Ze- 
bulun. Num. xxvi. 26. : they were included in 
the census of all Israel taken by Moses in the 
Plains of Moab. 

ELOTH, 1 Kgs. ix. 26. ; 2 Chron. viii. 17., 
xxvi. 2. See Elath. 

EL-PARAN (or the Plain of Paran), the 
border of the Horites by the Wilderness of Shur, 
and the place whither the four confederate kings 
chased them, and smote them there, Gen. xiv. 
6. See Paean. 

ELTEKEH, a city in the inheritance of Dan, 
Josh. xix. 44,, which with its suburbs, was lat- 
terly assigned for a possession to the Levites 
of the family of Kohath, xxi. 23. : in the latter 
passage the Septuagint has Elkotheim. 



ELTEKON, a town of the tribe of Judah, 
Josh. XV. 59. 

ELTOLAD, a town which on the first division 
of Canaan by Joshua was allotted to the children 
of Judah, and lay in its S. quarters towards the 
coast of Edom, Josh. xv. 30. ; but it was even- 
tually assigned to the tribe of Simeon, xix. 4. 
It is called Tolad in 1 Chron. iv. 29. 

ELYMAIS, a district of Media, in the neigh- 
bourhood of Ecbatana, which derived its name 
from the old kingdom of Elam. It was hither 
that Tobit came after his blindness, Tobit ii. 10. 
Cf. Judith i, 6. The city of 

ELYMAIS, mentioned 1 Mace. vi. 1., on 
account of its wealthy temple having been pur- 
posed to be plundered by Antiochus Epiphanes, 
is there said to have been in Persia ; but in the 
account given, 2 Mace. ix. 2., it is called Perse- 
polis. There is apparently no mention made by 
any other author of a city of Elymais. Perse- 
polis, the supposed ruins of which are now called 
Istakha and Kinara, stood in the centre of the 
province of Persis, and was at one time the me- 
tropolis of the whole Persian empire. It was 
near the junction of the two little rivers Araxes 
and Medus, and is said to have been originally 
built out of the spoils of the Egyptian Thebes. 
It contained a splendid palace, surrounded by a 
triple wall, with gates of brass, which was burnt 
to the ground by Alexander the Great after his 
victory over Darius, when he allowed the whole 
city to be pillaged by his soldiery. He is said to 
have been provoked to do this by the sight of 
about 800 Greeks, whom the Persians had 
shamefully mutilated; but others say, that he 
set the palace on fire at the instigation of Thais, 
one of his courtezans, in a fit of revelry. 
Whether the old temple was burnt is not known ; 
but if so, another seems to have been built and 
to have become very wealthy, from the story in 
the books of Maccabees, as well as from Josephus 
and many of the profane authors. By the ac- 
count in 1 Mace. vi. 1, 2,, it would appear that 
both the temple and many of its rich treasm-es 
had been left by Alexander, and would have been 
plundered by Antiochus Epiphanes, had not the 
inhabitants of the city risen against him and 
compelled him to retreat. Cf. Dan. xi. It is not 
known to whom this temple was dedicated; 2 
Mace. i. 13. 15., says to Nanea; Josephus and 
others, to Diana, or Zanetis, the Persian Diana ; 
Strabo, to Minerva ; Appian, to Venus or Anu- 
bis. 

ELYMEANS, THE, whose king Arioch joined 



EMIMS, THE. 



ENGEDI. 



119 



Nabuchodonosor in his war with Arphaxad, 
Judith i. 6,, seem to have been the inhabitants 
not so much of the district of Elymais in Media, 
as of the province of Persia, the ancient Elam ; 
and to have been the same people latterly called 
Persians. 

EMIMS, THE, a powerful and numerous tribe 
of the old Canaanite race of the Rephaim. They 
dwelled E. of the Jordan, in the country after- 
wards possessed by the Moabites, they were tall 
and gigantic as the Anakims, to which family 
they may have perhaps belonged, though they 
were called Emims by the Moabites. They were 
probably rendered tributary to Elam, at an early 
period; at all events they were amongst the 
many nations whom Chedorlaomer, king of that 
country, conquered, having been smitten by him 
in Shaveh-Kiriathaim, Gen. xiv. 5. ; Deut. ii. 10, 
11., about 1913 years b.c. 

EMMAUS, a village about 6 or 7 miles 
N.W. from Jerusalem ; on the road to which the 
Blessed Savioiu: after His resurrection, had His 
conversation with the two disciples, and where 
He was at length made known to them, Lu. 
xxiv. 13. Cf. Mk. xvi. 12. Josephus informs 
us that Vespasian gave the village to the 800 
soldiers he left in Judrea. Its ruins are said by 
some to be now called Cubeibi. 

EMMAUS or Ammaus, a considerable and im- 
portant town of Judsea, about 16 Roman miles 
N.W. from Jerusalem, where Judas Maccabseus 
gained a victory over the Syrian general Gorgias, 
1 Mace. iii. 40. 57., iv. 3. It was strongly for- 
tified and garrisoned by Bacchides, as an ad- 
vanced post against the Jews, 1 Mace. ix. 50. It 
suffered much from various commanders ; but at 
last, fell into the hands of the Romans, Avho colo- 
nized it, made it the head of a toparchy, and 
gave it the name of Nicopolis. 

EMMOR, SONS OF, Acts vii. 16., of whom 
Abraham bought the field and cave of Machpe- 
lah for a burying-place. In Gen. xxiii. 10. 16., 
they ai'e called the sons of Pleth. Emmor or 
Hamoi-, who was the father of Shechem, is called 
a Hivite in Gen. xxxiv. 2. 

ENAJIM (openly or at the crossways), the 
place near Timnath where Tamar sate in dis- 
guise to deceive Judah, because of his son 
Shelah, Gen. xxxviii. 14. 21., marg. It is 
thought to have been the same with 

ENAM, a town in the tribe of Judah, Josh. 
XV. 34. ; which according to Eusebius lay between 
Jerusalem and Lydda. 

EN-DOR, a town assigned by Joshua to the 



half-tribe of Manasseli on this side Jordan, on 
the borders of Asher and Issachar, Josh. xvii. 
11., probably in the district called the Region of 
Dor, though Eusebius describes it as not far from 
Scythopolis, and 4 miles S. of Mt. Tabor. Sisera's 
army seems from Ps. Ixxxiii. 10., to have suf- 
fered great slaughter near it in the famous battle 
between him and Deborah. It is chiefly re- 
markable for the visit paid by King Saul, before 
the fatal battle of Gilboa, to the woman with the 
familiar spirit, who dwelt there, 1 Sam. xxviii. 7. 
Its ruins are still shown near the present 
village of Endor. 

EN-EGLAIM {Fountain of the Two Calves), a 
place mentioned by the prophet Ezekiel, xlvii. 
10., in his vision concerning the future glorious 
restoration of Jerusalem, as one which the holy 
waters proceeding from the Temple were to pass, 
between which and Engedi the fishers shall stand 
spreading forth their nets, and catching many 
fish as the fish of the Great Sea. Jerome places 
it at the entrance of the R. Jordan into the Dead 
Sea. See Eglaim. 

ENGADDI, Ecclus. xxiv. 14. See Engedi. 

ENGANNIM {Fountain of the Gardens), a 
town in the inheritance of the tribe of Judah, 
situated in the Valley or Plain country, Josh. 
XV. 34. 

ENGANNIM, a city within the boiuids of the 
tiibe of Issachar, Josh. xix. 21., but latterly as- 
signed to the Levites of the family of Gershon, 
xxi. 29. In the parallel passage of 1 Chron. vi. 
73., it is called Anem. 

ENGEDI {Buck Fountain), an ancient city of 
the Amorites, situated on the W. shore of the 
Dead Sea, in the Wilderness of Judah, and 
within the limits of this tribe, Josh. xv. 62. It 
lay in a rocky, mountainous district, abounding 
in wild goats, whence it derived its name. In it 
were many caves, in which DaAid and his men 
lay concealed from Saul, and in one of which he 
had the opportunity of killing the king of Israel, 
1 Sara, xxiii. 29., xxiv. 1, 2. 4. It gave name to 
the surrounding Wilderness of Engedi, which 
was famed for its vine^-ards, camphor, balm, c}'- 
press, and palm-trees. So. of Sol. i. 14. It was 
here that the Ammonites, Moabites, and Edoni- 
ites encamped when they came against Je- 
hosliaphat ; when, according to the prediction of 
Jahaziel, they were miraculously destroyed, 2 
Chron. xx, 2. The holy waters which are to 
proceed out of the Temple, in the latter-day 
restoration of Jerusalem, are to pass Engedi, 
which is to become a station of fishers, Ezek. 
I 4 



120 ENGEDI, WILDEENESS OF. 



EN"-TAPPUAH. 



xlvii. 10. Engedi was also called Hazezon-ta- 
MAE, i.e. City of Palm-trees, from its abounding in 
them (c/. Ecclus. xxiv. 14.), and was an ancient 
possession of the Amorites, when Chedorlaomer 
and his confederates smote them in the days of 
Abraham, Gen. xiv. 7. ; 2 Chron. xx. 2. Josephus 
places it 300 stadia, or 35 miles, from Jerusalem ; 
and at about this distance, a little way to the S. of 
Jericho, its name seems still preserved in some 
ruins at Ain Jiddi. But Jerome places it at the 
S. end of the Dead Sea ; probably to tally with 
En-Eglaim, which he sets at the N. extremity, 
Ezek. xlvii. 10. 

ENGEDI, WILDERNESS OF, 1 Sam. xxiv. 
1, 2. See Engedi. 

ENHADDAH, a town of the tribe of Issachar, 
Josh. xix. 21. 

ENHAKKORE (^the Well of Mm that cried), 
the name of a spring or fountain in Lehi, which 
God was pleased miraculously to make for Sam- 
son when he was athirst,. after having slain a 
thousand Philistines with the jaw-bone of an ass, 
Judg. XV. 19. It was probably in the N. W. 
part of the tribe of Judah, towards the frontier 
of the Philistines, and in the neighbourhood of 
Gath. 

ENHAZOR, one of the fenced cities in the 
inheritance of Naphtali, Josh. xix. 37. Some 
have supposed it is the same with that Hazar- 
enan, v/hich is mentioned as one of the bounds 
of the Promised Land towards Damascus by 
Moses, Num. xxxiv. 9., and by Ezekiel, xlvii. 
17., xlviii. 1., at the future restoration of the 
Jews, and the new division of the covmtry 
among the tribes. 

EN-MISHPAT {Fountain of Judgment), a 
place in the Great Desert of Shur, apparently 
between the Red Sea and Mt. Hor, in the coun- 
try of the Amalekites, It was attacked by 
Chedoi-laomer and his allies, after they had 
traversed the Wilderness of El-paran, and 
smitten the Horites in their Mt. Seir, and 
having returned hither they passed on to the 
Amorites, Gen. xiv. 7. Its name was after- 
wards changed to Kadesh, or it was in Kadesh, 
perhaps near to the place called Meribah, or 
Meribah- Kadesh, by Moses, when he drew from 
it the " waters of strife," Num. xx. 13, 14. 16. 
22., xxvii. 14., xxxiii. 36, 37. ; Deut. i. 46. ; 
Judg. xi. 16, 17. ; Ezek. xlvii. 19., xlviii. 28. 

ENOCH, the name of the first city men- 
tioned in Holy Writ. It was built by Cain, and 
thus called after the name of his son Enoch, 



Gen. iv. 17. It was in the land of Nod, before 
Eden, or on the E. of Eden, as our translation has 
it. Traces of its name are supposed by some to 
be observed in that of Anuchtha, a city which 
Ptolemy places hereabouts, in Susiana, but it is 
not likely that the name outlived the Flood. If 
the land of Nod should have been in Arabia 
Deserta, the site of the city of Enoch must be 
looked for there. 

ENON, Jo. iii. 23. See iENON. 

ENRIMMON, the name of a city in the land 
of Judah, to which such of its inhabitants as 
came home after the seventy years' captivity in 
Babylon returned, except those who had been 
chosen to dwell at Jerusalem, Neh. xi. 29. 
It is supposed by [some to be the same place 
with Ain, which was at first allotted to the tribe 
of Judah, but afterwards to Simeon, and then 
constituted a Levitical city for the Aaronites, 
Josh. XV. 32., xix. 7., xxi. 16. ; 1 Chron. iv. 32., 
vi. 59. ; others, however, identify it with Rim- 
mon. Josh. xv. 32., xix. 7. ; 1 Chron. iv. 32. See 
Ain and Rimmon. 

EN-ROGEL {Fountain of the Fuller)^ a weU 
on the S. E. side of Jerusalem, near the Waters 
of Enshemesh, and the Valley of the Son of 
Hinnom on the common bounds of the two 
tribes, Judah and Benjamin, Josh. xv. 7., xviii. 
16. It was here that when David was driven 
out of Jerusalem by Absalom, Ahimaaz and 
Jonathan, the sons of Zadok and Abiathar, con- 
cealed themselves to convey tidings to David of 
what was going on in Jerusalem; but being 
seen by a lad who told Absalom, they were com- 
pelled to depart, and hid themselves in a well 
at Bahurim, 2 Sam. xvii. 17. Here, likewise, 
Adonijah, the son of David, when he usurped 
the kingdom against Solomon, offered large 
sacrifices by the stone Zoheleth, and gathered a 
numerous host of the king^s sons, and servants, 
and the men of Judah, assisted by Joab and 
Abiathar, to a great feast ; but on hearing of 
Solomon's having been anointed king, they 
were obliged to fly, 1 Kgs. i. 9. According to 
Josephus, En-rogel was situated in the royal 
pleasure grounds. Others identify it with Si- 
loam ; but this is not likely. 

EN-SHEMESH, WATERS OF, on the com- 
mon limits of the two tribes Judah and Ben- 
jamin, Josh. XV. 7., xviii. 17. Whether it was 
a mere fountain, or a town, or a small brook 
flowing down into the Dead Sea, is not known. 

EN-TAPPUAH, a town in the inheritance of 
the half-tribe of Manasseh on this side Jordan, 



EPHAH. 



EPHESUS. 



121 



Josh. xvii. 7. It seems to have been in the 
land of Tappuah, on the borders of Ephraim, 
near the R. Kanah, and may have been the 
same with the Tappuah mentioned in J osh. xvi. 
8., xvii. 8. 

EPHAH, a country of Arabia Petraea men- 
tioned by Isaiah, Ix. 6., in his predictions con-, 
cerning the future glory of the church, in the 
abundant access of the Gentiles. It is con- 
nected by him with Midian, Sheba, and Kedar ; 
and appears to have touched upon Edom, the 
Promised Land, and the country of the Amalek- 
ites and jNIidianites. It derived its name from 
Ephah, the eldest son of Midian, Gen. xxv. 4., 
1 Chron. i. 33., and probably bordered upon the 
Eed Sea, near the country where Ptolemy puts a 
town called Hippos, below Modiana or jNIidian. 
It was famed for its dromedaries and camels. 
Cf. Judg. vi. 5, The Seventy write the name 
Ga^pha. 

EPHES-DAMMIM (the Coast of Dammim), 
a place in the X. W. part of the lot of Judah, 
near Shochoh and Azekah, by the Valley of 
Elah. It was here that the Philistines en- 
camped, when their champion Goliath of Gath 
defied the armies of Israel, 1 Sam. xvii. 1. In 
the parallel passage of 1 Chron. xi. 13., it is 
called Pasdammim. 

EPHESUS, an ancient and noble city of Ionia 
in Asia Minor, on the shore of the ^gtean Sea, 
about midway between Smyrna and Miletus, and 
near the moiith of the R. Caystrus, or as it is now 
called the Little Mendere. It is said to have 
been originally founded by Ephesus, son of Cays- 
trus ; or, as others state, by the Amazons ; or 
by Androclus, son of Codrus, king of Athens, 
about the time when David was ruling over 
Israel. It soon grew into wealth and importance, 
being the chief emporium of commerce in those 
parts. Its first inhabitants were the Leleges and 
Carians ; but they were driven out by the loni- 
aus, who made it at last the leading mem- 
ber of the twelve cities of their league. It was 
afterwards greatly enlarged and improved by 
Lysimaclius, the successor of Alexander ; and 
still more so by the Romans when it fell into 
their hands, being eventually constituted their 
metropolis of Proconsular Asia. In the war be- 
tween Mithridates and the Romans, Ephesiis 
took part with the former, and massacred the 
Roman inhabitants ; for which it was severely 
punished by Sylla, though it afterwards received 
many imiiiunities from the Romans. 

Pliny calls Ephesus the " ornament of Asia ; " 
but its inhabitants were noted less for their 



j learning and philosophy, than for their voluptu- 
I ousness, sorceries, and superstitions. Ephesian 
j Letters was a proverbial expression of those 
times for magic characters; derived, probably, 
from the symbolical marks on the famous statue 
of the false goddess Diana at Ephesus, and which 
it was believed, whoever pronounced, had their 
i wishes granted. This image, which was made 
i of wood, and believed by the heathen who Avor- 
! shipped it, to have fallen down from Jupiter, 
} Acts xix. 35., stood in a magnificent temple 
which was burnt to the ground on the night that 
Alexander was born, by Erostratus, in order, 
as it was said, to gain himself celebrity. It 
was rebidlt, howevei*, with greater splendour and 
magnificence, by a general contribution of all the 
I Greek cities of Asia, so as to be counted one of 
the seven wonders of the world. It was 425 feet 
long, and 220 broad, and adorned with the 
choicest paintings and statues : the cedar roof 
was supported by 127 columns, each 60 feet high, 
and stated to be the gift of as many kings. It 
is said to have occupied 200 years in completing ; 
the chief architect was Chersiphron. The pre- 
cincts of it were reckoned an inviolable asylum 
for many centuries, until, because of the gross 
abuse of the privilege, it was done away with 
by Tiberius Cassar. In his reign Ephesus sufi"ered 
greatly from an earthquake, but he restored and 
beautified the city. 

Ephesus was much resorted to by the Jews 
subsequently to the Maccabiean wars; and 
it is rendered very interesting to the Chris- 
tian on account of the labours of the Apostle 
Paul. He first visited it about a.d. 55, ui com- 
pany with Priscilla and Aquila ; whom he left 
there, proceeding himself to Jerusalem, Acts 
x^-iii. 19. 21., promising to retvmi thither again 
if he was peimitted by^God to do so. INIeanwhile 
Apollos, a Jew of Alexandria, joined Aquila and 
Priscilla here, and being by them more perfectly 
instructed, preached boldly in the sjTiagogue of 
Ephesus, until he went into Achaia, Acts xviii. 
j 24. St. Paul returned to Ephesus about a year 
or so afterwards, when he continued there more 
than two years, strengthening the Christian 
church and adding to its efficiency, until he was 
driven away through the uproai' made by Deme- 
trius and his associates about the temple of 
Diana, which was then in all its splendour, xix. 
1. 26. 28. 34. 35. ; 1 Cor. xv. 32., XAi. 8. The 
kindness of Onesiphorus to St. Paul about this 
time is gratefully commemorated, 2 Tim. i. 18, 
It was during this visit that the Jewish exorcists, 
j growing bold through Avitnessing St. Paul's mi- 
\ nisterial laboiu's, were overcome bv the demoniac 



122 



EPHRAIM. 



they attempted to dispossess, xix. 17. ; which so 
influenced numbers who saAV and heard of it, that 
they brought their books of sorcery and magic 
and publicly burned them. The Apostle left 
Timothy ^in his place, appointing him bishop 
over the church there, 1 Tim. i. 3. ; an office 
which he is said to have held till near the close 
of the first century, assisted at one time by Ty- 
chichus, 2 Tim. 'iv. 12. In his last recorded 
voyage to Jerusalem, Paul sailed by Ephesus, 
but sent for the elders of the church to Mile- 
tus, where he gave them a parting charge, fore- 
telling them what should befall himself and 
their flock, Acts xx. 16, 17. ; and a few years 
afterwards, he sent them from Rome, when a 
prisoner there, the affecting and sublime Epistle 
to the Ephesians, i. 1. It was owing to Tro- 
phimus, who was an Ephesian, having been seen 
by the Jews with the Apostle in Jerusalem, that 
tlie tumult was raised, which ended^ in his 
appealing to Ctesar, Acts xxi. 29. 

Ephesus was the first of the Seven Churches 
of Asia addressed in the Apocalypse, i. 11., ii. 1. ; 
and it is here that tradition reports both St. 
John and the Virgin Mary to have died. This 
once magnificent city has long afforded to the 
world a striking illustration of the accomplish- 
ment of prophecy. Its declension in religious 
fervour was threatened to be visited with the 
removal of its candlestick; and it is now 
merely a heap of dreary, forsaken ruins, the 
haunt of unclean beasts and birds of prey. Its 
modern" name is Ayasalouk. 

EPHRAIM (i. e. Fruitful), one of the twelve 
tribes of Israel, so named after Ephraim the 
second son of Joseph, by Asenath, daughter of 
Potipherah, the high priest of On, whom Jacob 
when dying preferred above his elder brother 
Manasseh, Gen. xli. 52., xlviii. 13, 14. 17. 20. 
While in the land of Goshen as it would appear, 
Ephraim lost four of his sons through an incur- 
sion made by certain men of Gath, who were 
l)orn in the land of Egypt ; this of course tended 
at first to diminish the number of this numerous 
and prosperous family, 1 Chron. vii. 20. 22. At 
the Exodus, only 220 years after the birth of 
Ephraim, the number of fighting men in the 
tribe amounted to 40,500, Num. i. 32, 33. ; thirty- 
eight years afterwards, when they were again 
numbered in the Plains of Moab, they appear to 
have decreased to 32,500, Num. xxvi. 35. 37., 
owing, probably, to their having borne the brunt 
of the Amorite attack in the matter of the spies. 
They marched under the standard of their own 
tribe, being the seventh tribe in order, Num. ii. 



18., x. 22., immediately following the sanctuary ; 
whence the Psalmist's praj^er against the ene- 
mies of the church that God would stir up His 
strength before Ephraim, Benjamin, and Ma- 
nasseh, Ps. Ixxx. 2. The offerings of Ephraim 
for the Tabernacle were made on the seventh day, 
Num. vii. 48. ; when encamped, they were on the 
W. side of the Tabernacle. The total number 
of the whole camp of Ephraim (which in- 
cluded Ephraim, Manasseh, and Benjamin) was 
108,100, being the smallest of the four grand 
divisions of the whole nation, Num. ii. 24. One 
of their princes, viz. Joshua, was chosen, in 
common with one from every other tribe, to go 
and spy out the land of Canaan, whilst the whole 
host lay encamped in Kadesh, Num. xiii. 8. They 
are thought, from Ps. Ixxviii. 9,, and from the 
commendation bestowed upon the report of 
Joshua, to have led on the other tribes in their 
presumptuous attack vipon the Amorites, con- 
trary to the command of God, after the refusal of 
the people to enter the Land of Promise, when the 
spies returned with evil tidings ; upon which oc- 
casion, notwithstanding their warlike spirit, they 
were chased by their enemies shamefully to their 
own camp. Num. xiv. 40 — 45. ; Deut. i. 41 — 44. 

The family name of Joseph is not unfrequently 
used to designate the tribe of Ephraim alone, 
from its inheriting the chief blessing, Gen. xlviii. 
19. ; Num. i. 32. ; Josh, xviii. 11. ; Judg. i. 23. 
35. ; 1 Kgs. xi. 28. ; Ps. Ixxviii. 67. ; Rev. vii. 
8. ; though occasionally applied to that of Ma- 
nasseh, Num. xiii. 11., xxxvi. 5. ; and indeed to 
them both, Deut. xxvii. 12. ; Josh, xvi, 1. 4., 
xvii. 14. 16, 17., xviii. 5. ; Ezek, xlvii. 13., xlviii. 
32. ; as well as to the whole kingdom of the Ten 
Tribes, 2 Sam. xix. 20. ; Amos v. 6, 15., vi. 6. ; 
Obad. 18. ; Zech, x. 6. In the large blessing 
which before his death Moses pronounced upon 
the twelve tribes, he links together the thousands 
of Manasseh and the ten thousands of Ephraim 
under the one family name of Joseph, Deut. 
xxxiii. 13. 17.; giving the first place as to 
number to the tribe of Ephraim, though at that 
very time it contained 20,000 fewer fighting men 
than Manasseh ; mindful, no doubt, by faith of 
the blessing of fertility so especially promised to 
Ephraim by Jacob, Gen. xlviii. 19, 20. ; and the 
future land of Ephraim was one of those 
countries he was permitted to view from the top 
of Mt. Pisgah, xxxiv. 2. Ephraim was one of 
the six tribes appointed to stand upon Mt. Ge- 
rizim, and bless the people, Deut. xxvii. 12. One 
of their princes, together with a prince out of 
every tribe whom it concerned, was appointed by 
Moses to assist Eleazar and Joshua (himself an 



EPHRAIM. 



123 



Ephraimite, Num. xiii. 8.), in dividing the land 
of Canaan amongst those Israelites \fho bad not 
yet received their inheritance, Num. xxxiv. 24. 
Before this division took place, the children of 
Ephraim had already received their lot in the 
central part, extending on the E. from the R. 
Jordan, which parted it from Reuben and Gad, 
to the Mediterranean Sea on the W. ; on the 
N. it was bounded by the half-tribe of Manasseh ; 
on the S. by Benjamin and Dan, Josli. xvi. 1. 3, 4, 
5. 8., xvii. 8. 9, 10. ; though some of its cities were 
at first intermixed with those of Manasseh, xvi. 
9., xvii. 9. It was, as Jacob and Moses when 
blessing the tribes, had foretold it should be. 
Gen. xlix. 25., Deut.xxxiii. 13 — 17., a most fertile 
country, with a luxurious climate and diversified 
surface, its valleys being rich in cattle, and teem- 
ing with all the fruits of the earth, and its hills 
abounding in valuable metals. The limits origi- 
nally assigned to Ephraim and Manasseh were 
complained of as being too narrow ; but Joshua, 
though himself one of their number, instead of 
giving them another lot, reminded them of their 
great numbers, and bade them go into the wood 
and the valley, with a charge to drive thence 
the Canaanites, though they were strong and had 
chariots of iron. Josh. xvi. 10., xvii. 14, 15, 16, 
17. Hitherto they had not been willing, or else 
not able, to do this, though they put them 
to tribute, xvii. 12. ; and they do not appear to 
have completely mastered them until the days 
of Solomon, Judg. i. 29. ; 1 Kgs. ix. 16. Joshua's 
own lot fell within the bounds of this tribe, in 
Mt. Ephraim, at Timnath-Serah, and there 
he was buried. Josh. xix. 50., xxiv. 30.; Judg. 
ii. 9. Eleazar likewise was buried in the same 
mountain, in the lot that pertained to his son 
Phinehas, xxiv. 33. There were four Levitical 
cities for the Kohathites appointed out of the 
ti*ibe of Ephraim, viz. Shecem, Gezer, Eabzaim, 
(or Jokmeam), and Beth-horon, the first of 
which was a City of Refuge, Josh. xx. 7., xxi. 
5. 20, 21, 22. ; 1 Chron. vi. 66, 67, 68. The Ta- 
bernacle, also, was first pitched in Ephraim at 
Shiloh, where it remained until Eli's sons took 
it to the battle with the Philistines, in which it 
was captured and themselves were slain. Josh. 
x^'iii. 1., xix. 51.; Judg. xviii. 31., xx. 27. ; 
1 Sam. iii. 21., iv. 3, 4. ; Jer. vii. 12. 

There were thus many circumstances, indepen- 
dently of their united numbers, that helped to call 
out that bold and apparently ambitious spirit 
which distinguished this tribe from so early a pe- 
riod of its histor}^, and ended in its name being 
generally applied to the whole Ten Tribes of Is- 
rael Avhen separated from the kingdom of Judah. 



The Ephraimites seem to have displayed much 
energy and spirit during the time of the Judges, 
having greatly assisted Ehud against the 
Moabites, Judg. iii. 27., Deborah against the 
Amalekites, v, 14., and Gideon against the Midi- 
anites, vii. 24, 25., viii. 1. They suffered, how- 
ever much from the incursions of the Ammonites, 
X. 9., until delivered by Jephthah ; which led to 
their quarrelling with him about a matter of 
precedency, and the slaughter of them at the 
passages of the R. Jordan by him and the 
Gileadites, whom they stigmatised as fugitives 
of Ephraim, to the number of 42,000, who could 
not pronounce the word Shibboleth, Judg. xii. 
1. 4, 5, 6. From this tribe sprang (or at least 
lived with them) the Judges Deborah, iv. 5., 
Tola, X. 1., Abdon the Pirathonite, xii. 15., and 
Samuel, 1 Sam. i. 1. Amongst them, too, dwelt 
that Micah whose images and priest the Danites 
stole away when on their road to Laish, their 
new settlement, Judg. xvii. 1. 8., xviii. 2. 13. : 
and also that Levite, the miu-der of whose con- 
ciibine by the men of Gibeah, brought on the 
almost extinction of the Benjamites, xix. 1. 16. 
18. They joined King Saul (whose father Kish, 
seems to have lived near their borders, 1 Sam. 
ix. 4.), in his attack upon the Philistines, though 
obliged to give way and hide themselves imtil 
Jonathan's victory over the garrison, 1 Sam. 
xiv. 22. : and after his death, they at first took 
part with his son Ishbosheth, 2 Sam. ii. 9. ; 
though eventually they united with all the 
other tribes at Hebron in anointing David king 
over Israel, v. 1. 3., and in submission to his 
government, 1 Chron. xxvii. 20. But their 
jealousy of Judah, provoked probably by the 
king's belonging to this tribe, and his having set 
up the ark in Zion instead of at Shiloh, Ps. 
lxx\aii. 67, 68., broke out on Da\id's retm-n 
to Jerusalem after Absalom's death, 2 Sam. 
xix. 20., when they seem to have led on 
the discontented faction, and Sheba, a man of 
Mt. Ephraim, raised a temporar}^ revolt against 
David, xix. 41., xx. 21. But when his throne was 
firmly established, one of their own princes was 
appointed by David as ruler over the whole tribe, 
probably for civil purposes, 1 Chron. xxvii. 20. 

Their coimtry was made one of his pnrveyor- 
ships by Solomon, under Ben-hur, 1 Kgs. iv. 8. ; 
though after his death, their ambitious and en- 
vious spirit, Isa, xi. 13., appears to have been the 
last link in the chain of causes which brought 
on the di-v-ision of the two kingdoms. They 
were, doubtless, confident in their ovm strength 
and influence, Ps. Ix. 7., cviii. 8., supported by 
the promise of the birthright, 1 Chron. v. 2., 



124 



EPHRAIM. 



EPHRAIM, MT. 



and by the prophecies concernhig their future 
power, Gen. xlix. 22. 26.; Deut. xxxiii. 17.; 
and jealous of the ark having been placed 
in Zion, instead of at Shiloh, where it had been 
for 300 years, Ps. Ixxviii. 67, 68. ; and so, when 
the crisis came on Rehoboam's accession, they 
were nothing loth to take the dominion which 
God's prediction to Jeroboam, a man of their 
own tribe, 1 Kgs. xi. 26. 28,, put within their 
grasp. This w^as furthered by Jeroboam's con- 
stituting Shechem in Mt. Ephraim the new me- 
tropolis of the Ten Tribes, xii. 25., and setting up 
his golden calves in Bethel and Dan, to keep the 
people from going to worship at Jerusalem, xii. 26 
— 33. After this, though they sometimes suifered 
losses on their frontier from the kings of Judah, 2 
Chron. xiii. 4. 19., xv. 8,, and some of them 
even went over to Jerusalem, xi, 16., xv. 9. ; yet 
they appear generally to have taken the lead in 
many of the affairs of the kingdom of Israel, 2 
Chron. xxv. 7. 10., xxviii. 7. 12. ; Isa. vii. 2. ; 
Judith vi. 2. ; which is henceforward denounced 
by the prophets for its idolatry and other sins 
under the name of Ephraim, Isa. vii. 5. 8, 9. 17., 
ix. 9. 21., xvii. 3., xxviii. 1. 3.; Jer. iv. 15., vii. 
15. ; Hos. iv. 17., v. 3. 5. 9. 11, 12, 13, 14., vi. 4. ; 
and, likewise, under the same appellation pro- 
mised manifold future blessings, Isa. xi. 13. ; Jer, 
xxxi. 6. 18. 20., 1. 19. ; Ezek, xxxvii. 16. 19. 

A feAV years before their captivity by Shalma- 
neser, king of Assyria, Hezekiah, king of Judah, 
endeavoured to bring them to the great Passover 
which he kept; when, though many of their 
number mocked the invitation, others came to 
Jerusalem, and probably assisted this good 
monarch in destroying the idols and groves of 
their countrymen, 2 Ghron. xxx. 1. 10. 18., xxxi. 
1. But the idolatrous worship seems to have 
been again restored by such of the Ephraimites 
as had been left behind by Shalmaneser ; since 
Josiah tried to destroy it again, and to bring the 
people to worship at Jerusalem, 2 Chron, xxxiv. 
6. 9. Some few of them returned home with 
Zerubbabel after the edict of Cyrus, 1 Chron. 
ix. 3. Ezekiel in his predictions concerning the 
future glorious restoration of the Jews to their 
own land, places the portion of the tribe of 
Ephraim the fifth in order from the N., Naph- 
tali being above it, and Reuben to the S., Ezek. 
xlvii. 5, 6. ; but it is remarkable that only one 
gate in the New City is called after the two 
tribes, viz. the Gate of Joseph, on its E. side, 
Ezek. xlviii. 32. St. John in his vision at Pat- 
mos, saw twelve thousand sealed of the tribe of Jo- 
seph, which, as Manasseh is likewise mentioned, 
is thought to allude to Ephraim, Rev. vii. 8. 



EPHRAIM, a city on the borders of the tribes 
of Ephraim and Benjamin, but in which of them 
is uncertain. Perhaps it was near that Mt. 
Ephron, which Joshua, xv. 9., places on the N". 
frontier of the tribe of Judah ; and it may, also, 
itself have been called Ephron, for so Eusebius 
writes the name. It was in the neighbourhood 
of Baal-hazor, Absalom's abode, whither he in- 
vited all David's sons to a feast in sheapshearing, 
when he slew Amnon out of revenge for his 
sister Tamar, 2 Sam. xiii. 23. It was taken from 
Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, by Abijah, king of 
Judah, after the death of Rehoboam, in the suc- 
cessful struggle he had with the kingdom of 
Israel, 2 Chron. xiii, 19. Hither, likewise, the 
adorable Redeemer retired from the malice of 
the Jews, when they sought to kill Him after the 
raising of Lazarus, being in a wilderness countr}^, 
Jo. xi. 54. According to Eusebius, it was eight 
miles N. of Jerusalem, but Jerome makes it 
twenty ; Josephus mentions it in connection Avith 
Bethel, which accords with 2 Chron. xiii. 19. 

EPHRAIM, GATE OF, one of the gates of the 
city of Jerusalem, probably on the IST.W. side, 
between which and the corner gate Jehoash, 
king of Israel, broke down the wall of the city 
for 400 cubits, when he had conquered and taken 
prisoner Amaziah, king of Judah, at Bethshemesh, 
after which he pillaged the Temple and the 
king's palace, 2 Kgs. xiv. 13. ; 2 Chron. xxv. 23. 
It was one of the stations of the Levites, when 
they dedicated the newly built walls of the city 
after the Babylonian captivity, Neh. xii. 39. ; 
and it likewise gave name to the Street of 
THE Gate of Ephraim, in which, about the 
same time, the remnant kept their first Feast of 
Tabernacles, Neh. viii. 16. It is supposed by 
some to have been the same with the Valley 
Gate, Neh. ii. 13., iii. 13. ; but this is doubtful. 

EPHRAIM, MT., otherwise the IMountain of 
Israel, Josh. xi. 16. 21., the name given to the 
whole mountainous district between the Plain of 
Jezreel and the frontier of the tribe of Judah, 
where the appellation was changed for that of the 
Mountains of Judah, with which they were linked 
on. Indeed Mt, Ephraim is given as the N. ex- 
tremity of the kingdom of Judah, as Beersheba 
is given as its S, point, 2 Chron. xix. 4. It is 
supposed by some to be the same with that Mt. 
Ephron which is mentioned by Joshua, xv. 9., as 
on the N. frontiers of Judah ; but others place it 
more to the N.W. It was one of the most luxu- 
riant and best-cultivated portions of Palestine, 
being beautifully diversified with wood, and hill 
and valley, in which the ten thousands of Ephraim 



EPHRAIM. MT. 



EPHRATAII. 



125 



found nourishment and security ; and hence it is 
classed by Jeremiah, 1. 19., with Carmel, Bashan, 
and Gilead. It comprised the central regions of 
the two tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh, Josh, 
xvii. 15. ; and divided the streams running down 
into the Mediterranean from those which flowed 
into the Jordan. In it were included many dis- 
tinct groups of hills ; amongst which there ap- 
pears to have been one especially called Mt. 
Ephraim, and another called the Hill of Gaash, 
on the slopes of which lay Timnath-Serah, the 
inheritance of Joshua and the place where he was 
buried, Josh. xix. 50., xxiv. 30.; Judg. ii. 9. 
Eleazar the priest, the son of Aaron, was likewise 
buried in Mt. Ephraim, in a hill pertaining to 
Phinehas his son, Josh. xxiv. 33. Another of 
its spurs also was called Mt. Zemaraim, 2 Chron. 
xiii. 4., and was probably so designated from a 
town of the same name within the borders of 
Benjamin, Josh, xviii. 22. One of the six Cities 
of Eefuge, viz. Shechem, was in Mt. Ephraim, 
Josh. XX. 7., xxi. 21. It served asarallying- 
place and retreat for the tribes in many of their 
encounters with their numerous foes; as in 
Ehud's delivering them from the Moabites, Judg. 
iii. 27. ; of Gideon's campaign against the Mi- 
dianites, Judg. vii. 24. ; and of Saul's harassing 
war with the Philistines, 1 Sam. xiv. 22. 

Jeroboam here built his metropolis Shechem, 
1 Kgs. xii. 25., and his palace at Tirzah, xiv. 17., 
which became thenceforward the residence and 
burial place of some of his successors, xvi. 6. 8.. 
15. 23. It was in that part of Mt. Ephraim 
called Zemaraim, that Abijah, king of Judah, 
stood when he challenged Jeroboam, the son of 
Nebat, concerning the right of his cause, and 
brought on that battle which ended in the defeat 
of the latter, 2 Chron. xiii. 4. 19. Mt. Ephraim 
was also the scene of some of Asa's conflicts with 
the Israelites and their idolatries, 2 Chron. xv. 
8, 9., as well as of his son Jehoshaphat, 2 Chron, 
xix. 4. It was also the birth-place or habitation 
of many whose histories are handed down in the 
Old Testament ; as of Deborah, Judg. iv. 5., of 
Tola, X. 1. ; of that Micah whose priest and 
images the Danites stole away on their migrating 
to Laish, xvii. 1. 8., xviii. 2. 13. ; of that Levite 
whose concubine the Benjamites abused, and 
nearly brought on their own extinction as a tribe, 
xix. 1. 16. 18. ; and of Elkanah, the father of 
Samuel, 1 Sam. i. 1. It is not unlikely, from the 
last passages, and from 2 Kgs. v. 22., that there 
was also a school of the prophets here, Mt. 
Ephraim was likewise adjacent to Saul's patri- 
mony, 1 Sara, ix. 4, ; and the country of that 
Sheba who rebelled against David, and was 



beheaded by the men of Abel, 2 Sam. xx, 21. 
Solomon constituted Mt. Ephraim alone, perhaps 
from its great and varied productiveness, one of 
his twelve purveyorships, 1 Kgs. iv. 8. Jeremiah 
speaks of the captivity and idolatry of the Ten 
Tribes as that of Mt. Ephraim, iv. 15., and under 
the same name promises their glorious restora- 
tion, xxxi. 6. 

EPHRAIM, WOOD OF, was on the other 
side Jordan, on the edge of Gilead (the Gilead- 
ites were called fugitives of Ephraim, Judg. xv. 
4.), and in the neighbourhood of Mahanaim. 
It was here that the great battle was fought 
between the forces of David under Joab, and the 
army of Absalom, when the latter was defeated ; 
and here Absalom, being entangled by the hair 
of his head in the boughs of an oak, was slain 
by Joab, 2 Sam, xviii. 6. 10. The name has 
been applied by some to the woody and moun- 
tainous country which Joshua advised the two 
tribes of Joseph to take possession of, when they 
complained that their dwelling-place was too 
small,- Josh. xvii. 15, 18., as well as to that 
wood near Bethel, out of which the bears came 
and killed those who mocked Elisha, 2 Kgs. ii. 
24. ; and to that wood, in the fields of which, 
(i.e, Shiloh) David declares they had found 
the ark of God, or a habitation for Him, Ps. 
cxxxii. 6, ; but none of these is really called 
" the Wood of Ephraim," There is little doubt 
but that, on the arrival of the Israelites in 
Canaan, most of its mountains were well clothed 
vith wood, and also the entire valley of the 
Jordan, 2 Kgs. vi, 2. 4, ; but that the country 
was gradually cleared as it was required. 

EPHRAIMITES, Judg. xii. 4, 5, 6., Josh, 
xvi, 10., the childi-en of the tribe of Ephraim ; 
which see. They seem also to have been called 
Ephrathites, 1 Kgs. xi. 26., a name applied 
likewise to the inhabitants of Bethlehem. 

EPHRAIN, 2 Chron. xiii. 19., supposed to be 
the same with the city of Ephraim ; which see. 
According to some, it gave name to that district 
of Apherema, on the borders of Judtea and 
Samaria, which is mentioned 1 Mace, xi. 34. 
57., and by Josephus. See Aphere:ma. 

EPHRATAH, the ancient name of Bethlehem, 
Ruth iv. 11.; Ps. cxxxii, 6.; Mic. v. 2.; so 

called, perhaps, after Ephratah, the father of 
Bethlehem, 1 Chron. ii. 50., iv. 4. See Beth- 
lehem. By the Ephratah mentioned in Ps, 
cxxxii, some suppose the tribe or mountain of 
Ephraim is signified ; but this is doubtful. Beth- 
lehem is likewise called 



126 EPHRATH. 



ESHTAOL. 



EPHRATH, Gen. xxxv. 16. 19., xlviii. 7.; 

and its inhabitants are styled 

EPHRATHITES, Ruth i. 2.; 1 Sam. i. 1., 
xvii. 12. ; though by 

EPHRATHITE, 1 Kgs. xi. 26., where Je- 
roboam, the son of Nebat, is so called, the 
Ephraimites are thought to be meant. 

EPHRON, a large and well-fortified city 
beyond Jordan, in Gilead, which was peopled by 
a great multitude from many nations, all of 
whom were well armed. Under the direction of 
Lysias, it resisted the forces of Judas Maccabseus 
during his campaign in that land. He accord- 
ingly invested it, and having gaiijed the day, he 
pillaged and razed it to the ground, destroying 
25,000 of the inhabitants, 1 Mace. v. 46. ; 2 Mace, 
xii. 27. 

EPHROi^, THE FIELD OF, wherein was the 
Cave of Machpelah, both of which were bought 
of Ephron the Hittite, Gen. xxiii. 8. 10. 13, 14. 
16, 17., by Abraham for 400 shekels of silver. 
It was before Mamre, and was the place where 
Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebekah, Jacob 
and Leah, were all buried, Gen. xxiii. 19., xxv. 
9., xlix. 29, 30, 31., 1. 13. 

EPHRON, MT., mentioned by Joshua, xv. 9., 
as on the N. frontiers of the tribe of Judah, 
between the Water of I^ephtoah and Kirjath- 
jearim. It is said by some to be another form 
of the name of Mt. Ephraim, and to designate 
that particular spur of it which was properly so 
called, and on the slope of which lay Joshua's 
own inheritance, xix. 50. ; but the latter was in 
the tribe of Ephraim, whereas Mt. Ephron seems 
to have been in Judah, with Benjamin between 
them. 

ERANITES, a family of the tribe of Ephraim, 
so called after Eran, his grandson. Num. xxvi. 
36. ; they were numbered by Moses shortly 
before his death, in the Plains of Moab. 

ERECH, one of the oldest cities of the world, 
mentioned in Gen. x. 10. as having been built 
by Nimrod, the son of Cush, Nothing whatever 
is known about its situation, though, probably, 
it was somewhere about the Valle}' of the Tigris 
or Euphrates. The Rabbins identify it with Ur of 
the Chaldees, which is placed at Urfah. Jerome 
also makes it to be the same with Edessa (the 
modern Urfah), in the N.W. of Mesopotamia ; 
and others suppose it to have been the same with 
Aracca, a town placed by Ptolemy on" the lower 
course of the Tigris, in Susiana. 



ERITES, a family of the tribe of Gad, who 
were amongst those numbered by Moses in the 
Plains of Moab, and were so called after Eri, the 
fifth son of Gad, Gen. xlvi. 16. ; Num. xxvi. 16. 

ESAU, another name for the country of Edom, 
derived from their progenitor of that name, 
Gen. xxxvi. 8, 9. 19. 43.; Jer. xlix. 8. 10.; 
Obad. 6. 8, 9. 18, 19. 21. ^-ee Edom. 

ESAU, CHILDREN OF (i.e. the Edomites), 
Deut. ii. 4. 8. 12. 22. 29. ; Judith vii. 8. ; 1 Mace. 
V. 3. 65. See Edom. 

ESDRAELOM, Judith vii. 3., or 

ESDRAELON, Judith iii. 9., iv. 6., or 

ESDRELOM, THE GREAT PLAIN OF, 
Judith i, 8. See Jezreel. 

ESEBON, Judith v. 15. See Heshbon. 

ESEK (i. e. Contention), the name given to a 
well digged by Isaac in the Valley of Gerar, in 
the S.W. part of Canaan, after the herdsmen 
of the place had striven with his servants about 
the possession of the wells in that neighbourhood, 
which his father Abraham had made, but the 
Philistines had stopped. Gen. xxvi. 20. 

ESHCOL (i.e. a Cluster of Grapes), the name " 
of a brook and valley to the N. of Hebron, 
whence the twelve men whom Moses sent from 
Kadesh-barnea to spy out the land of Canaan, 
cut the branch of a vine with one cluster of 
grapes, which they carried between two upon a 
staff, as a specimen of the fruits of the land, 
together with pomegranates and figs. Num. xiii. 
23, 24., xxxii. 9. ; Deut. i. 24. It may have 
been originally so called after Eshcol, the brother 
of Mamre and Aner, the allies of Abraham, in 
his pursuit of Chedorlaomer and the other con- 
federate kings, Gen. xiv. 13. 24. It is commonly 
identified with one of the streams and valleys 
which run westward from the hill country of 
Judah, towards the Mediterranean, such as the 
TV ady of Ascalon. 

ESHEAN, a town of the tribe of Judah, 
situated in the mountains. Josh. xv. 52. 

ESHKALONITES, the inhabitants of Esh- 
kalon or Ashkelon, one of the five lordships of 
the Philistines, mentioned by Joshua, xiii. 3., as 
dwelling on the S.W. borders of the land of 
Canaan, towards the R. Sihor, which is before 
Egypt. See Ashkelon. 

ESHTAOL, a town in the S.W. part of 
Canaan, in the valley, which was originally 
allotted by Joshua, xv. 33., to the tribe of Judah, 
but it fell afterwards within the inheritance of 



ESHTAULITES. 



EUPHRATES. 



127 



that of Dan, xix. 41. It was in the neighbour- 
hood of Zorah, and between them was Mahaneli- 
Dan, or the Camp of Dan, the place where 
Samson's miraculous powers were first displayed, 
and where both he and INIanoah his father, 
appear to have been buried, Judg. xiii. 25., xvi. 
31. Eshtaol was also one of the cities whence 
that colony of 600 Danites proceeded who went 
to seize upon Laish, in the X. of Canaan, which 
they eventually inhabited, and called Dan, Judg. 
xviii. 2. 8. 11. It is thought to have been 
somewhere in the Valley of Eshcol, and is placed 
by Eusebius 10 miles from Eleutheropolis. Je- 
rome calls it Asco. The inhabitants are styled 

ESHTAULITES, in the account of the poste- 
rity of Caleb given at 1 Chron. ii. 53. 

ESHTEMOA, otherwise 

ESHTEMOH, a city in the mountains, as- 
signed originally by Joshua, xv. 50., to the'tribe 
of Judah, but ceded afterwards, together with its 
suburbs, to the children of Aaron, Josh. xxi. 
14, ; 1 Chron. vi. 57. It was one of the many 
places to which David sent presents to Ms 
friends of the spoils he had taken from the 
Amalekites, who had sacked and burnt Ziklag, 
and whom he pursued and vanquished, 1 Sam. 
XXX. 28. Eusebius places it in the district of 
Daromas, and in the neighbourhood of Eleuthe- 
ropolis ; others set it further S., near Hebron. A 
place now called Semua (about 8 miles S. of 
Hebron) is most probably its site. 

ESORA, a place apparently within the bounds 
of Palestine, to which, amongst other cities, the 
Jews, when alarmed by the \'ictories of Holo- 
fernes over the surrounding nations, and in 
fear for their own safety and the preservation 
of Jerusalem, sent messengers to beg assistance, 
Judith iv.'4. Its situation is unknown ; possibly 
it may have been the same place called for- 
merly Hazor, in K. Galilee, mentioned by 
Joshua, xi. 1. 10, 11. 13., and elsewhere in Holy 
Writ; or else that Hazor against which, in con- 
nection with Kedar, Jeremiah denounces woe for 
its iniquity, xlix. 28. 30. 33. 

ETAM, a city to the S. of Jerusalem, which, 
on the division of the two kingdoms, was rebuilt 
and strongly fortified by Eehoboam, king of 
Judah, 2 Chron. xi. 6. Josephns calls it He- 
than, and says it was 60 furlongs from Jerusa- 
lem, in a beautiful and well-watered country, 
whither Solomon was Avont to retire for pleasure. 
€f. Eccles. ii. 5, 6. In later times an aqueduct 
was erected to convey the water hence to the 
metropolis, the ruins of which still remain. 



ETAM, a village of the tribe of Simeon, men- 
tioned in connection with Ain and Rimmon, 
apparently on the borders of Judah and the 
country of the Philistines, 1 Chron. iv. 32. It is 
supposed to be the same place which is called 
Ether in' Josh. xix. 7. It gave name probably to 

ETAM, THE ROCK, whither Samson retired 
after he had fired the standing com of the Phi- 
listines, and slain many of them in return for 
the burning of his wife and her father. Three 
thousand men of Judah went up to the rock to 
reason with him, whom he suffered to bind him, 
and take him to the Philistines, after they had 
sworn they would not themselves fall upon him ; 
but as soon as Samson got amongst the Philis- 
tines, he broke his bands like flax, and slew a 
thousand of them with the jaw-bone of an ass at 
Ramath-lehi, Judg. xv. 8. 11. 

ETPIAM, a place on the edge of the Wilder- 
ness of Shur, where the Israelites encamped on 
lea\dng Egypt, being the third station in their 
march towards Sinai, Succoth being the second, 
and Pi-hahiroth the fourth, Ex. xiii. 20 ; jSTura. 
xxxiii. 6, 7. It gave name to the Wilderxe 53 
OF Etham, which was on the E. side of the Red 
Sea, and through which they passed after its 
waters had been miraculously divided to make 
them a way. Num. xxxiii. 8. Hence, and from 
the circumstance of their being made to turn 
(southward) to encamp before Pi-hahiroth, it is 
conjectured that Etham must have been near 
where the tOAvn of Arsmoe afterwards stood, or, 
as it now is called, Suez, at the N. end of the 
Heroopolitic Gulf, or, as we term it, the Sea of 
Suez. 

ETHER, a village or town originally assigned 
by Joshua to the tribe of Judah, xv. 42., but 
afterwards allotted to Simeon, xix. 7. It appears 
to have been towards the frontiers of the Philis- 
tines, and the same place called Etam at 1 Chron. 
iv. 32. 

ETHIOPIA, and 

ETHIOPIANS. See Cush. 

EUPHRATES, the river written Perath or 
Phrath in the original, and still known by the 
neighbouring nations as the Frat, though we 
Europeans call it Euphrates, is one of the noblest 
and most important rivers of W. Asia; not only 
from its length and greatness, but from its hav- 
ing for so many centuries formed the line of de- 
marcation between some of the most powerful na- 
tions of the East, as it still does. It was between 
Asia Minor, Syria, Palestine and Arabia, on the 



128 



EUPHRATES. 



W., and Armenia, Mesopotomia, Chaldasa, and ] 
Persia on the E. It has two distinct sources, 
the descriptions of which in the profane authors 
have occasioned much confusion. Of these, the 
more one is in the range of the Anti- 
Taurus, in the N. W. corner of Armenia, on the 
borders of Cappadocia, Pontus, and Colchis, and 
is still called Frat ; the S. source is in that part 
of Mt. Niphates which joins Mt. Abus or Ararat, 
and is now known as the R. Iliirad. Both 
branches unite opposite the town of Sinerva in 
Asia Minor. Its course thus far is S. W., but 
being deflected southward by the range of the 
Taurus, it pursues this latter direction for a con- 
siderable distance, approaching within 120 miles 
of the Mediterranean Sea, opposite the mouth of 
the R. Orontes, when it suddenly turns S. E., and 
empties itself into the Gulf of Persia after a 
course of 1530 miles. The R. Tigris, which 
rises on the opposite side of the Niphates, flows 
nearly parallel with the Euphrates. In the upper 
part of their course the two great rivers enclose 
between them the old land of Shinar, the country 
of Padan-Aram, or Mesopotamia as it is also 
called, from lying between the rivers, Gen. xxxi. 
21.; Josh. xxiv. 2.; 2 Sam. x. 16.; 1 Chron. 
xix. 16. ; and lower down, the land of Chaldsea, 
where, upon the banks of the Euphrates, stood 
the mighty Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the 
beauty of the Chaldees' excellency. Near Cu- 
naxa, where Cyrus the Younger, with his levy of 
Greeks, was defeated and slain by his brother 
Artaxerxes, the two rivers approach within 18 
miles of each other ; the country for a consider- 
able distance between being intersected with 
canals, not only for the purposes of irrigation, 
but to unite the two rivers by navigable streams 
for the sake of commerce. Some of these were 
dug at vast expense and great labour by the 
earlier Assyrian kings, and one called the Nahr 
Malka, i.e. Royal River, which still preserves 
its name from its having been made by the 
prefect Gobar and from other circumstances, is 
identified by many authors with the R. Chebar, 
where the prophet Ezekiel had his wondrous 
visions, and where many of the Jews were kept 
in captivity, Ezek. i. 1. B., in. 15. 23., x. 15. 20. 
22., xliii. 3. Both it and another canal called- 
Pallacopas, on the W. of the Euphrates, are said 
to have been cut to preserve Babylon from the 
periodical inundations of the great river, Avhich 
occur twice in eveiy year. In the narrow 
part of the isthmus between the Euphrates 
and Tigris, there was likewise an immense 
■wall, said to be 20 feet thick, and 100 feet 
high, erected by the Babylonians to keep 



I out the Medes, and hence called the Wall of 
Media ; though it was also known as the Wall of 
Semiramis, from the tradition that it was the 
work of that celebrated queen. The Euphrates 
and Tigris are stated to have entered the Gulf 
of Persia by separate channels before the time 
of Alexander the Great; but about that date 
the two rivers became one, from a place now 
called Kurnah, and the united stream was 
thenceforward named indiff"erently Euphrates and 
Tigris, though sometimes Pasitigris, and is now 
known as the Shatt-el-Arab. The Euphrates in 
its course receives many small tributaries, of 
which the chief is the R. Chaboras, now Khabour, 
supposed by some to be the same with the Habor 
of 2 Kgs. xvii. 6., though others identify it with 
the R. Chebar of Ezek. i. 1. Besides the Gar- 
den of Eden and the mighty city of Babylon, 
the Euphrates passed in its course many im- 
portant places mentioned in Holy Writ, as 
Pethor, the dwelling of Balaam the soothsayer, 
jSTum. xxii. 5. ; Tiphsah, 3 Kgs. iv. 24., 2 Kgs. 
XV. 16., the border city of Israel and Assyria, 
called Thapsacus by profane authors, and now 
Der ; Carchemish or Circesium, now Kerkisia, 
another border city of the same nations, 2 Chron. 
XXXV. 20. ; Isa. x. 9. ; Jer. xlvi. 2. ; Rehoboth, 
Gen. xxxvi. 37. ; 1 Chron i. 48. ; not to mention 
other well-known localities which are described 
in the classical histories. 

Near the present junction of these two noble 
rivers is thought to have been the cradle of 
mankind, the Garden of Eden ; one of the streams 
that proceeded from it being expressly said by 
Moses to be the Euphrates, Gen. ii. 14., though 
he gives no marks by which to distinguish it, 
as he does to the three other rivers ; probably 
because it was so well known to the Hebrews. 
Abraham's original dwelling-place had been on 
its E. side, and he had crossed it to enter 
Canaan, Josh. xxiv. 2, 3. 14, 15. In the last- 
mentioned passages, it is called the Flood, in 
others, the Great River, Gen. xv. 18. ; Deut. i. 7. ; 
Josh. i. 4. ; and in others, simply the River, 
as Gen. xxxi. 21., xxxvi. 37. ; Ex. xxiii. 31. ; 
Num. xxii. 5. ; Deut. xi. 24. ; 2 Sam. x. 16. ; 
1 Kgs. iv. 24. ; 1 Chron. i. 48. ; xix. 16. ; 2 Chron. 
-ix. 26. ; Ezra, iv. 10. 16, 17. 20., v. 3. 6., vi. 6. 8. 
13., vii. 21. 25. ; Neh. ii. 7. 9., iii. 7. ; Isa. vii. 20., 
viii. 7., xxvii. 12.; Jer. ii. 18.; all showing the 
knowledge possessed by the Hebrews of its mag- 
nitude and importance, Eccles. xxiv. 26. It 
formed the E. boundary of the Promised Land, 
Gen. XV. 18. ; Ex. xxiii. 31. ; Deut. i. 7., xi. 24. ; 
Josh. i. 4.; 2 Sam. viii. 3.; 1 Kgs. iv. 24.; 
1 Chron. v. 9., xviii. 3. ; 2 Chron. ix. 26., as it is 



EZEL, THE STONE. 



FAIE HAVENS. 129 



eventually to do at the final restoration of the 
Jews to their own land, Isa. xxrii. 12. But few 
of the Jewish kings appear to have extended 
their sway so far eastward, except David, 2 Sam. 
viii. 3. ; 1 Chron. xviii. 3. and Solomon, 1 Kgs. 
iv. 24. ; 2 Chron. ix. 26. ; Ezra, iv. 20. Mena- 
hem, king of Israel, made a succefsful efFoil to 
recover the Jewish dominions in tliis direction, 
2 Kgs. XV. 16. ; but Josiah, king of Judah, who 
endeavoured to check Pharaoli Xeclioh, king of 
EgyjDt, from passing through his country to 
attack Carchemish on the Euphrates, was slain 
by him at Megiddo, 2 Kgs. xxiii. 29. ; 2 Chron. 
XXXV. 20. ; 1 Esd. i. 27. ; though Nechoh was 
soon again dispossessed of his newly acquired 
territory, and conquered by the king of Babylon, 
2 Kgs. xxiv. 7., as the prophet Jeremiah had 
foretold, xlvi. 2. 6. 10. From its constituting 
for so long a time the W. frontier of the As- 
syrian and Babylonian empires towards Israel, 
2 Sam. X. 16. ; 1 Chron. xix. 16. ; Ezra iv. 10. 
16, 17. 20., v. 3. 6., vi. 6. 8. 13., vii. 21. 25. ; 
Neh. ii. 7. 9., iii. 7. ; Isa. vii. 20. ; Judith i. 6., ii. 
24. ; it is sometimes made the representative of 
those powers, Isa. viii. 7. ; Jer. ii. 18. ; whence, 
perhaps, Jeremiah was told to hide his girdle in its 
banks that so, being maiTed, it might prefigure the 
desolation of Judjea, xiii. 4, 5, 6, 7., and likewise 
to cast the book of his prophecies against Babylon 
into its waters, in token of the perpetual sinking 
of Babylon, li. 63. In the same manner, it 
appears to be employed by St. John in his 
Apocalypse, ix. 14., xvi. 12., as the symbol of 
the growth and destruction of the Turkish power, 
the provinces of which it waters from its source 
to its junction with the Tigris ; the power of this 
latter nation, at present the instrument of God 
in treading down Jerusalem and the rest of the 
Holy Land, Lu. xxi. 24., Eev. xi. 2., being 
doomed, by and bye, to waste away before the 
final restoration of the Jews to their own land. 

EZEL, THE STOXE_(i.e. That showeth the 
way), the place where by agreement Jonathan 
met David when Saul was beginning his perse- 



cution of the son of Jesse, and by the shooting of 
arrows, signified that danger Avas before him, 
1 Sam. XX. 19. It was here also that David 
had hidden himself from Saul some time before, 
1 Sam. xix. 2. It was probably close to Jeru- 
salem. 

EZEM, a town of the Simeonites, 1 Chron. 
iv. 29., called Azem in Josh. xv. 29., xix. 3., and 
assigned at first to the childi-en of Judah. 

EZION-GABER, or 

EZIOX-GEBER, a station of the Israelites 
in their journeying through the Wilderness, 
mentioned between Ebronah and the Wilderness 
of Zin, Num. xxxiii. 35, 36., Dent. ii. 8., 
towards the frontiers of the Edomites and 
Moabites. It stood near the head of the 
iElanitic Gulf of the Red Sea, now called the 
Gulf of Akahah, on its E. shores, about 5 miles 
from its N. extremity, where was the port and 
city of Elath. It was an important haven for 
ships in the early days, and here Solomon built 
the navy which he sent with the Tyrian sailors 
to Ophir and Tarshish everj' three years, for 
gold, 1 Kgs. ix. 26. ; 2 Chron. viii. 17., ix. 21. 
At Ezion-geber, also, Jehoshaphat, king of 
Judah, with the assistance of Ahaziah, king of 
Israel, built his navy for the same purpose ; but 
the ships were here broken, because of his al- 
liance with Ahaziah, 1 Kgs. xxii. 48. ; 2 Chron. 
XX. 36. Ezion-geber was afterwards styled Be- 
renice, according to Josephus; but it appears 
to have kept its old name as well, for its ruins 
are still called Aszyoim. 

EZNITE, the patronymic of Adino, one of 
David's mighty men, who slew 800 at one 
time, 2 Sam. xxiii. 8. ; but whence derived is 
uncertain. 

EZRAHITE, the patronymic of two of 
David's three chief singers, viz. Ethan and 
Heman, who were also famed for their wis- 
dom, but eclipsed by Solomon, 1 Kgs. iv. 31. ; 
Ps. Ixxxviii. title, Ixxxix. title ; whence they 
obtained it does not appear. 



FAIR HAVENS, a place on the S, side of 
the island of Crete or Candia, where the ship 
that was convening Paul prisoner to Rome, 
stayed for a time ; but as the master and owner 
of the ship judged it inconvenient to winter in 
it, they sailed thence, contrary to Paul's advice, 
hoping to reach the neighbouring port of Phenice, 



I but were wrecked oflf Malta, Acts xxvii. 8. 21. 
It was near the city of Lasea, and is thought 
to have been an open roadstead, on the E. coast 
of the promontory Metallum, now called C. 
3IetaUa, which forms the southernmost point 
of the island. According to Jerome, there was 
a large town at the Fair Havens in the fourth 
K 



130 FARTHER SIDE OF JORDAN. 



FORDS, THE. 



century, wliicli others name Kaloi Limenes; 
but if so, it is now ruined. 

FAETHER SIDE OF JORDAN", Mk. x. 1., 
the E. portion of the Promised Land, including 
in a general way those regions which anciently 
constituted the dominions of Sihon, king of the 
Amorites, and Og, the king of Bashan, but 
afterwards the territories of the tribes of Reuben, 
Gad, and half Manasseh. It was frequently 
visited by the Blessed Redeemer in His minis- 
terial journeys ; especially, on the occasion of 
healing the demoniacs at Gadara, and when He 
went thither to escape from the persecution of 
the Jews, remaining there until sent for by the 
sisters of Lazarus. By the ecclesiastical and 
profane authors, this part of the Holy Land is 
commonly called Peraea ; but in the Bible it is 
generally termed " beyond Jordan ; " which see. 

FIELD OF THE BURIAL, which belongeth 
to the kings, the place where Uzziah, king of 
Judah, was buried, probably in a separate tomb 
by himself, and not in the chief sepulchres of 
the kings, because he was a leper, 2 Chron. 
xxvi. 23. It seems to have been situated in 
the city of David, 2 Kgs. xv. 7., and was pro- 
bably the great open space therein, where were 
the sepulchres of the sons of David, 2 Chron. 

xxxii. 33. ; Neh. iii, 16. ; or the sepulchres of 
the kings, 2 Chron. xxi. 20., xxiv. 25., xsviii. 
27. ; Neh. ii. 3. 5. See City of David. 

FIRST GATE, THE, a gate of Jerusalem, 
only mentioned by the prophet Zechariah, xiv. 
10., in his prediction concerning the future 
glorious restoration of the Jews, and the re- 
inhabitation of Jerusalem by them. It appears 
to have been towards the S.E. side of the city, 
and probably opposite Benjamin's Gate; as 
those two, with the Tower of Hananeel and 
the King's Wine-presses, seem intended by Ze- 
chariah to represent the circuit of Jerusalem. 
Some suppose the First Gate to be the same 
with the Fish Gate ; but this is doubtful. 

FISH GATE, THE, one of the gates of Jeru- 
salem, apparently on its JsT.E. side. Manasseh, 
king of Judah, after his return from captivity 
in Babylon repaired the Avails of the city from 
the W. side of Gihon to this point, 2 Chron. 

xxxiii. 14. It is also mentioned by the prophet 
Zeplianiah, i. 10., in his predictions against 
Judah, as one of the places from which a cry 
should be raised when Jerusalem was attacked 
by her enemies; as, in about twenty years 
afterwards, it was, first, by the king of Egypt, 
and then by the king of Babylon, 2 Chron. 



xxxvi. 3. 6. After the return of the Jews from 
the Babylonian captivity, the Fish Gate was 
repaired under the direction of Nehemiah, iii. 
3, ; and was one of the stations of the priests 
and Levites, when with the princes of Judah 
they dedicated the newly built wall of the city, 
Xeh. xii. 39. 

FLOOD, THE, a name applied by Joshua, 
xxiv. 2, 3. 14, 15., when describing Abraham's 
original dwelling-place, to the R. Euphrates, 
probably from its great periodical inundations, 
as well as from its being one of the largest rivers 
with which the Hebrews were acquainted, and 
which was to be the E. frontier of their new 
possessions in the Land of Promise. David, 
likewise, and Asaph, appear to apply this term 
to the R. Jordan, when speaking of the passage 
of the Israelites through it, Ps. Ixvi. 6., Ixxiv. 
15. ; owing, perhaps, to its rapid and impetuous 
course at some seasons of the year, and its over- 
flowing all its banks in harvest-time. Josh, iii, 
15. ; 1 Chron. xii. 15. ; Jer. xii. 5., xlix. 19. ; 
and this is the meaning of the word Shibboleth, 
which Jephthah and his followers used to detect 
the Ephraimites, Judg. xii. 6., and marg. The 
same word applied to Egj'pt, "the Flood of 
Egypt," is also thought by some to be used by 
the prophet Amos, viii. 8., ix. 5,, to designate 
the R. Nile, on account of its vast periodical 
inundations ; though others refer the expression 
to the destruction of Pharaoh's host in the 
Red Sea. 

FORDS, THE, a shallow part of the R. 
Jordan, whither the pursuers of those spies 
whom Joshua sent fi-om Shittim to view Jericho, 
came in their fruitless chase, and then turned 
back. Josh. ii. 7. There were probably several 
such crossing-places in this river, especially in 
the dry season of the year ; but those which are 
here mentioned, seem to have been N.E. of 
Jericho, some miles to the N". of the spot where 
the whole nation crossed the deeper waters, 
under the guidance of Joshua, by the miraculous 
help of God, Josh. xxii. 11. These fords were 
possibly the same with those called " the Fords 
of Jordan," Judg. iii. 28., which Ehud after he 
had slain Eglon, called upon the IsraeHtes to 
seize upon, that they might intercept and cut off 
the Moabites ; a stratagem adopted likewise by 
Gideon, when pursuing the Midianites, Judg. vii. 
24,, near Bethbarah. The " Passages of Jordan," 
where Jephthah laid wait for the Ephraimites, 
and tried them by Shibboleth, appear to have 
been at or near the same place with the above, 
Judg. xii. 5, 6, 



FOEMER SEA, THE. 



GAASH, THE BROOKS OF. 13] 



FORMER SEA, THE, an appellation used 
by the prophet Zechariah, xiv. 8., to designate 
the Dead Sea (or, as the Jewish doctors say, 
the Persian, Gulf), in his description of the 
final restoration of Jerusalem, when living 
waters are to proceed from the city; half of 
them toward the Former Sea, and half of them 
toward the Hinder Sea, in summer and winter. 
It is called the East Sea by the prophets Ezekiel, 
xlvii. 18., and Joel, ii. 20. 

FORT, THE, another name for the Strong- 
hold of Zion in Jei'usalem, which was taken 
from the Jebusites by David in the eighth year 
of his reign, and made by him his dwelling- 
place, being thenceforward called the City of 
David, 2 Sam. v. 9. See City of David. 

FOUNTAIJi GATE, or Gate of the Foui^- 
TAix, one of the gates of Jerusalem, apparently 
on its W. side, and probably so called from the 
Fountain of Gihon, which seems to have been in 
its vicinity. Others, however, with less pro- 
bability, place it near the Fountain of Siloah, on 
the S.E. side of the city. The Fountain Gate 
was in some way connected with the Stairs of 
the City of David ; and, after the capti\dty in 
Babylon, it was repaired by the Jews under the 
direction of Nehemiah, who made it one of his 
stations at the dedication of the walls, Neh. ii. 
14., iii. 15., xii. 37. 

FOUNTAIN IN THE WAY TO SHUR, 
THE, a fountain to the S. of Canaan, in the Wil- 
derness of Paran, to the N. of Shnr, whither Hagar 
(who was an Egj-ptian, Gen. xvi. 1. 3., xxi. 9.) 
fled from Sarah. She was here found by the 
angel, and sent back to submit to her mistress. 
Gen. xvi. 7. It was probably one of those 
springs which lie on the road to Egypt from 
Canaan; the whole extent between these two 
countries and Havilah, being afterwards in- 
habited by the descendants of Ishmael, who 
seems himself to have died there. Gen. xxv. 18. 

FOUNTAINS WITHOUT, THE CITY, viz. 
of Jerusalem, 2 Chron. xxxii. 3, 4., which were 
stopped by Hezekiah when Sennacherib invaded 
Judah. Such were the Dragon Well, the Upper 



and Lower Gihon, the Fountain of Siloah, of 
Kedi'on, Hezekiah's Pool, the Fountain in the 
King's Garden, and, doubtless, many others in 
the hills round about Jerusalem, Ps. cxxv. 2., 
whence the inhabitants of the city drew their 
supplies of water. 

FRENCHMEN, the marginal reading of 
1 Mace. viii. 2. for the Galatians of Gaul. Judas 
Maccabaius having heard that the Romans had 
conquered these Gauls, and many other powerful 
nations, and that they were withal a wise, and 
faithful, and unostentatious people, sent an 
embassy to Rome, and made a league with them 
of mutual defence and assistance. Cf. 2 Mace, 
viii. 20. 

FULLER'S FIELD, a place outside the walls 
of Jenzsalem, on the W. side, through or near 
which there was a highAvay, probably fi-om 
Lachish and the S.W. of Judaea, to the metro- 
polis. It appears to have been near the Conduit 
of the Tapper Pool (of Gihon), and on the road 
to" the royal palace. It is supposed to have 
obtained its name from the fullers there whiten- 
ing their cloth. It was here that the prophet 
Isaiah was commanded to go and meet Ahaz, 
king of Judah, and predict the ruin of Rezin, 
king of Sja'ia, and Pekah, king of Israel, who 
were confederate against him, Isa. vii. 3. ; and 
here, about thirty years afterwards, Rabshakeh 
and others whom Sennacherib, the king of 
Assyria, had sent for the purpose, stood and 
solicited the J ews by blasphemous persuasions to 
revolt from Hezekiah, 2 Kgs. xviii. 17. ; Isa. 
xxxvi. 2. According to some it is the same 
place with the Potter's Field; but this is im- 
probable. See Acelda:ma. 

FURNACES, TOWER OF THE, one of the 
towers, Ps. xlviii. 12., on the walls of Jerusalem, 
probably near the N.W. angle of the city. It 
was repaired after the return of the Jews from 
their capti^dty in BabyloUj under the direction 
of Nehemiah ; and in the dedication of the 
newly built walls, was one of the stations of the 
priests and Levltes, who, with the princes of 
Judah, then went round them, Neh. iii. 11., 
xii. 38. 



GAASH, THE HILL OF, a spur of the main 
idge of Mt. Ephraim, in the S.W. part of the 
territory of the tribe of Ephraim, bordering upon 
Benjamin and Dan. On its declivities stood the 
city of Timnath-Serah, where was the possession 
of Joshua, who was buried in the border of his 



inheritance, on the N. side of the hill, Josh, 
xxiv. 30. ; Judg. ii. 9. It appears to have been 
the source of the Brooks of Gaash. 

GAASH, THE BROOKS or YALLEYS OF, 
which are mentioned 2 Sam. xxiii. 30. ; 1 Chron * 
K 2 



132 GABA. 

32., as the abode or birth-place of Hicldai> 
one of David's mighty men. They probably 
formed a rivulet running into the Mediterranean 
Sea, to the N. of Joppa, where now is the R. 
Awgy. 

GABA, a city within the inheritance of the 
tribe of Benjamin, Josh, xviii. 24. Some of its 
inhabitants were amongst those Jews who re- 
turned home after the Babylonian captivity, 
Ezra ii. 26. ; Neh. vii. 30. It is supposed by 
many to have been the same with Geba, which 
was the northernmost city of the kingdom of 
Judah, 2 Kgs. xxiii. 8. See Geba. 

GABBATHA, the Hebrew name of the place 
in Jerusalem from which Pilate pronounced sen- 
tence against the Redeemer of the world, Jo. 
xix. 13. It was also called the Pavement, and 
is thought to have been a tesselated floor some- 
where in Pilate's residence, on which (as was a 
common custom among the Romans), the ele- 
vated tribunal of judgment was placed ; and this 
residence was probably the old magnificent palace 
of Herod, hence now styled the Praetorium, Matt, 
xxvii. 27 ; Mk. xv. 16. ; Jo. xviii. 28. 33., xix. 
9. ; or the Common Hall or Judgment Hall, as it 
is rendered in our translation. 

GABDES, a' place mentioned 1 Esd. v. 20. 
amongst those the inhabitants of which returned 
home after the Babylonian captivity. It was 
probably the same with Gaba. 

GAD (i.e. a Troop or Company), one of the 
twelve tribes of Israel, whose name was derived 
from Gad, the eldest son of Jacob and Zilpah, Gen. 
XXX. 11. It was one of the least distinguished 
of the tribes, though valiant and expert in war, 
1 Chron, v. 18., xii. 8., xxvi. 31. At the Exodus, 
only 260 years after the birth of Gad, the num- 
ber of fighting men in the tribe was 45,650, 
Num. i. 24, 25., ii. 14. ; thirty-eight years after- 
wards, when they were again numbered in the 
Plains of Moab, they appear to have decreased to 
40,500, Num. xxvi. 15. 18. They marched 
under the standard of the tribe of Reuben, Num. 
ii. 14., immediately preceding the Kohathites, 
with the sanctuar}', and were the sixth tribe in 
order, x. 20., whence their off'erings for the Ta- 
bernacle were made on the sixth day, Num. vii. 
42. ; and when encamped the}^ were on the S. 
side of the Tabernacle. One of their number was 
chosen by Moses to accompany the eleven others 
frond the other tribes whom he sent to spy out 
the land of Canaan, whilst the host lay encamped 
in Kadesh, Num. xiii. 15. 

On the concjuest of the kingdoms of Sihon and 



GAD. 

Og, the children of Gad, in conjunction with 
the Reubenites, applied to Moses to have their 
inheritance allotted to them at once, beyond 
Jordan, on the plea, that they had a great 
multitude of cattle, and that the newly acquired 
territory was suitable to their wants. Num. 
xxxii. 1, 2. This request the great lawgiver at 
length granted, as Moses had foretold, on the 
condition that, when they had built folds for 
their cattle and cities for their little ones, they 
■would pass over Jordan, ready armed, before the 
children of Israel, and would not return until all 
their brethren had also received their inheritance. 
Num. xxxii. 6. 25. 29. 31. 33, 34., xxxiv. 14. ; 
Deut. xxxiii, 20, 21. They were accordingly 
settled in Jazer, and in the S. and central parts 
of the land of Gilead in Bashan, and that half of 
the land of the children of Ammon which many 
years before the Amorites had seized upon ; as 
well as in that portion of Sihon's kingdom which 
had not been given to Reuben, Num. xxxii. 1. 
26, 29. ; Deut. iii. 12. 16., xxix. 8. ; Josh. i. 12., 
xii. 6., xiii. 8. 24. 28., xviii. 7., xxii. 7. They 
were bounded on the S. by the tribe of Reuben, 
and on the N. by the half-tribe of Manasseh. To 
the W. they were separated by the R. Jordan 
and the Sea of Chinnereth from Ephraim, the 
other half of Manasseh, and Issachar ; and to the 
E. they bordered upon the Ammonites, close to 
Rabbah (from whom they appear to have been 
parted by the R. Jabbok, Deut. iii. 16., hence 
called the R. of Gad, 2 Sam. xxiv. 5.), Josh, xii- 
2., xiii. 25. ; Judg. xi. 4 — 33. They also touched 
to the E. upon the Hagarites, and other chil- 
dren of the East; by all of whom they were 
much harassed, though at length they subdued 
them, as Jacob and Moses had foretold, Gen. 
xiix. 19. ; Deut. xxxiii. 20. ; 1 Chron. v. 11. 16. 
19. Their territory contained four Levitical 
cities given to the children of Merari, viz. 
Ramoth in Gilead, Mahanaim, Heshbon, and Ja- 
zer, the first of which was constituted a City of Re- 
fuge, Deut. iv. 43. ; Josh. xx. 8., xxi. 7. 38, 39. 

When the Israelites under Joshua crossed over 
Jordan to take possession of Canaan, the Gadites 
(as had been foretold by Moses), passed over 
armed before their brethren, in company with 
the Reubenites and the half of the Manassites^ 
in all about 40,000 fighting men, Josh. iv. 12, 13. ; 
and they remained with them there about seven 
years, assisting them to take possession of their 
promised inheritance. They were one of the six 
tribes appointed by Moses and Joshua to stand on 
Mt. Ebal to pronounce the curses upon the 
breakers of God's law, Deut. xxvii. 13. ; Josh, 
viii, 33. But, at length, being summoned by 



m 



GAD. 



GAD, R. OF. 133 



Joshua, and told that they had obeyed him in 
all things, and kept their promise in the matter 
of helping their brethren against their enemies, 
he sent them, and the Reubenites, and Manas- 
sites, home with a blessing, Josh. xxii. 1. 9. 
But when they had crossed the Jordan into their 
own land, they built on the banks of the river 
a great altar, which they named Ed, i. e. a Wit- 
ness, in token that in years to come, the other 
Israelites should not say that the trans-Jordanic 
tribes had no part in the service of God at Jeru- 
salem ; a proceeding which, until it was ex- 
plained, gave great olfence to the nine tribes 
and a half, and threatened to plunge the whole 
nation into war. Josh. xxii. 10, 11. 13. 15. 21. 
25. 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 

The tribe of Gad furnished a refuge for many 
of the Hebrews who fled from the Philistines in 
the daj-s of Saul, 1 Sam. xiii. 7. With a great 
and daring force they joined the side of David 
against Saul, when David was in the hold, sup- 
porting his cause by their valour against his 
enemies, 1 Chron. xii. 8. 14, 15. ; though after- 
wards, on Saul's death, his son Ishbosheth was 
brought by Abner into their city Llahanaim, and 
made king over Israel, 2 Sam. ii. 8, 9, 12. 29. 
David himself, likewise, when he quitted Jenisa- 
lem on the occasion of Absalom's rebellion, found 
security amongst them, and lay encamped for 
some time at their city of Mahanaim, 2 Sam. 
xvii, 24. ; 1 Kgs. ii. 8. ; where he was sustained 
by Barzillai the Gileadite (one of this tribe) until 
his return to Jerusalem after the fatal battle with 
Absalom, who had followed his father hither, 
2 Sam. xvii, 26, 27., xviii. 6. 8., xix. 15. 31, 
82.; 1 Kgs. ii. 7, 8. One of David's mighty 
men was a Gadite, 2 Sam. xxiii. 36. ; but there 
seem to have been many brave and wise men 
among them, Deut. xxxiii. 20., whom the king 
made rulers over his subjects beyond Jordan, 
1 Chron, xxvi. 31, 32. ; though it is remarkable, 
that both Gad and Asher are omitted in the 
catalogue of those tribes over whom David ap- 
pointed princes of their own as rulers, probably 
for civil purposes, 1 Chron. xxvii. 16 — 22. Being 
a border tribe towai'ds the E., they often had 
to bear the brunt of hostile attacks. Earl}^ in 
their history they were Adoleutly assailed b}^ the 
Ishmaelites, whom after a tierce struggle they 
vanquished; slaying great numbers of them, 
obtaining a vast spoil, and inhabiting their lands 
until the captivity, 1 Chron. v. 11. 18, 19. 22. ; 
thus fulfilling the predictions of Jacob and 
Moses, that their territory should be " en- 
larged," through their at the last overcoming a 
troop that had overcome them. They were also 

• 



grievously oppressed by the IMidianites for many 
years, until they and all Israel were delivered by 
their countryman Jephthah, Judg. x. 8. 17, 18., 
xi. 1. 11. 29. 33.; whose victory brought the 
Gadites into that collision with the Ephraimites, 
Judg. xii. 4, 5, 6., which ended in the trial by 
Shibboleth. They were likewise attacked, and 
part of their land taken from them, by Ben- 
hadad, king of Syria, who seized on Ramoth- 
Gilead, one of their chief places, and a City of 
Eefuge ; and who, notwithstanding the exertions 
of all Israel to regain it, under Ahab and Jeho- 
shaphat (the first of whom fell in the battle), 
continued to hold it, 1 Kgs. xxii. 3, 4. 29—36. ; 
2 Chron. xviii. 2, 3. 28—34. 

Within forty years afterwards they were still 
further cut short by Hazael, the assassin and 
successor of Ben-hadad, who took possession 
of their whole territory, as well as that of their 
trans-Jordanic brethren, burning their strong- 
holds with fire, and treating the people with 
the greatest cruelty, 2 Kgs. viii. 12, 13., x. 
32, 33. ; Amos i. 3. About seventy years later, 
in the days of Manahem, king of Israel, they 
were attacked by Pul, king of Assyria, who 
was only got rid of by a large bribe, 2 Kgs. xv. 
19, 20. ; 1 Chron. v. 26. ; Isa. ix. 1. ; Hos. ix. 
10. And after about the same intei-^^al, they 
were with their neighbouring brethren, the 
first of all Israel to be finally removed out of 
their o^ti land ; being taken captive by Tiglath- 
Pileser, king of Assyria, b.c. 740, because of 
their idolatry, when they were placed in Halah, 
Habor, and Gozan, 2 Kgs. xv. 29. ; 1 Chron. 
V. 25, 26. The complete subjugation of the 
whole kingdom of Israel was efiected soon 
aftersvards by Shalmaneser, b.c. 721, who re- 
moved his captives to the same localities, 2 Kgs. 
xvii. 6. 23., xviii. 10, 11. , 

In the prophetical division of the land by the 
prophet Ezekiel, the portion of Gad is placed 
southernmost of all, Zebulun being N. of it, 
bounded by Tamar, the Waters of Strife in 
Kadesh, and the Eiver toward the Great Sea, 
Ezek. xhdii. 27, 28. One of the three gates of 
the New City on the W. is to be named the 
Gate of Gad, Ezek. xlviii. 34. In his apoca- 
lyptical vision at Patmos, St. John beheld twelve 
thousand sealed of the tribe of Gad, Eev. vii. 5. 

GAD, E. OF, thought to be the same with 
the E. Jabbok, and to have been so called from 
being the chief river in the territory of this 
tribe, and because the upper portion of it was 
the frontier between them and the Ammonites, 
Deut. iii. 16. It was visited by Joab when 
K 3 



134 GADITES, 



GALATIA, 



taking account of the population of all Israel at 
the command of David, 2 Sam. xxiv. 6. ; and 
seems to have flowed round some city (whether 
Aroer or another place is uncertain), which was 
therefore called the City that lieth in the midst 
of the R. of Gad. 

GADITES, the inhabitants of the tenitory 
assigned to the children of Gad. See Gad. 

GADARENES, COUNTRY OF THE, a 
mountainous district beyond Jordan, to the 
S.E. of the Sea of Tiberias, or Lake of Geime- 
saret, and over against Galilee. It was here 
that the Blessed Redeemer was met by the two 
fierce demoniacs coming out of their dwelling- 
place in the tombs ; and whom, when He had 
healed, and had permitted the devils to enter 
into the herds of swine feeding on the adjacent 
mountains, the swine, in number about 2000, ran 
violently down the precipitous banks of the 
lake, and perished in the waters, Mk. v. 1. ; 
Lu. viii. 26. 37. It derived its name from that 
of "the City" mentioned in the context, 
which was most likely Gadara (called formerly 
Seleucia and Antiochia) one of the cities of the 
Decapolis, and according to Josephus the chief 
place in Persea. It was at one time a city of 
considerable consequence, not only from its size 
and position, but from its wealth and the 
strength of its defences. It was nearly destroyed 
during the Maccabsean wars ; but was restored by 
Pompey in honour of his freedman Demetrius, 
who was born here. Augustus presented it to 
King Herod, but on the death of the latter it 
was reckoned to Syria, or according to others, 
to Ccelesyria. In the time of Josephus, it was 
chiefly inhabited by heathen Gentiles, and 
many of the Romans seem to have been 
quartered in it a^d in the adjacent district: 
hence, probablj^, to feed them, the swine were 
kept by some of the Jews,' who doing so in con- 
tempt of the national religion, and of their own 
law, which was of Divine authority, were justly 
punished. Gadara stood on the S. side of the 
R. Jarmouk or Hieromax, now known as the 
Slieriat-el-Mandhur, on the brow of a hill 
whence flowed some warm springs greatly 
celebrated in past times, and still visited by 
travellers. In the sides of this hill, and in the 
rocks on the E. coast of the adjacent lake, were 
(and still are) those numerous sepulchres, hewn 
by the ancient inhabitants, where the demoniacs 
had their dwelling. Gadara is now uninhabited ; 
its ruins are called Um Keis, but the old name 
is preserved in that of the surrounding district 
Al"Jedur. 



In the parallel passage of St. Matthew, viii-* 
28., it is called the Country of the Gergesenes 
(or, as some manuscripts have it, Gerasenes) 
from the city of Gerasa or Gergesa, which lay 
some miles to the S.E. of Gadara ; but as the 
lands of one city are said to have been included 
within the limits of the other, the two names 
were probably applied to this district in- 
differently. 

GAHAR, THE CHILDREN OF, a branch 
of the Nethinims who returned home from 
Babylon after the captivity, Ezra ii. 47. ; Neh. 
vii. 49. ; whence the name was derived does not 
seem to be known. 

GALAAD, Judith i. 8., xv. 5. ; 1 Mace, v, 2, 
17. 25. 27. 36. 45. 55., xiii. 22. See Gilead. 

GALATIA, a province in the centi-al part of 
Asia Minor, bounded on the N. by Bithynia and 
Paphlagonia, on the E. by Pontus, on the S. by 
Cappadocia and Phrygia, and on the W. by the 
latter province ; it is now divided into districts on 
the borders of the three Turkish governments of 
AnadoUOf Karamania, and Mourn. It was watered 
by the R. Halys, which formed for a long time 
the boundary of the dominions of Croesus, the 
Lydian monarch, who was tempted to cross it by 
the ambiguity of an oracle, and thus brought on 
the ruin of his empire. Its metropolis was 
Ancyra, now called Angora, so famous for its 
manufactures of goats' hair; and celebrated in 
tradition as one of the places where St. Paul 
preached the gospel to the fickle idolaters of the 
country. It owed both its name and origin 
to those Gauls who wandered from Europe, e.g. 
278, under their leader Brennus, shortly after 
their defeat in Greece. It was also named 
Gallo-Gra^cia, from its being partially inhabited 
and surrounded by Greek colonies; and also 
Gallia Parva, to distinguish it from Gaul or 
France, which the Greeks also called Galatia. 
Cf. 1 Mace. viii. 2.; 2 Mace. viii. 20. These 
Gauls dwelled originally in the country between 
the Alps and the Danube, but taking advantage 
of the weakness of Alexander's successors, they 
pushed their way into Greece, and made a bold 
but vain attempt upon Delphi : after which some 
of them passed into Thrace, and thence into 
Asia at the invitation of Nicomedes I., king of 
Bithynia, who was then at war with his brother. 
Having assisted him, they penetrated into the 
interior of the peninsula, laying waste the whole 
neighbouring country, and compelling the people 
to pay them tribute. This continued until they 
were forced by Attains I. to settle within 



GALATIA. 



GALGALA. 



135 



the above limits ; where they still made them- 
selves feared, and offered their services for hire to 
any of the Asiatic princes who needed them. 
This led to their complete subjugation; for 
a corps of them assisting Aiitiocuus against the 
Romans, so provolced the latter people by their 
bold opposition, that they were attacked in their 
own holds by the consul Manlius, and compelled 
to promise neither to assist nor to harass their 
neighbours. They subsequently united with the 
Romans against Mithridates, which led to an 
enlargement of their own territory by Pom- 
pey, and afterwards by Antony, whose cause 
they joined. Indeed, at one time their domi- 
nions extended from the Eaxine neai-ly to Mt. 
Taurus. But, though nominally ruled by their 
own kings, they were eventually under the com- 
plete sway of the Romans, and seem never again 
to have recovered their independence ; being go- 
verned by the Roman laws under the adminis- 
tration of a proprajtor. It became a home for 
colonists from many nations, especially Jews, 
who here enjoyed great privileges. 

The Galatians are stated by Josephus to have 
been originally called Gomerites, from Gomer the 
eldest son of Japheth, Gen, x. 2., who is thought 
to have given its name to the country of 
Germany and to other places ; and they are 
said to have preserved themselves so distinct 
from the Greeks and Asiatics, by whom they 
were suiTOunded, that their language appeared 
to Jerome to be the same as that spoken in his 
time at Treves in Gaul, though 600 years after 
their immigration. They were composed of 
three different tribes, the Trocmi, Tectosages, 
and Tolistoboii. The Trocmi are conjectured, 
with great probability, to have obtained their 
name from Togarmah, the son of Gomer, Gen. 
X. 3. ; and both they and the Galatians gene- 
rally appear to be alluded to by the prophet 
Ezekiel, xxvii. 14., xxxviii. 6., in his predictions 
against Tyre and Gog, as the " house of Togar- 
mah " and the " bands of Gomer." The ancient 
Galatians are said to have been grossly super- 
stitious idolaters, offering human sacrifices to 
their gods, especialh^ their prisoners of war; 
they were also worshippers of Cybele, whose 
name Dindymene is stated to have been derived 
from a mountain in their country above the city 
Pessinus. They were, however, brave and 
warlike, addicted to commerce, as well as 
great cultivators of eloquence, music, and other 
sciences. 

St. Peter is thought to have visited Galatia, 
as well as St. Paul, and, in the opinion of some, 
before him ; but, anyhow, his first Epistle is di- 



rected to his fellow-countrymen residing there, 
as well as in the neighbouring provinces, 1 Pet. 
i. 1. St. Paul visited it twice, if not oftener; 
once about a.d. 53., in company with Timothy, 
Acts xvi. 6., and again, about two }'ears later, 
xviii. 23. ; during these visits, he founded and 
strengthened many churches, which he con- 
tinued to superintend by letters and messengers 
(such as was Crescens), 1 Cor. xvi. 1. ; 2 Tim. 
iv. 10. He at length wrote them his famous 
Epistle, to counteract some of the erroneous 
doctrines about justification, which are supposed 
to have been disseminated amongst them by those 
Jews whom St. Peter had partially converted to 
the Christian faith, Gal. title, i. 2., iii. 1. Calli- 
machus, the heathen poet, calls them a foolish 
people, and Hilary, himself a Gaul, describes 
them as indocile; so that St. Paul's expression, 
Gal. iii. 1., may have been possibly a proverbial 
allusion to their reputed infirmity. 

GALATIANS (marg. Frenchmen), another 
name for the Galli or Gauls, which was the 
common one used by the Greeks. It occurs 
twice in the Apocrypha; once where Judas 
Maccabseus was informed of the Romans' suc- 
cesses over them, 1 Mace. viii. 2. ; and again 
where he reminds his countrymen on the eve of 
the engagement with Nicanor, how that 8000 
of them destroyed 120,000 Galatians in Babylon 
by the help of Heaven ; which may have taken 
place, when the Gauls after their defeat at Delphi 
were over-running Asia. 

GALEED (i. e. the Heap of Witness), the name 
given by Jacob to the heap of stones piled up 
by him and Laban in the countr}'^ beyond 
Jordan, when they made their covenant toge- 
ther after their separation, Gen. xxxi. 47, 48. ; 
Laban called it Jegar-sahadutha, ^vhioli is the 
Chaldee version of the same words : it was also 
named Mizpah, i.e. a Beacon or Watch-tower. 
From it, the range of mountains, as well as the 
beautiful and productive country around them, 
Avere called Gilead; a name still preserved in 
that of Djelaoud or Djelaad, b}^ which the 
natives distinguish the principal hill. See 
Gilead. 

GALGALA, a region of Palestine said to have 
been traversed by Bacchides and Alcimus 
on their way to Juda\i, 1 I\lac(\ ix. 2., just 
before the fatal battle in whirl; Judas Macca- 
bo3US was slain. It is tliou-lit to liave been the 
name of a district in Galileo, or anorher form of 
Galilee itself; as Arbela, avJilm-o the Syrians 
pitched their tents, is said by Josephus to be in 
Galilee. Joshua, xii. 23., in his catalogue of the 
K 4 



\36 



GALILEE. 



thirty-one kings smitten by the Israelites, men- 
tions the king of the nations of Gilgal, Avhich 
probably meant Galilee. Cf. Gen. xiv. 1. 9. ; 
Isa. ix. 1. ; Matt. iv. 15. ; 1 Mace. v. 15. 

GALILEE, the northernmost province of Ca- 
naan, bounded on the W. by Phoenice, on the N. 
by Syria, on the E. by the R. Jordan and the 
Lake of Gennesaret, on the S. by Mt. Tabor, the 
Valley of Jezreel, the R. Kishon, and Mt. Car- 
mel. It Vv'as probably the country which was 
governed by Tidal, mentioned as one of the four 
confederate kings, who, led on by Chedorlaomer, 
attacked the five Cities of the Plain, and cap- 
tured Lot ; and who is called king of Nations, 
Gen. xiv. 1. 9. Joshua, xii. 23., when enume- 
rating the thirty-one kings conquered by the 
Israelites, speaks of the king of " the nations of 
Gilgal ;" which seems to have been the old name 
of Galilee, and is thought to be only slightly 
changed in that of Galgala, occurring in the 
Apocrypha, 1 Mace. ix. 2. In the book of 
Judges, iv. 2. 13. 16., one of its cities is desig- 
nated as Harosheih " of ihe Gentiles." It is also 
called Galilee of the Nations (or Populous Gali- 
lee) by the prophet Isaiah, ix. 1., and Galilee of 
the Gentiles by St. Matthew, iv. 15. ; owing, as 
it is supposed, to the great variety of people by 
whom it was inhabited, such as the Syrians, 
Phoenicians, Arabians, Canaanites and Egyp- 
tians (all mentioned by profane authors) ; or 
else, from its bordering upon Phoenice, which 
seems to have given rise to the name of the 
coasts of Tyre and Sidon applied to the N.W. 
part of it by St. Matthew, xv. 21., and Mark, vii. 
31., (except this appellation designates Phoenice 
itself) ; or else, from its having been thickly 
peopled by the aboriginal inhabitants when 
flying to its mountains for security from inva- 
ders, and latterly from the Hebi'ews. It gave 
name to the beautiful Sea of Galilee, one of the 
most interesting and lovely spots in the world, 
otherwise called the Sea of Chinnereth, or Lake 
of Gennesaret, or Sea of Tiberias. 

Galilee is first mentioned in Josh. xx. 7., xxi. 
82., and in 1 Chron. vi. 76., as the country in 
which was Kedesh, one of the Cities of Eefuge, 
otherwise called Kedesh Naphtali, Judg. iv. 6 ; 
and was allotted to the tribes of Naphtali, Zebu- 
lun, Issachar, the newly acquired territory of 
Dan, and the E. portion of Asher. It was the 
country of Jabin, king of Canaan, who^ reigned 
in Hazor, and of his chief captain Sisera, whose 
abode was in Harosheth of the Gentiles ; and on 
its S. borders was fought the great battle between 
them and Deborah, which delivered Israel out of 



their power, Judg. iv. 2. 10. 12, 13—24. Solomon 
gave Hiram twenty cities in Galilee as a present 
on the completion of the Temple and his own 
palace ; but they were so displeasing to the king 
of Tyre that he called them the land of Cabul 
(i.e. Dirty), 1 Kgs. ix. 11., and seems, eventually, 
to have restored them to the king of Israel, 2 
Chron. viii. 2. From being on the borders of 
Syria, it was frequently exposed to hostile at- 
tacks. Ben -hadad ravaged it at the invitation 
of Asa, king of Judah, in order to check the 
ambition of Baasha, king of Israel, 1 Kgs. xv. 20. ; 
2 Chron. xvi. 4. ; and its inhabitants were finally 
caiTied captive to Assyria by Tiglath-Pileser in 
the reign of Pekah, king of Israel, B.C. 740, 2 
Kgs. XV. 29., when he likewise carried captive 
the traui-Jordanic tribes, 1 Chron. v. 26. This 
captivity is alluded to by Isaiah, ix. 1., when 
foretelling the birth and the kingdom of the 
Blessed Redeemer; and also by St. Matthew, iv» 
15., in his account of the Lord's taking up His 
abode and preaching in Galilee. The same 
cause led to its being the arena of many an after 
struggle, as when Nabuchodonosor summoned 
them to his assistance against Arphaxad, Judith 
i. 8. ; and subsequently, the Assyrian host under 
Holofernes came down upon the city of Bethulia, 
and besieged it until they were eventually chased 
away, i. 12., iii. 9, 10., iv.6., vii. 1., xv. 5. It was 
also a sharer in the Maccabsean conflicts, suffer- 
ing much from the neighbouring nations, auv, 
lending its assistance to the cause of liberty, 1 
Mace. V. 15., ix. 2., x. 30. It was divided latterly 
into the Higher (or Upper) Galilee and Lower 
Galilee; the former being mountainous,- the 
latter extremely fertile, and both so thickly in- 
habited, Isa. ix. 1., marg., that, in the time of 
Josephus, who was its governor, it contained 
204 cities and towns of considerable magni- 
tude. 

In the New Testament times, Galilee formed 
the third or northernmost division of Canaan ; 
being bounded on the S. by Samaria, and on the 
E. by Batantea or Bashan, one of the districts 
in the Peraea or country beyond Jordan. It was 
originally part of the kingdom of Herod the 
Great ; but, at his death, his dominions were di- 
vided into four tetrarchies, of which Galilee and 
Persea became one, governed by his son Herod 
Antipas, Mk. vi. 21., Lu. iii. 1., Acts xiii. 1., the 
murderer of John the Baptist, to whom Pilate 
sent our Lord shortly before His crucifixion, 
Matt. xiv. 1-12. ; Mk. vi. 14—29., viii. 15. ; Lu. 
iii. 19,20., ix. 7—9,, xiii. 31, 32., xxiii. 7—12. 15. ; 
Acts iv. 27. Galilee is continually mentioned 
in the New Testament in coimectiou with the 



GALILEE. 



GARDEN, THE. 137 



abode and ministry of the adorable Saviour. It 
was in Xazareth, one of its cities, that the Virgin 
Mary and Josepii were residing at the time of 
the Annunciation, Lu. L 26., ii. 4. ; and hither the 
Blessed Eedeemer was brought by His parents 
after their return from Egypt, on the death of 
Herod, and here He resided until His baptism 
by John, Matt. ii. 22., iii. 13 ; Mk. i. 9. ; Lu. ii. 39. ; 
whence He was called by His enemies a Xazarene, 
Matt. ii. 23., xxvi. 71. ; Jo. i. 45. ; or a Galilean, 
Matt. xxi. 11., xxvi. 69. ; Lu. xxiii. 5, 6. ; Jo. vii. 
41. 52. Hither again He returned after the 
Temptation, preaching the gospel and working 
His first miracles, Matt. iv. 12. 15. 23. 25. ; Mk. 
i. n. -28. 39., iii. 7. ; Lu. iv. 1-i. ; Jo. i. 43., ii. 1. 
11. ; Acts X. 37. ; and took up His abode at Caper- 
naum, another of its cities (having been driven 
out of Xazareth), Matt. iv. 13. ; Mk. i. 2L ; Lu. 
iv. 31. ; which is thenceforward termed His own 
city. Matt. ix. 1. From this country He gathered 
most, if not all. His Apostles, Matt. iv. 18—22. ; 
Mk. i. 16—20., xiv. 70. ; Lu. v. 1— 11., xxii. 59. ; 
Jo. 1. 43 — 51. ; xii. 21., xxi. 2. ; Actsi. 11., ii. 7. ; 
and when with them He had fully entered upon 
His public ministry, though He visited the other 
provinces of Juda?a, yet He seems to have pre- 
ferred Galilee as His abode, and as the scene of 
some of His mightiest mu-acles, possibly from 
His opportimities of doing good amidst its dense 
population, and its being more out of the reach 
of His ecclesiastical enemies at Jerusalem, Matt, 
xvii. 22., xix. 1. ; Mk. ix. 30. ; Lu. iv. 44., v. 
17., viii. 2u., xvii. 11., xxiii. 5, 6., xxiv. 6.; Jo. 
iv, 3. 43. 45, 46, 47. 54., vii. 1. 9. Many of those 
devout- women who followed Him, ministering 
to Him, who kept with Him to the last, and were 
amongst the first witnesses of His resurrection, 
came from Galilee, Matt, xxvii. 55., xxviii 7. ; 
Mk. XV. 41. ; Lu. viii. 2, 3., xxiii. 49. 55. ; and 
this, likewise, was the province whither our 
Lord commanded them and His Apostles to come 
and converse ■with Him after He should rise 
from the dead, Matt. xxvi. 32., xx-viii. 10. 16. ; 
Mk. xiv. 28., xvi. 7. ; Acts xiii. 31. 

The Galileans were an active, industrious, and 
courageous people ; and being deeply imbued 
with a spirit of independence, as well as greatly 
attached to the Jewish religion, they had the 
character of a turbulent and rebellious people, 
always ready to resist the Roman domination. 
Several hints and allusions are made to this in 
the evangelical history, Lu. xiii. 1, 2., xxiii. 
12. ; Acts V. 37. In the first of these references, 
Pilate is recorded to have taken summaiy ven- 
geance on some of these refractory spirits. It 
may also have been this experience of their cha- 



1 racter, as well as common report, that led him to 
I ask whetlier Jesus was a Galilean, Lu. xxiii. 6. ; 
and perhaps at first to credit the charge of sedi- 
tion which was brought against the Sa\'iour, and 
which was the more easily raised from His being 
said to be one of that obnoxious people, Lu. 
xxiii. 2. 5. The Galileans were likewise noted 
for speaking a corrupt and heterogeneous dialect 
of the then Jewish language, owing probably to 
there being such an intermixture of nations in 
j the province. It was this that led to the detection 
of Peter when denpng Christ, Matt. xxvi. 73. ; 
Mk. xiv. 70. : Lu. xxii. 59. ; Jo. xviii. 25. ; and 
also, as it appears, to the obser^'ation about the 
whole party of the disciples on the Day of Pen- 
tecost, Acts ii. 7. Long after these events 
Christianity continued to spread throughout Ga- 
lilee; and many churches were fotmded in it, 
which shared in the persecutions and blessings 
attendant on then- profession, Acts ix. 31. 

GALILEE, SEA OF. See Lake of Chix>'e- 

RETH. 

GALILEANS. See Galilee. 

GALLIM, a place apparently in the tribe of 
Benjamin, in the neighbourhood of Anathoth 
and Gibeah of Saul, or perhaps Bahurim, men- 
tioned by Isaiah, x. 30., when foretelling the 
captivity of Judah. It was the residence of 
Phalti, to whom Saul gave his daughter ilichal, 
Da^-id's wife, after David had fled from his 
court to Engedi; but whom Abner restored 
again to him, on the death of Saul, as the con- 
dition of David's overlooking his defection to 
Ishbosheth, 1 Sam. xxv. 44. ; 2 Sam. iii. 15. 
Some suppose GaUim to be the same vdth 
Eglaim ; which see. 

GAMMADIMS, mentioned by the prophet 
Ezekiel, xxvii. 11., as being in the towers of 
Tyre, hanging their shields upon its walls, and 
numbered afrong its defenders. Who and what 
they were, is trnkno-^Ti. Some suppose them to 
have been a distinct tribe of the Phcenicians or 
Africans ; the Chaldee version renders the word 
Cappadocians, and the Yulgate translates it 
Pygmies. Others, however, understand the word 
merely as an adjective, signif\-ing brave, resolute ; 
and so taken, it may possibly only refer to the 
Phoenician guards of their great citadel, whether 
the men of Arvad or others. 

GAEDEX, THE, i.e. Eden; which see. 
Gethsemane is also called "the Garden,"' Jo. 
xviii. 26. In the first, man fell from his Maker, 
and lost all claim to the tree of life ; in the last 
he Avas, through Divine grace, pimi&hed in his 



138 GARDEN OF GOD. 



GATH. 



adorable Surety, recovered, and made co-heir of 
eternal life. Cf. Jo. xviii. 1 — 12., xx, 15. ; Rev. 
ii. 7. 

GARDEX OF GOD ; or tlie 

GARDEN OF THE LORD. See Eden. 

GAREB, a hill adjacent to the city of Jeni- 
salem, upon which Jeremiah, xxxi. 39., when 
foretelling the coming restoration of Israel, 
promises the measuring line shall yet go forth, 
and compass it about to Goath. It was pro- 
bably on the N.W. of the metropolis ; and was 
one of those many mountains which stand round 
about Jerusalem, as the Lord is round about 
His people, Ps. cxxv. 2. 

GARMITE, a patronymic of Keilah, whence 
derived does not appear, 1 Chron. iv. 19. 

GARIZIM, MT., 2 Mace. v. 23., vi. 2. See 

GeRIZIjVI. 

GATH (a Wine-press), one of the five lordships 
of the Philistines, Josh. xiii. 3. ; Judg. iii. 3. ; 
1 Sam. vi. 4. 16. ; so called from its chief city 
Gath, the inhabitants of which appear to have 
ftillen upon the Israelites whilst yet in Goshen, 
and to have taken away some of their cattle 
when certain of Ephraim's sons were slain, 
1 Chron. vii. 21. It was one of the three cities 
in which alone any of the Analdms were left 
after the Israelites had entered Canaan, Joshua 
having cut oif all the rest, Josh. xi. 22. It is 
not mentioned by Joshua in the division of the 
land, though it may have been included in the 
grant first made to Judah, which included all 
the regions between Ekron and Gaza, J osh. xv, 
46, 47. At an early period its inhabitants seem 
to have had skirmishes with the Benjamites, 
1 Chron. viii. 13., who drove them away from 
Aijalon. Josephus reckons Gath to the tribe of 
Dan ; if this was really the case, its rebellion 
against the Jews may have brought on the war 
with the Philistines at the close ^f Eli's life, 
1 Sam. iv. 1., when they recovered much of their 
old territory. It was one of the places to which 
the ark of God was taken after that fatal battle 
in which it was captured by the Philistines, and 
the two sons of Eli were slain, 1 Sam. v. 8. It 
had been first brought to Ashdod, but the 
people of this city being greatly plagued because 
of it, carried it about to Gath, and these latter 
sent it to Ekron ; so that the three cities were 
probably in proximity to each other. When 
it was sent home to the Israelites, a trespass 
offering was sent for Gath, and its lord followed 
with the others to the border of Bethshemesh, 
1 Sara. vi. 12. 17. Twenty years afterwards 



Gath, or at any rate its neighbourhood, was re- 
taken by Samuel after the battle of Ebenezer, 
when the Philistines were compelled to sur- 
render the places they had captured in the 
former Av^ar, 1 Sam, vii. 14. ; but in the beginning 
of Saul's reign, they made fresh inroads upon 
the Hebrews, until the battle in which their 
champion Goliath, who was bom at Gath, was 
slain, 1 Sam. xvii. 4. 23.; 2 Sam. xxi. 19.; 
1 Chron. xx, 5. ; and Gath itself, or its environs, 
taken, xvii. 52. 

It appears, however, to have recovered its 
independence, as David fled thither from Saul, 
and took refuge at the court of Achish or 
Abimelech, where he feigned himself mad, 

1 Sam. xxi. 10. 12. ; Ps. xxxiv. title, M. title ; 
but being driven thence, he escaped to Adullam, 
where, and at Keilah, Engedi, Paran, Carmel, 
and other places in the S. of Judah, he main- 
tained his ground against Saul, until again 
forced to put himself and his band under the 
protection of Achish, the king of Gath, 1 Sam. 

xxvii. 2,, who at that time seems to have taken 
the lead in the confederacy of the Five Cities. 
Here they all remained some time, and would 
have been taken by Achish to the fight at 
Gilboa, but that they were distrusted by the 
Philistines, and were sent away, xxvii. 3, 4. 11., 

xxviii. 1., xxix. 2 — 11. In David's lamentation 
over Saul and Jonathan, he deprecates their 
death being told at Gath, lest the uncii'cum- 
cised should triumph, 2 Sam. i. 20. ; but some 
years afterwards, on their invading his kingdom, 

2 Sam. V. 17, 18., he took more effectual means 
to humble their pride, when he attacked and 
took possession of Gath, 2 Sam. viii. 1. ; 1 Chron. 
xviii. 1. In the former passage it is called 
Metheg-ammah, i. e. the Bride of Ammah, or, as 
others render it, 3Ietheg, the mother, which, in 
the latter place is translated " Gath and her 
towns." Metheg-ammah may have been the 
name of the whole district or lordship of Gath, 
derived from its taking precedence of the four 
other cities. Some of its inhabitants were after- 
wards form.ed into a corps of guards to David, 
in number 600, who, under Ittai the Gittite, 
followed his fortunes on the rebellion of Absalom, 
2 Sam. XV. 18, 19, 22., xviii. 2. But Gath again 
became the scene of one or more conflicts between 
the Philistines and David, towards the close of 
his reign, when three of its gigantic inhabitants 
were slain by his servants, 2 Sam. xxi. 19, 20. 
22. ; 1 Chron. xx. 5, 6, 8., and the city remained 
long in the possession of Israel. It was hither 
that Shimei's servants fled, and were followed 
by him, which led to his being put to death, 



GATH-HEPHER. 



GAZA. 



139 



1 Kgg. ii. 39, 40, 41. Gath Tras restored or en- 
larged bj Kehoboam, king of Judah, 2 Chron. 
xi. 8., but vras taken by Hazael, king of Syria, 
from Jehoash, king of Judah; who, however, 
diverted the Syrian by a bribe, 2 Kgs. xii. 17. 
At a later period, it seems to have joined the I 
other Philistine cities in casting olf the yoke of : 
Israel, as it was attacked and dismantled by 
Uzziah, king of Judah, 2 Chron. xx\-i. 6. ; Amos 
vi. 2. ; though it was probably again conquered 
by Hezekiah, 2 Kgs. xviii. 8. ; Isa. xiv. 29. 
Its inhabitants were called Gittites, Josh. xiii. 3. ; 

2 Sam. XV. 18, 19. 22., xviii. 2., xxi. 19.; 
1 Chron. xx. 5. ; a designation which was pro- 
bably common to the inhabitiints of other cities 
possessing the name of Gath. Its situation is 
much disputed ; but it appears to have been in 
the X. part of Dan, near the borders of Judah 
and Benjamin. Eusebius describes it as a small 
to^vl: '/ - ■ ^ in Ills clay, about 5 miles 
h'oiu 111 the direction of Diospolis 
or Lyda.i. 

GATH-HEPHEE, the bii-th-place of the 
prophet Jonah, 2 Kgs. xiv. 25. ; and probably 
the same with Gittah-Hepher, mentioned in 
Josh, xix. 13.. as a town in the E. part of 
the lot of Zebulun. Jerome describes it as a 
small village in his day, 2 miles from Sepphoris, 
on the road to Tiberias, and states that the 
tomb of Jonah was still shown there. 

GATH-EIMMOX, a city in the inheritance 
ux the tribe of Dan, Josh. xix. 45.; afterwards 

coniciciitel a Levirical city, and given for a 
possejs::>ii to the Kc'l: nliites. Josh. xxi. 24. It 
was prulxilly the abode of Obed-edom, the 
Gitiite. wht-re the ark of God continued for 
three iiio:iLh.s aficr the judgment at Perez- 
1 zzah, 2 Sa:n. 10, 11. ; 1 Chron. xiii. 13. 

GATH-RIMMOX, a Levitical city belonging 
to the Kohathites, in the half -tribe of Manasseh 
on this side Jordan, Josh. xxi. 25., supposed 
to be the same with Bileam mentioned in 
1 Chron. vi. 70. ; or else with 

GATH-EIMMOX, a Levitical city assig-ned 
to the Kohathites, in the tribe of Ephraim, 
1 Chron. vi. 69. 

GAZA, one of the five lordships of the 
Phihstines. Ju-h. xiii. 3. ; Judg. iii. 3. ; 1 Sam. 
vl 4. 16. ; whiv;h derived its name from its 
chief city Gaza, originally inhabited by the 
Avims, Deut. ii. 23., and then by the giant race 
of the Anakims, and one of the three cities 
where alone any remained in the laud of the 
children of Israel, Joshua having cut off aU the 



rest. Josh. xi. 22. It is called Azzah in the 
Hebrew, and is sometimes so written in our 
translation, Gen. x. 19., marg. ; Deut. ii. 23. ; 

1 Kgs. iv. 24. ; 2 Kgs. x^'iii. 8., marg. ; Jer. 
XXV. 20,, xhii. 1., marg. It lay in the S.W. 
angle of the Philistine territory, probably near 
the Brook Besor, and not far from the Great 
Sea, but to the X. of the River of Egypt, Josh. 
XV. 47., towards the frontier between Palestine 
and Eg}'pt, of which two countries it always 
has been, and stdl is, the border-city, if not the 
key. In this respect, it is first mentioned in 
Gen. X. 19., as the border-city of the Canaan- 
ites, before the migration of the Israelites from 
Eg}-pt; and again by Joshua, x. 41., in the 
account of his early and partial subjugation of 
it and all the Philistine country; though the 
city itself and some of its gigantic inhabitants 
escaped, xi. 22. It was originally assigned to 
the tribe of Judah, Josh. xv. 47. ; but it may 
afterwards (though not named) have fallen 
within the limits of Simeon, when this tribe 
received its portion out of that of Judah, Josh, 
xix. 1.; but it seems doubtfid whether they 
were able to drive out the Canaanite inhabit- 
ants until after the death of Joshua, xiii. 3. ; 
Judg. i. 18. Its people were called Gazathites, 
Josh. xiii. 3., and Gazites, .Judg. xvi. 2. 

Gaza appears to have suffered with Israel in 
the days of the judges, from the incursions of 
the Midianites, until these were subdued by 
Gideon, Judg. vi. 4. It was visited by Samson 
after his slaughter of the Philistines at Lehi, 
when they laid wait for him all night ; but he 
escaped out of their hands, taking the gate of 
the city, with its posts and bar, to the top of 
a hill that is before Hebron, Judg. xvi. 1, 2. : 
but, after they had found out the secret of his 
strength, they put out his eyes and brought 
him to Gaza again, where he pulled down the 
roof of their idol temple of Dagon, and de- 
stroyed more than 3000 of them together with 
himself, Judg. xvi. 21 — 30. It seems to have 
shared in the plagues which God brought upon 
the Philistines during the seven months the 
ark was in their country, 1 Sam, vi. 4. ; and to 
have joined in the trespass oftering, and the 
procession to Beth-shemesh, vi, 12. 16, 17, 18. 
i It no doubt took its part in the Philistine 
wars against Israel, during the times of Saul 
and David, though it appears to have been 
completely reduced towards the end of the 
latter's reign, and the accession of Solomon, 

2 Sam. xxi. 15 — 22., xxii. 1. ; 1 Kgs. iv. 24, 
But, in the confusion and rebellions which 

• occurred continually after the diA-ision of the 



140 



GAZA. 



GEBA. 



two kingdoms, Gaza apparently recovered its 
independence from time to time. Thus, in the 
days of Ahaz, king of Judah, it joined the 
Edomites (and perhaps the Tyrians) in at- 
tacking and plundering the cities and villages 
in the S. of Judah, selling many of the Jews 
into captivity, 2 Chron. xxviii. 18., whereupon 
God's anger was denounced against it by the 
prophet Amos i. 6, 7. 9. ; which seems to have 
been partly fulfilled, when Hezekiah smote it 
a few years afterwards, 2 Kgs. xviii. 8. It was 
further denounced for its enmity to Israel by 
the pi'ophets Zephaniah, ii. 4., and Jeremiah, 
XXV. 20., xlvii. 1, 5. ; and soon after was again 
laid waste by Pharaoh, king of Egypt. 

But its old grudge against Israel remained, 
bm'sting out again on the rebuilding of the 
city; when it assailed the falling Jews as 
fiercely as ever, joining in the cruel vengeance 
of their enemies, both before and after the 
captivity in Babylon, for which they were 
severely threatened by Ezekiel, xvi. 27. 57., 
XXV. 15., and Zechariah, ix. 5. These pre- 
dictions seem to have been gradually accom- 
plished. It was mastered by the Persians, from 
whom, after a siege of five months, it was taken 
by Alexander the Great, when most of the in- 
habitants were either killed or sold into cap- 
tivity, and the city peopled by a new colony. 
Antiochus the Great reduced and plundered it, 
and in the Maccabteau wars it was continually 
retaken, 1 Mace. xi. 61, 62., xiii. 43. But 
about 100. B.C., it was completely destroyed 
by Alexander Jannieus, the Jewish king, when 
it lay desolate for forty years, until restored 
and repeopled by Gabinius, the Roman go- 
vernor, though apparently nearer to the sea 
than the old site. It was given by Augustus 
to Herod the Great, at whose death it was 
annexed to the province of Syria. It was 
ravaged by the Jews in retaliation for a re- 
puted massacre of their countiymen at Ciesarea ; 
but it seems to have existed in the times of the 
New Testament, as it is mentioned in Acts 
viii. 26., in the account of the Ethiopian no- 
bleman whom Philip the Evangelist met and 
baptized on the desert way which led to it. 
It is a considerable place, owing to its situation, 
being a station for the transit of goods, and a 
resting-place for pilgrims and travellers be^ 
tween Egypt and the more Eastern countries : 
it is called Gaza by us Europeans, but 
Ghazzah by the natives. Gaza had anciently 
two harbours ; the N. of which, named Ga- 
z£e Majumas, and latterly Constantia, after 
the Emperor Constantine's son, was devoted 



to the idolatrous worship of the Cretan Ju- 
piter; its S. harbour, Anthedon, was at the 
mouth of the river near which Gaza stood 
(probably the Brook Besor), and after it had 
been repaired by Herod, was called Agrippias. 

GAZA, a place apparently within the limits 
of the tribe of Ephraim, 1 Chron, vii. 28., pro- 
bably towards the coast of the Mediterranean 
Sea, near the mouth of the R. Awgy, to the N. of 
Joppa, where is still a town called Gazou. 

GAZARA or Gazera, a strong and important 
town of Palestine, a few miles to the N.E. of 
Joppa, 1 Mace. xv. 28. 35., and many more from 
Azotus, xiii. 34., in the S.W. part of the lot of 
Ephraim, towards the border of Benjamin, about 
a day's journey W. of Adasa. It was the scene 
of many conflicts and manoeuvres during the 
Maccabssan wars, being alternately possessed by 
all parties. Near it Gorgias was defeated by 
Judas Maccabfeus, 1 Mace. iv. 15., who likewise 
chased the forces of Nicanor to its gates, vii. 45. 
It was fortified by Bacchides, ix. 52. ; and (after 
it had been recovered by the Jews), still further 
by Simeon, xiv. 35., who made it his abode, and 
also that of his son John, xiii. 53., xiv. 7., xvi. 1. 
19. 21., but having once more fallen into the 
enemy's hands, it was taken by Judas, who here 
slew Timotheus and Choreas, and burned many 
of its defences, 2 Mace. x. 32. It seems to have 
been the same place with Gazer or Gezer, fre- 
quently mentioned in the Old Testament. See 
Gezek. 

GAZATHITES, Josh. xiii. 3., the inhabitants 
of the Philistine city Gaza ; which see. 

GAZER, a city of the tribe of Ephraim, on the 
borders of Benjamin and Judah, whither David 
chased the Philistines from Geba, 2 Sam. v. 25. ; 
1 Chron. xiv. 16. It is thought to be the same 
as Gezer ; which see. 

GAZITES, Judg. xvi. 2., the inhabitants of 
the Philistine city Gaza ; which see. 

GAZZAM, THE CHILDREN OF, a family 
of the Nethinims, who returned home with 
Zerubbabel after the Babylonian captivity, 
Ezra ii. 48. ; Neh. vii. 51. ; whence they derived 
their name does not appear. 

GEBA (J;he HUT), otherwise Geba of Benjamin 
or Gaba, a city of the tribe of Benjamin, in its 
northernmost part, Josh, xviii. 24., which Joshua 
constituted a Levitical city for the children of 
Aaron, xxi. 17. ; 1 Chron. vi. 60. For a reason 
not stated, some of its inhabitants were removed 
to Manahath, 1 Chron. viii. 6. Cf. ii. 52. 54. It 
seems to have been on an elevated position near 
the passage of Michmash, and to have been so 



GEBA. 



GEBAL. 



141 



strongly defended, that the Philistines kept it 
in the days of Saul, apparently as their chief 
hold in these parts, iintil they were first smitten, 
and then miraculously dispossessed of it through 
the valour of Jonathan, 1 Sam. x. 5., xiii. 3, 4, 
23., xiv. 1. 4, 5. It seems to have been then 
called the Hill of God, probably from the people 
going there to sacrifice, and from its having a 
celebrated school of the prophets, 1 Sam. x. 5. 
10. ; some, however, refer this title to Gibeah. 
The Philistines appear, however, to have after- 
wards made it their head-quarters, and to have 
been strongly garrisoned there ; but in the days 
of David, they were again driven away, and 
chased within their own borders, 2 Sam. v. 25. ; 
1 Chron. xiv. 16. On comparing the last two 
references, some have supposed Geba and Gibeon 
to have been identical ; but as they are both 
menticmed in Josh, xviii. 24, 25., xxi. 17., this 
cannot be; neither can Geba be the same as 
Gibeah (or Gibeath or Gibeah of Saul), as both 
these are likewise mentioned in Josh, xviii. 24. 
28. ; Isa. x. 29. But it was in all probability, 
the same "with Gaba, Josh, xviii. 24. ; Ezra ii. 26. ; 
Neh. vii. 30. ; and with Geba of Benjamin, which 
Asa, king of Judah, rebuilt and strengthened as a 
frontier post against the kingdom of the Ten 
Tribes, with the materials of Ramah which Baasha 
was building to annoy the J ews, until diverted 
from his manoeuvre by the invasion of his own 
territory by Ben-hadad, king of Syria, 1 Kgs. xv. 
22. ; 2 Chron. xvi. 6. Geba was also remarkable 
as constituting the utmost bound of the kingdom 
of Judah towards the N., as Dan did of all Pa- 
lestine ; so that " from Geba to Beersheba," was 
the proverbial extent of the kingdom of the two 
tribes. It is so used in 2 Kgs. xxiii. 8., where 
King Josiah is mentioned as cleansing the whole 
land from its idolatry. Geba was one of the 
strong places which Isaiah, x, 29., foretold should 
be occupied by the Assjn-ian host in their vain 
attempts against Jerusalem in the time of Heze- 
kiah. After the Babylonian captivit}', certain 
of its inhabitants returned home with Zerub- 
babel, Ezra ii. 26. ; Neh. vii. 30. ; though some 
of them afterwards dwelt at Michmash, and 
were amongst those singers who assisted Xehe- 
miah at the dedication of the newly built walls 
of Jerusalem, Neh. xi. 31., xii. 29. At the re- 
storation of Israel, it is foretold that the whole 
laud from Geba to Rimmon, S. of Jerusalem, shall 
be as a plain, ^ech. xiv. 10. 

GEBA, a place apparently on the E. side of 
the great Plain of Esdraelon, possibly near the 
S. end of the Lake of Gennesaret. Between it 



and Scythopolis (i. e. Betbshan) Ilolofemes is 
mentioned as having pitched his camp, and re- 
mained for a whole month, prior to his advancing 
upon Bethulia, Judith iii. 10. 

GEBAL, the name of a region or people 
mentioned in Ps. Ixxxiii. 7. amongst the ene- 
mies of Israel. It seems to have lain to the 
S. of Judah, in the lower Ghor, and to have ob- 
tained its name from the mountainous character 
of the country. It was probably the same with 
that portion of Edom round about Petra, Avhich 
is called Gebalene or Gabalene, and Gebalitis or 
Gobolitis by the profane authors, as well as by 
Josephus, Eusebius, and other ecclesiastical 
writers ; and which is still called Jebeil by the 
natives. 

GEBAL, an important maritime city of Phoe- 
nicia, on the shore of the Mediterranean Sea, 
about midway between Sidon on the S. and 
Arvad or Aradus on the N. Its inhabitants 
are spoken of by the prophet Ezekiel, xxvii. 9., 
as having been the chief calkers of the ships of 
Tyre, and as famed for the wisdom of their 
ancient men : they were probably, also, engaged 
in the building of the Temple at Jerusalem, 
and are mentioned 1 Kgs. v. 18., as " the 
stone-squarers," or in the margin Giblites, whom 
Hiram, king of Tyre, lent to Solomon for the 
work. They are, likewise, thought to be the 
same people whose country Joshua, xiii. 5., 
describes as the land of the Giblites, and as 
not yet conquered when he was old and stricken 
in years, though within the borders of the 
Promised Land. It is called Byblos in the 
heathen authors, though the old name still sur- 
vives in that of Jebeil, by which it is now 
kno^^^l. It was celebrated for the idolatrous 
worship of Adonis, and was situated near 
the mouth of the little R. Adonis, now called 
Ibrahim. On the banks of this river, an annual 
festival was held on the anniversary of the pre- 
tended death of Adonis, who was said to have 
been killed by a wild boar in the neighbouring 
mountains of Lebanon, when the people went 
out to bewail his fate. On this occasion, the 
waters of the river were said to be tinged with 
blood, owing, as was feigned, to his woimds 
bleeding afresh, but really to the ochrous earth 
which during the rainy season rolled down from 
the mountains. "Whatever may have been sym- 
bolised by this superstition, it seems to have 
been one of those idolatrous abominations 
which the Israelites adopted ; as Ezekiel in his 
vision, xiii. 13, 14., was made to see women, 
weeping for Tammuz, sitting at the door of the 



142 GEBER, PURVEYORSHIP OF. 



GEI^TILES, THE. 



Temple. The prophet Isaiah, x-s^ii. 1, 2., is 
likewise fancied by some commentators to allude 
to this feast of Adonis; the messengers whom 
he speaks of, being supposed to designate those 
which are stated to have been sent every year 
from Egypt to Byblos, with a letter to the 
people, enclosed in a box of rushes or papyrus, 
informing them that their god Adonis, whom 
they bewailed as dead, had been discovered. 

GEBER, THE PURVEYORSHIP OF, which 
included the whole country of Gilead, was one 
of the twelve divisions into which Solomon dis- 
tributed the country for the purpose of supply- 
ing himself and his household with victuals, 
each one a month in the year, 1 Kgs. iv. 19. 

GEBIM, a city or district whose inhabitants 
are foretold by Isaiah, x. 31., to be amongst those 
who shall flee away at the coming invasion of 
Assyria, in the days of Hezekiah. It was, pro- 
bably, in the land of Benjamin, and at no great 
distance from Jerusalem; but its situation is 
now unknown. 

GEDER, an ancient royal city of Canaan 
whose king was one of the thirty-one subdued by 
Joshua, xii. 13., when his country was given to the 
Israelites. It was probably in the lot of Simeon 
or Judah, and may have given name to Baal- 
hanan, the Gederite, whom David made the 
warden of the olive and sycamore trees that were 
in the low plains, 1 Chron. xxvii. 28. Geder 
may, also, be identified with one of the following- 
places. Some think it the same with Bethgader, 
1 Chron. ii. 51. 

GEDERAH, a town of the tribe of Judah, 
Josh. XV. 36., which probably gave name to Jo- 
sabad, the Gederathite, 1 Chron. xii. 4., one of 
the mighty men who came to David at Ziklag 
while he kept himself close because of Saul ; but 
this patronymic may have been derived from 
another city of the same name in the tribe of 
Benjamin, perhaps alluded to in Josh. xv. 36., 
under the name Gederothaim. 

GEDERATHITE, 1 Chron. xii. 4. See 
Gederah. 

GEDERITE, 1 Chron. ii. 51. See Geder. 

GEDEROTH, a city assigned by Joshua, xv. 
41., to the children of Judah, apparently in the 
S. part of their inheiitance, on the borders of 
the Edomites and Philistines. In the reign 
of Ahaz, king of Judah, it was attacked and 
taken by the latter people, who came and dwelt 
there, 2 Chron. xxviii. 18. See Geder. 

GEDEROTHAIM, Josh. xv. 36. See Ge- 
derah. 



GEDOR, a city in the mountains assigned by 
Joshua, XV. 58., to the tribe of Judah ; but, ap- 
parently, close on the boi Jcrs of Simeon, as 
some of the latter tribe went to the entrance of 
Gedor to seek pasture for their flocks in the days 
of Hezekiah, and drove thence certain inhabit- 
ants of Ham, who had dwelt there of old; 
either never having been expelled, or having 
taken advantage of the calamities of the Jews to 
invade their territory, 1 Chron. iv. 39. Two of the 
mighty men who came to David at Ziklag, 
when defending himself against the persecution 
of Saul, appear to have been of Gedor, 1 Chron. 
xii. 7. 

GELILOTH, a town or place in the lot of 
Benjamin, but close on the borders of Judah, 
J osh. xviii. 3 7. It appears to have been situated 
between Enshemesh and the Going up of Adum- 
mira. From a comparison of this passage with 
Josh. XV. 7., it is not unlikely that it was 
another (perhaps the more ancient) name of 
Gilgal. 

GENNESAR, THE WATER OF, 1 Mace, 
xi. 67., beside which Jonathan pitched his tent 
in his campaign against the princes of Deme- 
trius. It is the same with the Sea of Chinne- 
reth, now called the Lake of Taheria ; which see. 

GENNESARET, LAKE OF, Lu. V. 1. See 
Sea of Chl^nereth. 

GENNESARET, LAND OF, Matt. xiv. 34., 
Mk. vi. 53., a name applied to the whole 
country round the city of Chinnereth or Genne- 
sai'et, on the N.W. coast of the Sea of Galilee. 
See Chinnereth. 

GENTILES, THE, a name particularly ap- 
plied, as it would seem at an early period of the 
Jewish history, to the heathen tribes who dwelt 
in Galilee and the adjacent regions. They ap- 
pear to be the same which are called " Nations," 
in Gen. xiv. 1. 9., whose king Tidal joined 
Chedorlaomer and the two other kings in their 
attack upon the Five Cities of the Plain and the 
neighbouring countries, when Lot was captured, 
but recovered by Abraham. They are thought 
to be mentioned by Joshua, xii. 23., as " the 
Nations of Gilgal," in the enumeration of the 
thirty-one kings subdued by Israel, and in the 
book of Judges iv. 2. 13. 16., as " the Gentiles " 
round Harosheth, the dwelling-place of Sisera, 
with whom Deborah and Barak had the battle. 
They appear to be further alluded to by Isaiah, 
ix. 1., Matthew, xv. 21., and Mark, vii. 31., as 
the people who dwelt in " Galilee of the N-a 
tions." 



GENTILES, THE. 



143 



How this "mdely extended name became par- 
ticularly applied to the few apparently insig- 
nificant tribes in this direction does not seem 
to be known, except it should have arisen from 
the great mixture of races inhabiting that part 
of Canaan. 

GENTILES, THE (^Goiim in the Hebrew), a 
name of univ^ersal extent in Holy Writ applied 
to all the nations of the earth who were not of 
the seed of Abraham, or who were nn circum- 
cised, and had not received the law of Moses. 
In our translation they are likewise designated 
the Nations, the Heathen, the People, the Un- 
circumcised or the Uncircnmcision, and the 
Greeks. It may, perhaps, be convenient in this 
article to give a general view of the manner in 
which all these various names are employed in 
the Old and New Testaments] in regard to 
God's dealings with the Gentile world. Some 
only of the passages are selected, sufficient to 
show the distinction which has been kept up in 
the earth between them and the Jews ever 
since the call of Abraham, the relative enmity 
and obligations of each party, as well as of ''its 
judgment and the natural condition, together 
■with the glorious promises with their fulfilment, 
belonging ;to all nations, and kindreds, and 
tongues, and people not descended from that 
chosen family of Abraham, concerning '^whom it 
was foretold 3300 years ago, the " people shall 
dwell alone, and shall not be reckoned among 
the nations," Num. xxiii. 9. 

It may be observed, then, that these appel- 
lations are in a general way used to distinguish 
all who have not sprung from Abraham, and do 
not belong to Israel, Gen. x. 5. ; Lev. xxv. 44., 
xxvi. 45. ; Num. xxiii. 9. ; Deut. ii. 25., iv. 6., 
XV. 6., xxviii. 1. 12., xxxii. 43. ; 2 Sam. xxii. 
44. 50. ; 1 Chron. xvi. 24. 31. ; 2 Chron. xx. 6. ; 
Neh. V. 17., xi. 6. ; Ps. ix. 20., xviii. 43. 49., xxii. 
27, 28., xliv. 2., xlvi. 10., xlvii. 3. 8., Ivii. 9., 
Ixxviii. 55., Ixxix, 10.,lxxx, 8., xcvi. 10., xcviii. 
2., cv. 44., cviii. 3., cxi. 6. ; Isa. xiv. 18., xxxiii. 
3. ; Jer. i. 5. 10., iv. 2., xviii. 13., xlix. 14. ; Lam. 
i. 1.; Ezek. xvi. 14., xx. 9. 14. 22., xxv. 8., 
xxviii. 25., xxxvi. 20, 21, 22, 23. 36., xxxvii. 
28., xxxviii. 16. xxxix. 7. 21. ; Joel ii. 17. 19 ; 
Obad 1, 2.; Hab. i. 5., iii. 12.; Mai. i. 14.; 
Matt, xviii. 17., xx. 25. ; Mk. x. 42. ; Lu. xxii. 
25. ; Jo. vii. 35. ; Acts vii. 45. ; 1 Cor. i. 22. The 
appellation is likewise similarly employed in 
the apocr}-phal book, 2 Mace. vi. 9., xi, 2. 

The unconverted Gentiles are characterised as 
idolaters and as worshippers of false gods, Deut. 
xviii. 9. ; 2 Sam. vii. 23. ; 1 Kgs. xi. 2. ; 2 Kgs. 



xvi. 3., xvii. 8. 11. 15., xxi. 2. ; 2 Chron. xiii. 9., 
xxviii. 3., xxxiii. 2., xxxvi. 14. ; Ps. xcvi. 5., 
cvi. 35, 36., cxv. 4., cxxxv. 15. ; Jer. x. 7., xiv. 
22. ; Ezek. xx. 32. 41., xxiii. 30. ; Matt. vi. 7. ; 
Lu. xii. 30. ; 1 Cor. x. 20. 32., xii. 2. ; as great 
transgressors, Lev. xviii. 3. 24. 30., xx. 23. ; 
Ezra vi. 21. ; Jer. x. 2., xxv. 31., li. 7. ; Ezek. 
V. 6, 7., vii. 24., xi. 12. ; Matt. vi. 32. ; Acts xiv. 
16. ; Eom. i. 18—32., iii. 9. ; 1 Cor. v. 1. ; Gal. ii. 
15. ; Eph. ii. 1, 2., iv. 17, 18, 19. ; Col. i. 21. ; 1 
Thess. iv. 5. ; 1 Pet. iv. 3. ; Eev. xiii. 7., xiv. 8., 
xviii. 3., XX. 3. ; as without the law, possessing 
no part in the covenant, having no hope, and 
without God in the world, Isa. Hi. 1. ; Ezek. xiii. 
9., xliv. 7. 9. ; ]\Iatt. x. 5., xv. 27. ; Mk. vii. 28. ; 
Jo. X. 16. ; Acts X. 28., xi. 3., xxi. 28. ; Rom. ii. 

14. 16. 27., ix. 4. 8. ; 1 Cor. i. 23. ; Gal. iv. 8. ; 
Col. ii. 13. ; 1 Thess. iv. 5. 

The Jews were continually forewarned by God 
that, for their rebellious sins against Him, they 
should be scattered among the nations, their 
country pillaged, and their city trodden under 
foot by them, Lev. xxvi. 33. ; Deut. iv. 27., 
xxviii. 64., xxxii. 26. ; Neh. i. 8. ; Ps. cvi, 27. ; 
Isa. xviii. 2,, Ixvi. 19. ; Jer. iv. 16., ix. 16., xiii. 
24. ; Ezek. vi 8., xii. 15., xx. 23., xxii. 4. 15, 16. 
xxv. 7. ; Hos. ix. 17., xiii. 16. ; Amos ix. 9. ; Zech. 
xiv. 2. ; Matt. xxiv. 2. 15. ; Mk. xiii. 2. ; Lu. xix. 
43, 44., xxi. 24. ; Rev. xi. 2. ; which threatenings 
were from time to time fulfilled, many of the 
heathen nations carrying them captive, wasting 
their country, destroying their cities, and oppress- 
ing them in every way, 2 Kgs. x-\-ii. 6., xviii. 
11., xxv. 1—21. ; 1 Chron. v. 26., xvi. 35. ; 2 
Chron. xxxvi. 17—20. ; Neh. v. 8, 9., vi. 16. ; 
Ps. ix. 5. 15., xxxiii. 10., xliv. 11. 14., xlvi. 6., 
Ixxix. 1. 6, 7. 10., CYi. 41. 47., cxv. 2., cxxvi. 2. ; 
Isa. xvi. 8. ; Jer. x. 25. ; Lam. i. 3. 10., ii. 9., iv. 

15. 20.; Ezek. iv. 13., xi. 16., xii. 16., xxxiv. 
28, 29., xxx^a. 4. 6. 19. 24. 30., xxxvii. 21., 
xxxix. 28. ; Hos. viii. 8. ; Mic. iv. 11. ; Zech. i. 
21., "viii. 13. ; Jo. vii. 35. ; Acts xxi. 21. ; Jam. i. 
1. ; 1 Pet. i. 1. 

But for their manifold abominations and idola- 
tries, as well as on account of their hatred 
towards the Jews, and their cruel persecutions of 
them, God denounced severe visitations of wrath 
against the Gentiles, when His own time came, 
and His purposes towards His ancient people 
were fulfilled, Ps. x. 16., lix. 5. 8., xciv. 10., ex. 
6., cxlix. 7. ; Isa. xxxiv. 1, 2., Ixiv. 2. ; Jer. iv. 
7., xlvi. 1., xlix. 15.; Ezek. xxx. 3., xxxi. 11. 
17., xxxvi. 3. ; Joel iii. 2. 9. 11. ; Amos ix. 12. ; 
Obad. 15, 16. ; Mic. v. 15., ^-ii. 16. ; Zeph. iii. 8. ; 
Hagg. ii. 22. ; Zech. i. 15.21., xiv. 14. 18. ; Matt, 
s. 18. ; Lu. xxi. 24, 25, ; Eev, xxii. 11. 15. 



144 GENTILES, THE. 



GEON. 



Notwithstanding this, the calling of the Gentiles 
into the church is largely and distinctly foretold, 
the most gracious promises of grace and glory are 
granted to them through the Messiah, and they 
were to be made sharers with His own peculiar 
people in the blessings of the gospel, Gen. xlix. 

10. ; Ps. ii. 8., Ixvii. 2., Ixxii. 11. 17., Ixxxii. 8., 
Ixxxvii. 4., Ixxxvi. 9., cii. 15., cxvii. 1. ; Isa. ii. 
4., V. 26., xi. 10. 12., xlii. 1. 6., xlix. 6., lii. 15., 
Iv. 5., Ix. 3. 5. 11. ; Jer. xvi. 19. ; Mic. iv. 2, 3. ; 
Zeph. ii. 11. ; Hagg. ii. 7. ; Zech. ii. 11., ix. 10. ; 
Mai. i. 11. ; Matt. xii. 18. 21. ; Mk. xi. 17. ; Lu. 

11. 82. ; Acts xiii. 47., xv. 17. 19. 23., xxvi. 23. ; 
Eom. xi. 12. 15., xv. 9, 10, 11, 12. ; Gal. iii. 8. 

Though at the first promulgation of the gos- 
pel the Gentiles were the crucifiers of the 
Blessed Saviour, and the bitter persecutors of 
His religion, Ps. ii. 1, 2., cxviii. 10. ; Matt. xx. 
19., xxiv. 9. ; Mk. x. 33., xiii. 9. ; Lu. xviii. 
32., xxi. 12. ; Jo. xvi. 2. ; Acts iv. 1. 27., xiv. 5., 
xxi. 11., xxvi. 17. ; 2 Cor. xi. 26. ; 1 Pet. ii. 12. ; 
Eev. xi. 9. 18. ; yet these great and glorious 
promises were all, in their measure, most gra- 
ciously and wonderfully fulfilled in due season ; 
many of the Apostles and early Evangelists 
having preached successfully among the nations. 
Matt. iv. 12 — 15., viii. 5., xxviii. 19. ; Mk. vii. 
26., xvi. 15. ; Lu. xxiv. 47. ; Jo. xii. 20. ; Acts i. 
8., X. 45., xi. 1. 18., xiii. 42. 48., xv. 3. 7. 14., 
xiv. 1., xvi. 1. 3., xvii. 4. 12., xviii. 4. 17., xix. 
10. 17., xxi. 25., xxviii. 28. ; Rom. i. 5. 16., ix. 
24. 30., X. 12., xi. 11, 12., xv. 27., xvi. 4. 26. ; 1 
Cor. i. 24., xii. 13. ; Gal. ii. 3. 12. 14., iii. 8. 14. ; 
Col. i. 27. ; 1 Tim. iii. 16. ; 3 Jo. 7. ; but more 
especially Paul, the great Apostle of the Gentiles, 
Acts ix. 15., xiii. 46., xiv. 27., xv. 12., xviii. 6., 
XX. 21., xxi. 19.,xxii. 21., xxvi. 17. 20. ; Rom. i. 
13, 14., xi. 13., XV. 16. 18. ; Gal. i. 16., ii. 2. 7, 8, 
9. ; Eph. iii. 1. 6. 8. ; 1 Thess. ii. 16. ; 1 Tim. ii. 
7. ; 2 Tim. i. 11., iv. 17. ; so that long since the 
prediction has been made good, that the Gen- 
tile Church should outnumber that of the Jewish, 
Isa. xlix. 6., liv. 1. ; Gal. iv. 27. ; and thus the 
children of the desolate become more than the 
children of the married wife. 

In this way, or in some other yet to be deve- 
loped in the coming accomplishment of God's 
purposes towards His ancient people, Israel is to 
inherit the Gentiles, Isa. liv. 3., Iv. 5., Ix. 12. 16., 
Ixi. 6. 9., Ixii. 2., Ixvi. 12. 19. ; Mic. v. 8. ; Zech. 
viii. 23., ix. 13. ; Mai. iii. 12; to be greatly in- 
strumental in communicating to them wondrous 
blessings; and, eventually, to be conveyed by 
the Gentiles to their own land, Ps. Ixviii. 30. ; 
Isa. ii. 2., xi. 9—16., xlix. 22, 23., Ix. 9, 10., Ixv. 
17—25., Ixvi. 19, 20. ; Mic. v. 7. ; Hab. ii. 14. 



20. ; Zech. vi. 15. ; xiv. 14. ; Rom. xi. 12. 15. ; 
Gal. iv. 26. ; Rev. xxi. 24. The whole Gentile 
world is to be righteously judged by God, what- 
ever may have been their privileges, when all 
those of them who are justified of Him, shall be 
admitted to eternal glory, Ps. ix. 10. 17. 19., 
Ixvi. 7., Ixvii. 4. ; Jer. ix. 25. ; Ezek. xxviii. 

10. ; Matt. xxiv. 14., xxv. 32. ; Rom. i. 16—20., 

11. 9, 10. 12—15., iii. 29, 30., iv. 9., xi. 12. 15. 
17—21. 25. ; 1 Cor. vii. 19. ; Gal. iii. 28. ; Col. 
iii. 11. ; Rev. ii. 26., v. 9., vii. 9., xxi. 24. 26., 
xxii. 2. 

GENTILES, ISLES OF THE, an appellation 
used in a general way to designate, as it would 
appear, Asia Minor, the islands of the Mediterra- 
nean Sea, and indeed all Europe. They were 
peopled by the descendants of Japheth, Gen. x. 5. 
They are probably the same with the Isles of 
THK Heathen, whose inhabitants the prophet 
Zephaniah, ii. 11, foretells should be worshippers 
of the true God. They appear to be also called 
simply THE Isles, or the Isles of the Sea, 
or THE Isles beyond the Sea, They were in- 
vaded and partly conquered by one of the 
mighty kings mentioned in Dan. xi. 18., and are 
described in the book of Esther, x. 1., as having 
been taxed by Ahasuerus. Many of the Jews 
were scattered amongst them, Isa. xi. 11., xxiv. 
15. ; whom, in due season, the inhabitants are to 
bring back to their own land, Isa. Ix. 9., Ixvi. 
19, 20. Very gracious promises are made to 
them in regard to the gospel-kingdom, Ps. Ixxii. 
10., xcvii. 1. ; Isa. xii. 1. 5., xlii. 4. 10. 12., xlix. 
1., li. 5. ; Jer. xxxi. 10 ; though they are to be 
recompensed for their deeds, Isa. lix. 18. ; Jer, 
xxv. 22. ; Ezek. xxxix. 6 ; and made to tremble 
at God's vengeance on others, Ezek. xxvi. 15. 
18., xxvii. 35. Some of them are named the 
Isles of Elishah, xxvii. 7., whence Tyre drew 
its rich supplies of purple and scarlet ; others are 
called THE Islands of Chittim, whose inhabit- 
ants Ezekiel, xxvii. 6., represents as supplying 
Tyi'e with benches of ivory, and Jeremiah, ii. 
10., describes as more consistent in their religion 
than the Jews, The apocryphal author of the 
first book of Maccabees frequently mentions 
them, and speaks of Joppa being a haven of 
entrance to the Isles of the Sea, vi. 29., xi. 38., 
xiv. 5., XV. 1. 

GEON, Ecclus. xxiv. 27., to" whose waters in 
time of vintage, probably on account of their 
clearness, knowledge is compared. It may refer 
to the R. Gihon, one of the four rivers proceeding 
from Eden ; or else to the Fountain of Gihon, 
close to Jerusalem. /See GraoN. 



GERAR. 



GERIZIM, MT. 



14.5 



GERAR, an ancient royal city of the Philis- 
tines, near Gaza, on the S. frontiers of the 
Canaanites, Gen. x. 19., in a valley of the same 
name, xxvi. 17. 19., through which into the 
Mediterranean Sea probably ran the stream 
known afterwards as the Brook Besor, 1 Sam. 
XXX. 9, 10. 21. It seems to have been situated 
in the country between Kadesh and Shur. After 
the destruction of the Cities of the Plain, it was 
visited by Abraham, Gen. xx. 1, 2., who, from 
fear, was here tempted to deny his wife. Here 
likewise sojourned Isaac, when he was driven 
by the famine from Canaan, and denied his wife 
in like manner, Gen. xxvi. 1. 6. ; after which he 
was sent away by the king, and dwelt for some 
time in the Valley of Gerar, where he digged 
the wells about which the herdsmen of Gerar 
strove with him, xxvi. 17. 20. 26. It was in- 
vaded and sacked, together with the neighbour- 
ing cities, by Asa, king of Judah, when he 
chased hither Zerah the Ethiopian, who had 
come against him with a huge host of a million 
of men, 2 Chron. xiv. 13, 14. 

GERGESENES, COUNTRY OP THE, 
whither our Lord came after stilling the tempest 
on the Sea of Galilee, and where He healed the 
two demoniacs, Matt. viii. 28. It was a rocky 
mountainous region, lying some miles to the 
S.E. of the lake, in the province of Pei-asa, or 
beyond Jordan, on the borders of the Ammon- 
ites and Arabians, where were formerly the 
dominions of Sihon, king of the Amorites. It 
derived its name from Gerasa or Gergesa, one of 
the cities of the Decapolis, which appears to 
have stood near the ancient city Jabesh-Gilead, 
not far from the source of the R. Jabbok, and 
to have been once a noble and beautiful place, 
though now only a heap of ruins called Jerash. 
The name both of the city and district is 
thought by some to have been derived from that 
of the Girgashites, one of the old Canaanite 
tribes, descended from Canaan, the son of Ham, 
who originally settled in the Promised Land ; 
but as these appear to have been conquered by 
Joshua after the passage of the Jordan, Josh, 
xxiv. 11., it is perhaps more likely that they 
dwelt between Jerusalem and Galilee, on this 
side Jordan. They are called Girgasites in Gen. 
X. 16. ; and Gergesites in the apocryphal book 
of Judith, v. 16. The district of this city ad- 
joined that of the city Gadara, the lands of each 
being often included within the limits of the 
other ; hence, this region is spoken of by Mark, 
v. 1., and Luke, viii. 26. 37., as the country of the 
Gadarenes. See Gadaeenes. 



GERGESITES, Judith v. 16., another form of 
the name Girgashites ; which see. 

GERIZIM, MT., an eminence in the great 
chain of Mt. Ephraim, and within the limits of 
the tribe of Ephraim, but close adjoining the 
borders of Manasseh. It lay to the S. of Mt. 
Ebal, from which it is separated by a long 
narroAv valley (part of the neighbouring Plain of 
Moreh) , only 200 paces wide. Between them 
once lay the old Canaanite city of Shechem or 
Sychar, Judg. ix. 6, 7., now in mins at a place 
called Nahlous. Both hills are of considerable 
elevation. Mt. Gerizim is 2470 feet in height, 
and is more fertile and more pleasant to look 
upon than the other. It was upon these two 
mountains that, not long before his death, Moses 
commanded the Israelites to put the blessing 
and the curse, the former upon Mt. Gerizim, the 
latter upon Mt. Ebal, Deut. xi. 29. On Gerizim 
were to stand the tribes Simeon, Levi, Judah, 
Issachar, Joseph, and Benjamin, Deut. xxvii. 
12. Joshua and the whole nation of the Jews 
carried out this command, apparently within the 
first year after they crossed the Jordan; the 
vast host of the nation with their standards, as 
well as the strangers, being drawn up in order 
on each side, the ark of the covenant, with the 
priests and Levites, being in the midst. Josh, 
viii. 33. It was upon this mountain that, in the 
days of the judges, Jotham, the youngest son of 
Gideon, stood and uttered his parable to the men 
of Shechem, foretelling their ruin and that of 
Abimelech, another son of Gideon, whom they 
had made king after the murder of his seventy 
brethren at Ophrah, Judg. ix. 7. 

After the return from the Babylonian cap- 
tivity, when Zerubbabel had refused the assist- 
ance of the idolatrous Samaritans in their offer 
to join him in rebuilding the Temple of Jeru- 
salem, B. c. 678, 2 Kgs. xvii. 24 — 34., Ezra iv. 
1 — 4., and the latter had been eventually foiled 
in their endeavours to stop it; their leader ' 
Sanballat, with the permission of Darius Xotlius, 
is thought to have first begim to build the 
Samaritan temple on this mountain, about the 
middle of the fifth century before the Christian 
era; bnt it was enlarged or beautified more 
than 100 years afterwards, with the consent of 
Alexander the Great. Steps were cut in the 
hill because of its steepness, for the people to go 
np. Their first high priest is said to have been 
one Manasseh, and reputed to have been the son 
of that Joiada (and grandson of Eliashib, the 
high priest) whom, because he had married a 
daughter of Sanballat, Nehemiah chased from 
L 



146 



GEREHENIANS. 



him, ISTeh. xiii. 28. The Samaritans pretended 
that it -was here Abraham offered up Isaac, and 
Jacob erected his altar ; and, as it would appear, 
corrupting the original text of Deut. xxvii. 4., 
wherein Moses commanded an altar to be 
reared upon Mt. Ebal, they charged the Jews 
with having altered the name to Gerizim, 
though the interpolation is only to be fovmd in 
their own Pentateuch. They also pleaded that 
Moses had ordered the blessings to be uttered on 
Gerizim ; and that here, even in their days, the 
stones of Joshua's altar were to be seen. For 
all these reasons they maintained that God was 
to be worshipped on Bit. Gerizim, in preference 
to Jerusalem; but their conduct greatly ex- 
asperated the Jews, who always held both their 
persons and practices in the greatest abhorrence. 
When Antiochus Epiphanes began to persecute 
the Jews, he set governors both at Jerusalem 
and Gerizim to vex them and the Samaritans ; 
and afterwards, b.c. 168, poUuted both the 
temples, calling that at Jerusalem the temple of 
Jupiter Olympius, and that on Gerizim the 
temple of Jupiter the Defender of Strangers, as 
the Samaritans indeed desired, 2 Mace. v. 23., 
vi. 2. ; possibly to signify that they were only 
strangers in the land, and not Jews. The 
temple on Gerizim was destroyed by John 
Hyrcanus ; but it is said to have been rebuilt by 
the Samaritans, when Gabinius was governor of 
Syria. Herod the Great, after he had beautified 
Samaria, calling it Sebaste in honour of the 
Emperor Augustus, tried to persuade the Sama- 
ritans to go and worship at Jerusalem ; but this 
they constantly refused to do, and the temple is 
conjectured to have existed in the time of our 
Lord, Jo. iv. 20, 21, 22., though the Jews still 
abominated, and would have no dealings with, 
the Samaritans, Matt. x. 5.; Lu. ix. 52, 53.; 
Jo. iv. 9., viii. 48. 

GERRHENIAXS, the name of a people on 
the frontiers of Egypt and Palestine, mentioned 
2 Mace. xiii. 24., as the S. limit of the country 
over which Judas Maccabaeus was first appointed 
chief governor (Ptolemais, now called Acre, j 
being its K limit), about B.C. 163. They are 
thought to have obtained their name from 
Gerron or Gerra, a small Egyptian town, near 
Pelusium, towards the most E. mouth of the R. 
Nile, the relics of which are now known as Anb 
Diab. They may perhaps be connected with the 
Geshurites or Gezrites, mentioned 1 Sam. xxvii. 8. 

GERSHONITES, THE, so named after Ger- 
shon (i.e. a stranger here), Gen. xlvi. 11. ; Ex. vi. 
16. ; Num. iii. 17.. xxvi. 57. ; 1 Chron. vi. 1. ; or 
Gershora, 1 Chron. vi. 16, 17. 62. 71., the eldest 



GERSHOOTTES, THE. 

son of Levi. They are likewise called the sns 
or children of Gershon or Gershom. They 
were one of those three great divisions of the 
Levites who were given to the priests for 
the service of the Tabernacle in place of the 
first-born. Num. iii. 9. 12. 45—51. When the 
Gershonites were numbered by Moses, soon after 
the Exodus, they amounted to 7500 males, from 
a month old and upwards. Num. iii. 17. 21, 22. ; 
but the number of men appointed to do the 
work of the Tabernacle of the congregation was 
only 2630, Nu.m. iv. 38. 41. They appear to have 
somewhat increased when they were again num- 
bered thirty-eight years afterwards in the Plains 
of Moab, Num. xxvi. 57. 62., though in the latter 
case only the sum of all the Levites together is 
given ; and still further to have increased in the 
reign of David, 1 Chron. xxiii. 3. 6, 7. They were 
to enter fully upon their office when thirty years 
old, and to continue in it until fifty, though it 
would appear that some of their duties, either in 
their service of ministry or of burdens, commenced 
when they were twenty-five years, and in the 
days of David, when they were twenty years 
old. Num. iv. 3. 23. 30. 47., viii. 24, 25.; 1 
Chron. xxiii. 3. 24. 27. Their charge was not 
only to perform then' service, and to do the work 
in the Tabernacle of the congregation, but also, 
after they had taken the Tabernacle down, to 
bear its veil, coverings, hangings, cords, and all 
that appertained to these, as well as their own 
instruments of ser^dce, during all the joumey- 
ings of Israel, Num. iii. 17, 18. 21. 23, 24, 25., iv. 
22. 24. 27, 28, 38. ; and also to erect it again in 
the appointed place. Num. i. 51., x. 17. 21. ; 
having two wagons and four oxen allowed 
them for some of their burdens, vii. 7. When 
marching, they followed the standard of the 
camp of Judah — (which included the tribes 
of Judah, Issachar, and Zebulun), just in ad- 
vance of the Merarites with the remain- 
der of the Tabernacle; these being followed 
by the standard of the camp of Reuben (in- 
cluding the tribes of Reuben, Simeon, and 
Gad), Num. x. 17. When encamped, they 
pitched behind the Tabernacle W., iii. 23. 
After the division of Canaan amongst the Is- 
raelites by Joshua, the Gershonites had thir- 
teen cities, with their suburbs, appointed them 
for their inheritance, viz. out of the tribe of 



Makasseh in Gilead. 
Golan in Bashan 
(a City of Refuge.) 
Beeshterah, 
or Ashtaroth. 



Issachar. 
Kishon, 

or Kedesh. 
Dabareh. 



GESEM, LAND OF. 



GEZER. 



147 



Jarmutli, 
or Ramoth. 

AsHER. 

Mislial. 
Abdon. 
Helkath, 

or Hukok. 
Rehob. 



IsSACHAR. 

Engannim, 
or Anem. 



Naphtali. 
Kcdesh in Galilee 
(a City of Refuge). 
Hammoth-dor, 
or Hammon. 
Kartan 
or Kirjathaim. 



Josh. xxi. 6. 27. 33. ; 1 Chron. vi. 62. 71. They 
are mentioned 2 Chron. xxix. 12., as having' 
joined with the rest of their brethren in assisting 
Kiug Hezekiah to cleanse the house of God, 
and restore His appointed worship. See Le- 

VITES. 

GESEM, LAND OF, whence Nabuchodonosor 
smnmoned the people to come to his assistance 
against Arphaxad, Judith i. 9. It is probably 
the same which in Holy Writ is called the Land 
of Goshen, a country of Lower Egypt, between 
the Nile and the Desert of Shur, where Joseph 
placed his father and brethren when they came 
down to live in that country. Gen. xlvi. 34. ; 
for this Goshen is commonly written Gesem in 
the Septuagint. 

GESHUR, otherwise Geshuri, a district of 
Syria, 2 Sam. xv. 8., but within the limits of the 
Hebrew territory, situated beyond Jordan, to the 
N. of Bashan, between Mt. Hermon and the Sea 
of Chinnereth, Josh. xii. 5. It seems to have 
been independent of the kingdom of Og, but 
having been conquered together with it by JMoses, 
it was allotted to the half-tribe of Manasseh, 
Deut. iii. 13, 14. ; Josh. xii. 5., xiii. 11. ; though 
they do not appear to have taken possession of 
the whole country at the death of Joshua, or even 
after that to have completely expelled the in- 
habitants. Josh. xiii. 13. ; 1 Chron. ii. 23., iii. 2. 
In the reign of David there was still a king of 
Geshur named Talmai, though no doubt subject 
and tributary to Israel ; his daughter Maachah 
was one of David's wives, 2 Sam.'iii. 3. ; 1 Chron. 
iii. 2., and the mother of Absalom, with whom 
this prince took refuge for three years after 
the murder of his brother Amnon, 2 Sam. xiii. 

until fetched home by Joab, with David's 
consent, xiv. 23. 32., xv. 8. The inhabitants 
are called Geshmites. 

GESHURI, Deut. iii. 14., the same with Ge- 
shur mentioned above. 

GESHURI, the name also of another district 
in the S. of Palestine, on the borders of the 



Philistines and Araaleldtes, which remained to be 
subdued by the Israelites at Joshua's death. Josh, 
xiii. 2. It was against these Geshurites, as well 
as against the Gezrites and Amalekites, that 
David made a campaign whilst staying in Gath 
to avoid the persecution of Saul, 1 Sam. xxvii. 
8. See Gerriie>jians. 

GESHURITES, a name of two apparently 
distinct tribes ; one to the N. of Bashan in Syria ; 
the other adjacent to Philistiain Shur and Edom. 
See Geshur and Geshuri. 

GETHER, a son of Aram, and grandson of 
Shem, Gen. x. 23. ; 1 Chron. i. 17. ; whose descend- 
ants are thought to have settled originally on the 
borders of Armenia, Mesopotamia, and Assyria. 
According to Josephus, they were the progenitors 
of the Bactrians. Ptolemy mentions a city on 
the R. Tigris, called Carthara, which is conjec- 
tured to carry traces of the old name. 

GETHSEMANE (the Oil-press), a district or 
village to the E. of Jerusalem and of the Brook 
Kidron, at the foot of the Mt. of Olives. Here 
was that memorable garden whither the ador- 
able Saviom' often resorted with His disciples ; 
and where, after His last passover. He endm-ed 
His unknown agonies, and was betrayed by 
Judas to die upon the cross for us sinful men, 
]\Iatt. xxvi. 36. ; Mk. xiv. 32. ; Lu. xxii. 33. ; Jo. 
xviii. 1, 2. It is called " The Garden," Jo. xviii. 
26., in like manner that Eden is. Gen. ii. 9. ; for 
as man fell and lost the image of his Maker in 
the one, so in the other that all-important trans- 
action by which the door of communion with God 
was to be again opened to us, was begun. It 
was in a garden sin first entered into the world, 
the curse was pronounced, and man was driven 
forth from the more immediate presence of God ; 
and in a garden the atonement began to be made, 
the curse to be borne, everlasting life to be re- 
covered, and death to be vanquished. Cf. Jo. xx. 
15.; Rev. ii. 7. Though of all gardens in the 
world the most interesting and hallowed, Geth- 
semane is now in a forlorn and neglected state : 
its name still remains in that of Dschesmaniye. 

GEZER or Gazer, an ancient royal city of 
the Canaanites, the king of which went up to 
assist Lachish when attacked by Joshua and 
the Israelites on their entrance into the Promised 
Land, but was smitten by Joshua and his city 
captured. Josh. x. 33., xii. 12. On the first 
division of the country it was allotted to the 
tribe of Ephraim, though they did not drive the 
Canaanites out of it, Josh. xvi. 3. 10. ; Judg. i. 
29. ; 1 Chron. vii. 24. ; but it and its suburbs 
L 2 



148 



GEZKITES. 



GIANTS, THE. 



■were afterwards assigned for a possession to the 
Levites of the family of Kohath, Josh. xxi. 21.; 
1 Chron. vi. 67. It appears to have been situated 
in the S.W. corner of the lot of Ephraim, 
towards the Great Sea, Josh. xvi. 3., probably- 
near or upon the banks of the Brook of Gaash, 
or R. Awgy as it is now called, which enters the 
sea at Joppa, and adjacent to the borders of Dan 
and Benjamin. It was likewise close upon the 
Philistine frontier ; and was evidently, from the 
many conflicts Avhich took place near it a position 
of considerable importance. David seems to 
have warmly contested it with the Philistines. 
Soon after his coronation at Hebron he chased 
them to its gates with great slaughter, 2 Sam.^v. 
25. ; 1 Chron. xiv. 16.; when he appears to have 
kept them completely in check ; but many years 
afterwards, they rebelled against him, when their 
giant Saph was slain by Sibbechai the Hu- 
shathite, one of David's mighty men, 2 Sam. 
xxi. 18. j 1 Chron. xx. 4. The last- mentioned 
battle is said in 2 Sam. xxi. 18., to have taken 
place in Gob ; whence it is inferred, either that 
Gezer was itself so named, or else that it was in 
a district or near a town called Gob. In the 
beginning of Solomon's reign the Canaanites of 
Gezer seem to have provoked Pharaoh, king of 
Egypt, to attack them; for he went up and 
slew them, burnt their city, and gave it for a 
present to his daughter, Solomon's wife, where- 
upon Solomon rebuilt it, 1 Kgs. ix. 15, 16, 17. 
It may be, however, that this Gezer was another 
place further S. on the Egyptian frontier, whither 
David made an incursion when staying at the 
court of Achish, king of Gath, 1 Sam, xxvii. 8. 
Gezer appears to be the same with Gazara, a 
strong fortified town in this neighbourhood fre- 
quently mentioned in the Apocrypha. Thei'e is 
said to be still a place called Gazou hereabouts. 
See Gazer and Gazara. 

GEZRITES, a people or tribe in the S. of 
Judah, near the Geshurites and Amalekites, on 
the frontiers of Shur and Egypt. David, while 
staying "with Achish, king of Gath, to avoid the 
fury of Saul, made an incursion on their country 
and laid it waste, 1 Sam. xxvii. 8. They dwelt 
probably in the neighbourhood of the R. of 
Egypt, towards Pelusium and the E. branch of 
the Nile, and may perhaps have obtained their 
name from that city of Gezer, which Pharaoh, 
king of Egypt, attacked and burnt, destroying 
the inhabitants, and giving it for a present to his 
daughter, Solomon's wife, 1 Kgs. ix, 16, See 
Gerrhenians. 

GIAH, a place within the limits of the tribe 



of Benjamin, under the hill of Ammah, and 
near the Wilderness of Gibeon, whither Joab 
and Abishai pursued Abner, after the mortal 
skirmish between their men, and the slaughter 
of Asahel, 2 Sam. ii. 24, 

GIANTS, THE (in Hebrew Rephaim, or Sons 
of Kapha), a race of the Amorites, Amos ii. 9., or 
Canaanites, constantly described in Holy Writ 
as great and tall ; so much so, indeed, that the 
spies sent by Moses to search the land spoke 
of themselves as grasshoppers in comparison 
with them. Num. xiii. 33. The iron bedstead of 
Og is described as nine cubits, or fourteen feet 
long, Deut. iii. 11. Goliath's height was six 
cubits and a span, or about ten feet, 1 Sam, xvii. 
4. ; and the prophet Amos, ii. 9., likens their 
height to that of the cedars, and their strength 
to that of oaks. There seem to have been of old 
two large divisions of them, each of which, though 
eventually rooted out, left their name in the 
country where they dwelt : whether the Horims 
and Avims mentioned in Deut. iL 22, 23., are to 
be numbered amongst the giants, is uncertain, 

I. One large body of them dwelt before 
the time of Moses, and in the days of Joshua^ 
round Hebron, in Philistia, and in the hill 
country of Judah, up to the city of Jerusalem. 
Their metropolis was Hebron, a city more 
ancient than Zoan in Egj^Dt, Num. xiii. 22., and 
called formerly Mamre and Earjath-Arba, after 
Mamre, and after Arba the father of Anak, Gen. 
XXXV. 27. ; Josh. xiv. 15., xv. 13. Whether the 
three famous Amorites, Mamre, Eshcol, and 
Aner, who were confederate with Abraham 
when he dwelt in Hebron, belonged to this 
giant race is not stated, though it is most pro- 
bable they did. Gen. xiii. 18., xiv, 13. 24. These 
were called Anakim or children of Anak, and 
appear to have been first seen by the spies when 
searching out the land. Num. xiii. 22. 28. 33. 
Their description so alarmed the people that they 
were afraid to go up against them; and even 
afterwards, they were wont not only to bear 
them in mind, but to compare all the great and 
tall men amongst the Canaanites to these Ana- 
kim, Deut. i. 28., ii. 10, 11. 20., ix. 2. ; Josh, 
xiv. 8. 12. They were attacked by Joshua 
in the first year after the Israelites had crossed 
the Jordan; when he destroyed them utterly 
with their cities, and left none of them re- 
maining save only in Gaza, in Gath, and 
in Ashdod ; Caleb having especially distinguished 
himself in falling upon their old capital, and 
destroying the three great branches of the Ana- 
kims, Sheshai, Ahiman, and Talmai, Josh, xi. 



GIANTS, THE. 



GIBEAH. 



149 



21, 22., XV. 13, 14. Some of them out of Gath 
came forward against the armies of Saul antl^ 
David, as Goliath, Ishbi-benob, Saph, Lahmi,' 
and others ; but these were all slain by David 
and his mighty men ; and as we read nothing 
of those who were left in the other cities, it 
is probable that the race became soon afterwards 
extinct, 1 Sam. xvii, 4. ; 2 Sam. xxi. 16. 18, 19, 
20, 22. ; 1 Chron. xx. 4, 5, 6. 8. ; Amos ii. 9. 
But they left their generic name to an extensive 
valley, lying between Jerusalem and Bethlehem 
to the S. of the Valley of Hinnom, from which 
it is parted by a craggy ridge of hills, the 
common border of the two tribes Judah and 
Benjamin, Josh. xv. 8., xviii. 16. It was called 
THE Valley of the Giants, or the Valley 
OF Rephaim, and was a favourite place for the 
Philistines to encamp on, as well as the scene of 
some of their signal and miraculous defeats 
when fighting against Saul and David, 2 Sam. 
V. 18. 22., xxiii, 13.; 1 Chron. xi. 15., xiv. 
9. 13. It appears also to have been celebrated 
for its plentiful hai-vests, whence the prophet 
Isaiah, xvii. 5^ borrows an image to describe the 
coming desolation of the Jews by their ene- 
mies. 

II. Another large division of the Giants, or 
Rephaim, seems to have occupied the entire 
country E. of the Jordan. These appear to 
have been composed of the Emims, who inha- 
bited the regions afterwards possessed by Moab, 
Gen. xiv. 5.; Deut. ii. 10, 11.; the Zuzims and 
Zamzummims, who once dwelt in Ham, but 
were dispossessed by the Ammonites, Gen. xiv. 5, ; 
Deut. ii. 20. ; and the Rephaims (properly 
so called), who appear to have preserved the ori- 
ginal generic name, and to have been can- 
toned in Bashan, Ai-gob, and part of Gilead, 
Gen. xiv. 5., xv. 20. ; Deut. iii. 11. 13. ; Josh, 
xii. 4., xiii, 12., xvii. 15. These several tribes of 
the Rephaim were conquered by Chedorlaomer, 
Idng of Elam, in the days of Abraham; and 
seem to have gradually decreased, both in num- 
bers and power before the other Amorites, as well 
as before the Moabites and Ammonites, until 
they were nearly extinct in the time of Moses 
and Joshua; Og, the king of Bashan, being the 
only one at last remaining. His dwelling was at 
Astaroth and Edrei, and his bedstead of iron 
was long preserved in Rabbath of the Ammonites 
Deut. i. 4., iii. 11. ; Josh. xiii. 12. These last 
Rephaim, however, left their name to the region 
from ofi" which they had perished, which was 
thenceforth termed the Land of the Giants, 
or THE Land of Rephaim, Deut. iii. 13. ; Josh, 
xvii. 15. 



GIANTS, VALLEY OF THE, or The 
Valley of Rephaim. See Giants. 

GIBBAR, THE CHILDREN OF, who re- 
turned home with Zerubbabel after the captivitj' 
in Babylon, Ezra ii. 20. In Neh. vii. 25., they 
are called the children of Gibeon, and so, were 
inhabitants of this city of the tribe of Ben- 
jamin. 

GIBBETHON, a city in the country of the 
Philistines, which on the division of the land by 
Joshua fell to the lot of the tribe of Dan, though 
it was afterwards assigned for a possession to the 
Levites, of the family of Kohath, Josh. xix. 44., 
xxi. 23. It was at Gibbethon that Baasha, the 
third king of Israel, murdered his predecessor, 
Nadab, the son of Jeroboam, 1 Kgs. xv. 27. ; and 
it was also before this city (which the Pliilistines 
had, then, probably recovered), that Omri with 
the army of Israel lay encamped, when they 
raised the siege, to take vengeance on Zimri, who 
had murdered his master, Elah, king of Israel, 1 
Kgs. xvi. 15. 17. 

GIBEAH, a celebrated city belonging to the 
tribe of Benjamin, called Gibeath by Joshua, 
xviii. 28., and placed by Josephus (who writes 
it Gabath of Saul) 20 or 30 furlongs N. of Jeru- 
salem. It was hei-e that in the time of the 
judges, the Levite of Bethlehem-Judah was 
lodging with his countrj^mau, when the men 
of the city committed that outrage which ended 
in the burning of their city, and the almost 
extinction of the Benjamites, Judg. xix. 12, 13, 
14, 15, 16., XX. 4, 5. 9, 10. 13, 14, 15. 19, 20, 21. 
25. 29, 30, 31. 33, 34. 36, 37. 43., a transaction 
which is brought to remembrance against 
Israel by the prophet Hosea, ix. 9., x. 9., when 
denouncing God's vengeance against them for 
their sins. It is also called Gibeah in the Field, 
Judg. XX. 31.; Gibeah of Benjamin, Judg, xx. 
10.; 1 Sam. xiii. 2. 15, 16,, xiv. 16,; 2 Sara, 
xxiii, 29,; 1 Chron, xi, 31,; and Gibeah of 
Saul, 1 Sam. xi. 4., xv. 34. ; 2 Sam. xxi. 6. ; 
Isa. X. 29. It obtained the last appellation 
from this monarch having been born there, and 
from both himself and his sons having made it 
their usual dwelling-place, 1 Sam. x. 26., xi. 4., 
xiii. 2,, xiv. 2., xv. 34., xxii. 6., xxiii. 19., 
xx^d. 1. It and its environs became the scene 
of many of the struggles between him and the 
Philistines, who were for a long time strongly 
posted at Geba and Michmash, ready to take 
the first opportunity of seizing on Zion, and 
hence it was frequently %-isited by the prophet 
Samuel, 1 Sam. xiii. 15, 16., xiv. 5, 16, Some 
of Saul's brethren, mighty men, well armed, 
L 3 



150 



GIBEAH. 



GIBEON, 



and able to sling and dart -with both hands, 
went from Gibeah to David, when he was 
keeping himself close at Ziklag because of Saul, 
1 Chron. xii. 3. Here, also, seven of the sons of 
Saul were hanged by David, on the occasion of 
the three years' famine, at the demand of the 
Gibeonites, 2 Sam. xxi. 6., some of whom he 
had cruelly murdered with the priests at Nob, 

1 Sam. xxii. 19. (where they served as hewers 
of wood and drawers of water, according to 
Joshua's covenant with them), and had pur- 
posed to destroy the rest out of zeal to his 
countiymen, 2 Sam. xxi. 2, Gibeah gave birth 
to Ittai, one of David's mighty men, 2 Sam. 
xxiii. 29. ; 1 Chron. xi. 31. ; and to the mother 
of Abijah, king of Judah, the son of Eehoboam, 

2 Chron. xiii, 2. It was so near to Jerusalem 
that Hosea, v. 8., when threatening the Jews 
with the vengeance of God on account of their 
sins, speaks of blowing an alarm there; and 
Isaiah, x. 29., to show how close to the metro- 
polis the Assyrian army would come, describes 
Gibeah of Saul as having fled from them, 
Gibeah appears to have given name to a district 
round it, which extended to Migron and Ramah, 
1 Sam. xiv. 2., xxii. 6. See Gaba and Geba. 

GIBEAH, a town within the limits of the 
tribe of Judah, in the hill country. Josh. xv. 57., 
not otherwise known. 

GIBEAH, or The Hill, 2 Sam. vi. 8., where 
was the house of Abinadab, whither the ark 
of God was taken from Bethshemesh, and 
whence David fetched it on the new cart, when 
Uzzah was smitten. It was in or near Kirjath- 
jearim, 1 Sam. vii. 1, 2. j 2 Sam. vi. 2. ; 1 Chron. 
xiii. 5, 6, 7. 

GIBEATH, Josh, xviii 28., the same with 
Gibeah of Benjamin ; which see. 

GIBEATHITE, 1 Chron, xii, 3., one be- 
longing to Gibeah of Benjamin, 

GIBEOiST, a large and famous city of the 
Hivites, Josh. ix. 7,, xi, 19., to the N. of Jeru- 
salem, at a distance of 40 or 50 furlongs ac- 
cording to Josephus, and 4 miles from Bethel 
according to Eusebius, It appears to have been 
at the head of a confederacy of four cities, 
Gibeon, Chephirah, Beeroth, and Kirjath-jearim 
(or KiTjath, Josh, xviii. 28.), Josh, ix, 17., the 
inhabitants of which, alarmed at the destruction 
of Jericho and Ai by the Israelites, sent an 
embassy to Joshua at Gilgal professing sub- 
mission and asking for a league. In order to 
obtain this, they craftily pretended their cities 
were at such a great distance that their 



garments and shoes were become old, their 
bread mouldy, and their bottles of wine rent, 
by reason of the journey ; all which Joshua and 
the princes of Israel believing, and not asking 
counsel of the Lord, made a covenant with 
them by oath: but three days afterwards, de- 
tecting the imposition, and then coming to their 
cities, Joshua spared their lives, yet appointed 
them for ever to be hewers of wood and drawers 
of water for the congregation and for the altar 
of the Lord, Josh, ix, 3. 17. Cf. Gen, ix, 25, 
This league brought upon Gibeon an attack 
from five of the neighbouring Amorite kings, 
who were all eventually subdued by Joshua, 
upon which occasion the sun and moon stood 
still at his word, x. 1, 2, 4, 5, 6. 10. 12. 41, ; a 
miraculous interference of God in behalf of 
His people, which is called to remembrance 
by Isaiah, xxviii. 21. On the division of the 
land, Gibeon and its three confederate cities fell 
to the lot of the tribe of Benjamin, Josh, xviii. 
25. ; 1 Chron. viii. 29., ix. 35. ; though it was 
eventually assigned to the priests, the children 
of Aaron, xxi. 17, Some of the Gibeonites 
early took part with David when keeping 
himself from Saul at Ziklag, and one of his 
mighty men belonged to their city, 1 Chron. 
xii. 4. Gibeon was the scene of a mortal con- 
flict between twelve of Abner's men and twelve 
of Joab's, on the occasion of the two armies 
meeting there at the Great Pool, soon after 
Saul's death and David's coronation at Hebron, 
Abner having made Ishbosheth king of Israel. 
They were all slam at a place thenceforward 
called Helkath-hazzurim (i.e. the Field of Strong 
Men), and a general battle ensued, in which the 
faction of Ishbosheth was beaten, though Asahel, 
Joab's brother, was killed by Abner, 2 Sam. ii. 
12, 13. 16. 24., iii. 30. It was likewise the place 
where Joab murdered Amasa, whom David had - 
made captain over Judah in place of Joab, a 
treachery which was committed at the Great 
Stone there, 2 Sam. xx. 8. ; and it was because 
some of its inhabitants had been slain by Saul 
with the priests at Nob, to whom they acted as 
ministers, that forty years afterwards God sent 
a famine for three years upon Israel, which was 
only averted by seven of Saul's sons being 
hanged in Gibeah, in retribution for the breach 
of covenant Joshua and all Israel had formerly 
made with the Gibeonites, 2 Sam. xxi. 1, 2, 3, 
4. 9. From the great lack of all information 
about the Gibeonites after this circumstance, it 
is thought that they became henceforward 
included amongst the Nethinim, or public 
servants of the Temple, whose number was 



GIBEON, GREAT POOL OF. 



GIHON. 



151 



increased by all tliose Canaanites whom the : 
Israelites had spared on the condition of bond- 
service, 1 Kgs. ix. 20—22. ; Ezra viii. 20. The 
Philistines in one of their invasions, when they 
•were endeavouring to encircle Jerusalem, seem 
to have made an attempt upon Gibeon, if not to 
have mastered it ; but David chased them thence 
to their own frontier, 1 Chron. xiv. 16. 

It does not appear when, or by whom, the 
Tabernacle of the congregation and the altai' 
of burnt offerings made by Moses in the Wil- 
derness, were removed from Shiloh ; but in the 
latter part of David's reign and the beginning 
of Solomon's they were at Gibeon, probably 
because it was then the chief of all those High j 
Places where sacrifice was offered before the 
building of the Temple at Jerusalem, 1 Kgs. 
iii. 4. ; 1 Chron. xvi. 39., xxi. 29. ; 2 Chron. i. 
3. 5, 6. It was here that God was pleased to 
appear to Solomon in a di-eam by night, and 
gave him wisdom, riches, honour, and long Iffe ; 
because in the choice which had been offered 
him he had preferred wisdom and asked for it 
alone, 1 Kgs. iii. 5., ix. 2. ; 2 Chron. i. 7. 13. 
Hananiah, one of the false prophets who, in the 
last days of the kingdom of Judah, opposed 
Jeremiah and perished for his sin, came from 
Gibeon, Jer. xxviii. 1. ; and here also, after 
the destruction of Jerusalem by the Chaldeans, 
and Ishmael's treacherous murder of Gedaliah, 
whom the king of Babylon had made governor 
of the land, Johanau met Ishmael at the Great 
"Waters (or Great Pool, mentioned above), and 
recovered the captives he had taken from 
Gedaliah, Jer. xli. 12. 16. Some of the Gibeon- 
ites returned home after the captivity, and 
assisted m building the wall of Jerusalem, Xeh. 
iii. 7., vii. 25. ; though in Ezra ii. 20., they are 
called the children of Gibbar; and many of 
the Xethinim likewise returned and settled in 
their several cities, 1 Chron. ix. 2. ; Ezra ii. 43., 
viii. 20. — Gibeon is said to have left traces of 
its name in a village still called el Jib. 

GIBEOX, GEEAT POOL OF, 2 Sam, ii. 13., 

or 

GIBEOX, GREAT WATEES OF, Jer. xli. 
12. See GiBEOX. 

GIBEOX, VALLEY OF, where, at Joshua's 
word, the sun and moon stood still, Isa. xxviii. 
21., and God took vengeance upon the Amorites 
for His people. Josh. x. 12. ; it was probably at 
the foot of the little range of hills on which the 
city stood. 

GIBEOX, WILDEE^ E>S OF, an open part 



j of the country towards Giah and the hill of 
Ammah, X.E. of the city, where Joab stayed in 
his pursuit of Abner and his host after the death 
of Asahel, 2 Sam. ii. 24. It appears to have 
been connected with that great Avilderness which 
is mentioned in Josh. xvi. 1., as going up from 
Jericho throughout Mt. Bethel. 

GIBEOXITES, the inhabitants of Gibeon; 
which see. 

GIBLITES, LAXT) OF THE, a part of the 
land assigned to the children of Israel, but not 
yet conquered by them at the death of J oshua, 
xiii. 5. It was situated in Phoenicia, between 
Lebanon and the shores of the ^Mediterranean, 
about mid-way between Sidon and Ai'vad or 
Aradus ; and most probably derived its name 
from the city Gebal, which is mentioned by the 
prophet Ezekiel, xxvii. 9., as celebrated for its 
wisdom, as well as its skill in ship-building. 
Its people are likewise thought to be designated 
in 1 Kgs. V. 18., as the stone-squarers (marg. 
Giblites), whom Hiram, king of T}Te, lent to 
Solomon to assist in building the Temple at 
Jerusalem, and his own palace. The city is 
called Byblos by the profane writers, now 
DJebail. See Gebal of Phce>'Icl.\. 

GIDDEL, CHILDEEX OF, who returned 
home with Zerubliabel after the seventy years' 
capti^-ity in Babylon. There were two families 
of them ; one belonging to the Xethinims, Ezra 
ii. 47. ; Xeh. vii. 49. ; and one numbered amongst 
Solomon's servants, Ezra ii. 56. ; Xeh. ^ii. 58. 

GIDOM, a place mentioned in Judg. xx. 45., 
in the account of the pursuit of the'Benjamites 
by the united armies of Israel, after the fatal 
struggles which almost exterminated the former 
tribe ; 2000 of them were here slain. It was 
probably somewhere towards the E. of Gibeah, 
in the lot of Benjamin; but nothing is known 
about its situation. 

GIHOX, THE E., one of the fom- rivers 
which proceeded from the Garden of Eden, Gen, 
ii. 13., and which is supposed to have been the 
same with that lower part of the E. Tigris 
anciently called Pasitigris, and which flowed 
from Eden into the Persian Gulf. See Edex. 
Its waters (or else those of the Fountain of 
Gihon) are spoken of in Ecclus. xxiv. 27. ; where 
the apocryphal -uiiter compares wisdom with 
them in the time of vintage, probably on account 
of their clearness. 

GIHOX, one of the fountains close to Jeru- 
salem, apparently on the W. side of the city. 
L 4 



152 



GILBOA, MT. 



GILEAD. 



Here, by the direction of David, Solomon was 
anointed king by Zadok the priest, upon the 
occasion of Adonijah's endeavouring to possess 
himself of the kingdom, assisted by Joab and 
Abiathar, 1 Kgs. i. 33. 38. 45. There seems to 
have been a conduit or water-course (2 Kgs. 
xviii. 17. ; Isa. vii. 3., xxxvi. 2.), leading' from 
it, and, perhaps, supplying the N. and W. parts 
of the city with water ; but Hezekicih diverted 
its upper channel, and brought it straight down 
to the W. side of the city of David, 2 Kgs. xx. 
20. : 2 Chron. xxxii. 30. ; Keh. iii. 16. Hence 
it may have flowed into the three pools there 
Avhich are mentioned by Isaiah as the Lower 
Pool, the Old Pool, and Hezekiah's Pool, xxii. 
9. 11. ; and it appears to have become eventually 
of such importance that Manasseh, king of 
Judah, fortified it with a wall, 2 Chron. xxxiii. 
14. Its bright and clear waters are, perhaps, 
alluded to in Ecclus. xxiv. 27. It is fancied by 
some to be the same with Siloah, but this is 
extremely doubtful. See Upper Pool. 

GILBOA, MT., the name of a lofty ridge, 
1000 feet above the level of the sea, on the 
borders of the tribes of Issachar and Manasseh, 
on this side Jordan. It forms the continuation 
of that range which runs through the whole of 
Palestine, dividing the waters falling into the 
Jordan from such as flow into the Mediterranean 
Sea. Mt. Gilboa lay to the S. of the great Plain 
of Jezrael, and, according to Eusebius, only 6 
miles from the city Bethshan ; the E. Kishon 
appears to have had its source in it. Here the 
Israelites were strongly posted against the Phi- 
listines, and were conqu.ered in that fatal battle 
wherein Saul and Jonathan were slain ; 1 Sam. 
xxviii. 4., xxxi. 1. 8. ; 2 Sam. i. 6. 21., xxi. 12. ; 
1 Chron. x. 1. 8. In Judith vii. 18., the neigh- 
bouring region is mentioned as the Hill Country. 
Mt. Gilboa is now called Jehel Fukuah by the 
natives of the country. 

GILEAD, MT., the name of a range of moun- 
tains in the country beyond Jordan, extending 
from Mt. Hermon and Anti-Lebanon on the IST., 
to Mt. Abarim and Mt. Nebo on the S. ; inter- 
secting the ancient kingdoms of Sihon and Og, 
as well as the later divisions of Reuben, Gad, 
and Manasseh, beyond Jordan. Properly speak- 
ing, the name belongs to a long narrow hill in 
the centre of this ridge, which is still called 
Jaldd or Jelaad; and which received the 
appellation from the covenant there made be- 
tween Jacob and Laban, on the former leaving 
Padan-Aram to go to Isaac, his father, in the 
land of Canaan, Gen. xxxi. 21. 23. 25. Jacob 



gathered stones and made a heap on'the moun- 
tain, calling it Galeed, a Hebrew word signifying 
the Heap of Witness; but Laban named it Jegar» 
sahadutha, a Chaldee word having the same 
signification, Gen, xxxi. 47, 48. ; it was also 
called Mizpali, i. e., Beacon or Watch-tower. It is 
this Mt. Gilead (strictly so called) which appears 
in a general way to have divided the two 
kingdoms of Sihon and Og, Deut. ii. 36. It is 
one of the most beautiful and luxuriant moun- 
tains in all Palestine, and is, therefore, numbered 
in Holy Writ with Lebanon, Carmel, and 
Ephraim, Jer. xxii. 6,, 1. 19.; Mic. vii. 14.; 
Zech. X. 10. Its flocks of goats, with their fine 
silky hair, are especially commended, So. cf SoL 
iv. 1., vi. 5. ; as also its pure and healing balm, 
its myrrh, and its spicery. Gen. xxxvii. 27. ; 
Jer. viii. 22., xlvi. 11. It gave name to the 
whole surrounding country, which was hence 
called Mt. Gilead, Dent. iii. 12., as well as 
Gilead ; and it seems to have been the rallying- 
place for the Hebrews in many of the gallant 
struggles with their enemies. 

GILEAD, a name derived from the preceding- 
mountain, and applied with varied extent in the 
Bible to parts or the whole of the country beyond 
Jordan. Strictly speaking it is referred to that 
central part of this region which was inhabited 
by the tribe of Gad ; hence Gad and Gilead seem 
to be occasionally used as almost interchangeable 
terms. Num. xxxii. 1.; Josh. xiii. 11. 25.; 
Judg. V. 17., xi. 29.; 1 Sam. xiii. 7.; 2 Sam. 
xxiv. 6. The territory of the half-tribe of 
Manasseh beyond Jordan is designated Manasseh 
in Gilead, 1 Chron. xxvii. 21. Reuben, like- 
wise, had some portion of his inheritance in 
Gilead, adjoining the Hagarites, 1 Chron. v. 9, 
10. ; and hence the name of Gilead is also 
applied in a more general way to the land 
inhabited by both the tribes of Gad and Reuben, 
or the whole country beyond Jordan to the S. of 
Bashan, Deut. iii. 10. 12 ; 2 Kgs. x. 33. ; Ps. Ix. 
7., cviii. 8. But it is likewise used in a still 
wider extent, to designate the whole possessions 
of Israel beyond Jordan, tenanted by Reuben, 
Gad, and the half of Manasseh ; so that Gilead 
defined the country of these two and a half 
tribes, as Canaan did that of the nine and a half 
on this side Jordan, Deut. xxxiv. 1.; Josh, 
xxii. 9. 13. 15. 32. ; Judg. x. 8., xx. 1. ; 2 Kgs, 
X. 33., XV. 29. ; 1 Chron. xxvii. 21. 

Gilead seems to have been chiefly inhabited 
by the Amorites when it was invaded by Israel, 
and to have been more or less equally divided 
between their two kings Sihon and Og, by Mt. 



GILEAD. 



153 



Gilead itself strictly so called, Deat. ii. 3G. ; as 
the expression " half Gilead " is not unfrequently 
used to define the dominions of each, Ueut. iii. 
12.; Josh. xii. 2., xiii. 31. It was a fertile 
pasturing country, Num. xxxii. 1. ; Judg. v. 16. ; 
Mic. vii. 14., which when the Eeubenites and 
Gadites (who had much cattle) perceived, they 
petitioned Moses to have their lot given them 
there ; a request to which, upon conditions, he ac- 
ceded, Xura. xxxii. 1. 26. 29. But that half-tribe 
of Manasseh which was descended from Machir 
and his children, had likewise their portion after- 
wards assigned them in its northernmost part, 
Num. xxxii. 39, 40.; Deut. iii. 13.; Josh. xiii. 
31., xvii. 1. ; 1 Kgs. iv. 13. ; 1 Chron. ii. 21, 22., 
V. 14. 16. ; whence this northernmost portion of 
it alone is sometimes expressly called Gilead, 
Deut. iii. 15, 16. ; Josh. xvii. 1. 5, 6. ; or Gilead 
in Bashan, 1 Chron, v. 16. Deborah in her 
Song calls Manasseh's portion of it Machir, Judg. 
V. 14., from the son of Manasseh who took it, 
and whose descendants are styled Gileadites, 
after Gilead his son, Num. xxvi. 29, 30., 
xxxvi. 1. 

That portion of Gilead which was inhabited 
by Gad and Eeuben seems to have taken no part 
with Deborah against Sisera, Judg. t. 15—17. ; 
but Gilead afterwards produced some of the 
judges who governed Israel, as Jair, Judg. x. 3, 
4.; and Jephthah, xi. 1. 40., xii. 7. Gilead 
seems to have been a great rendezvous for some of 
Gideon's armies, when he was proceeding against 
the Midianites, though fear of, the enemy kept 
certain of them back, Judg. vii. 3. Afterwards 
when the Ammonites were grievously oppressing 
Israel, and Gilead especially for eighteen years, 
Judg. X. 8., the elders of Gilead fetched Jephthah 
out of the land of Tob, whither he had fled from 
the envy of his brethren, and made him their 
head and captain to fight against their ruthless 
invaders, x. 17, 18., xi. 1. 5. 7, 8, 9, 10, 11. 
Accordingly he came to Gilead, and after a vain 
expostulation with the Ammonites, who pre- 
tended that Israel had originally taken Gilead 
from them, he left his own country and com- 
pletely subdued them, xi. 29. 33. This Adctory 
led to a dispute \dth the Ephraimites, from a 
fancy that they had been neglected ; and upon 
their threatening Jephthah, and reviling the 
Gileadites as " fugitives of Ephraim," they were 
attacked by the Gileadites at the passages of 
Jordan ; and being detected by their pronun- 
ciation of Shibboleth, were slain to the number 
of 42,000, Judg. xii. 4, 5, 6. The Gileadites took 
part with all the rest of Israel against the tribe 
of Benjamin in the matter of the Levite's con- 



cubine, and assembled with the whole congrega- 
tion at Mizpeh, xx. 1. 

Soon after the accession of Saul to the throne, 
the Gileadites, who had been again greatly op- 
pressed by the Ammonites, appealed to him for 
protection and deliverance from their malignant 
foes, whereupon they speedily received that help 
they so urgently needed, and the Ammonites 
were completely routed, 1 Sam. xi. 1. 3. 9, 10. ; 
a kindness which, when Saul himself was killed, 
the Gileadites remembered. Later in the history 
Gilead became a refuge to some of the Hebrews 
from the Ehilistines, 1 Sam. xiii. 7., and many 
years afterwards, on the death of Said in the 
fatal battle with these inveterate enemies of 
Israel, some of its inhabitants recovered his body 
and those of his sons fi-om the street of Bethshan, 
where the Ehilistines had fastened them to the 
wall, and buried them in the city of Jabesh- 
Gilead, 1 Sam. xxxi. 11, 12, 13. ; 2 Sam. ii. 4., 
xxi. 12. For this kindness David greatly com- 
mended them, with a promise to requite them ; 
but when he called on them for their allegiance, 
Abner seems to have for a time diverted their 
loyalty by making Saul's son, Ishbosheth, king 
over Gilead, 2 Sam. ii. 5. 9. Yet they eventually 
sided with David, Es. Ix. 7., cviii. 8., especially 
in the struggle with Absalom, when the king 
found a place of security amongst them, though 
followed by his son and the rebel forces under 
him, who were here routed and their leader slain, 
2 Sam. xvii. 22. 24. 26. Barzillai, the Gileadite, 
was especially careful of David, xvii. 27., xix. 
31. ; 1 Kgs. ii. 7. Three out of the twelve piu-- 
veyorships constituted by Solomon for the pro- 
viding meat for his household were in Gilead, 1 
Kgs. iv. 13, 14. 19. This country also gave 
birth to the prophet Elijah, 1 Kgs. xvii. 1. ; 
whose denunciation against Ahab for the murder 
of Naboth, was here fulfilled at Eamoth-Gilead, 
when this monarch met his death while contesting 
its possession with the Syrians, 1 Kgs. xxii. 3, 4, 
6. 12. 15. 20. 29. : 2 Chron. xviii. 2, 3. 5. 11. 14. 
19. 28. 

Some few years afterwards, when Jehu was 
king of Israel, Gilead was still further oppressed 
by Hazael, king of Syria, who smote the inhabit- 
ants of the whole of its provinces E. of the 
Jordan, 2 Kgs. x. 33., and treated them with 
such cruelty that the prophet Amos, i. 3., de- 
nounced God's vengeance against Damascus for 
it ; a doom which was also foretold to the Am- 
monites for a similar exercise of barbarous 
rapine, Amos i. 13. Like most of the other 
Israelites, the people of Gilead seem to have 
eventuallv fallen into idolatrv and manv of the 



154 GILEAD. 



GILGAL. 



evils connected with it, which brought upon 
them the warnings of the prophet Hosea, vi. 8., 
xii. 11,, as well as their final removal from their 
land. Some of them joined Pekah in his murder 
of Pekahiah, king of Israel ; but not many years 
afterwards Tiglath-Pileser, king of Assyria, came 
down upon the inhabitants of all Gilead, and 
carried them captive to Halah, Habor, Gozan, 
and other places in his own dominions, 2 Kgs. 
XV. 25. 29. ; 1 Chron. v. 26. Some of them, 
however, seem to have escaped, or to have been 
left behind, as the apocryphal writer of the book 
of Judith speaks of their having been summoned 
by Nabuchodonosor to assist him against Ar- 
phaxad, and of their joining in the chase of the 
routed forces of Holofernes, i. 8., xv. 5. A few 
others of those who had been carried captive to 
Assyria (and who were descended from Barzillai) 
returned home again with Zerubbabel after the 
decree of Cyrus, though from not being able to 
show their pedigree, they were put away from 
the priesthood, Ezra ii. 61., vii. 63. But the 
main body of them remained behind, and their 
country became at length occupied by the Ben- 
jamites, as Obadiah had foretold, 19. ; though 
his prophecy may have a bearing upon the divi- 
sion of the land in the coming latter days of 
the Jewish nation. 

In the time of the Maccabees, Gilead was 
chiefly occupied by the heathen nations, who rose 
up against the few Jews that dwelt in it, until 
their malice was checked by Judas and Jonathan, 
1 Mace. V. 9. 17. 25. 27. 36. 45. 55., the latter of 
whom was afterwards slain there, xiii. 22. In 
the glorious promises which are made to Israel, 
when they finally return to their own land, 
Gilead is to have its share, and to be restored 
to its former beauty and fertility, Jer. 1. 19. ; 
Ezek. xxxiv. 13, 14., xlvii. 18. ; Mic. vii. 14. ; 
Obad. 19. ; Zech. x. 10. 

GILEAD, mentioned in Hos. vi. 8., xii. 11., 

is supposed by some to refer to a city so called ; 
if so, it may allude to Jabesh-Gilead or Eamoth- 
Gilead, as no city of Gilead seems to be otherwise 
known. The expression, however, would seem 
merely to designate the country of Gilead, with- 
out reference to any particular city. 

GILGAL (i.e. Rolling)^ a celebi'ated place 
lying betvreen the R. Jordan and the city Jericho, 
according to Eusebius 50 furlongs from the 
former, and 10 Trom the latter. It was hard; by 
that the Israelites miraculously crossed the bed 
of the river, and made good their entrance into 
Canaan, on Avhich occasion Joshua encamped 
here and pitched the twelve stones which had 



been taken out of Jordan, Josh. iv. 19, 20., all 

which gracious transactions in their behalf, they 
were many generations afterwards bidden to 
remember, Mic. ^d. 5. It was at Gilgal, the 
covenant of circumcision was renewed with all 
Israel, for none of those who had been born in 
the Wilderness had been circumcised, so that 
here the reproach of Egypt was rolled {away,'' an 
event which gave its name to this place, v. 2 — 9. 
Here also they kept their first Passover in the 
Promised Land, and here within its bounds on 
the very next day that manna first ceased, which 
had sustained them during the forty years they 
were wandering in the Wilderness, v. 10, 11, 12. 
Gilgal continued to be their head quarters, as 
well as the abode of the ark, for many years, 
whilst Joshua was subduing the land, v. 10., ix. 
6., X. 6, 7. 9. 15. 43., xiv. 6. ; on the division of 
which amongst the tribes, it appears to have 
fallen within the lot of Benjamin, near to the 
borders of Judah, xv. 7., xviii. 17. In the last 
reference its name seems to be written Ge- 

LILOTH. 

A city had soon sprung up on the spot, which 
is memorable on many accounts. From it, the 
angel went up to Bochim to rebuke the nation 
for their idolatrous ways, Judg. ii. 1.; and here 
in the time of their oppression by the Moabites 
were those quarries or rather graven images, set 
up perhaps by Eglon, where this monarch was 
killed by Ehud, iii. 19. It was one of those 
places which Samuel visited annually in his cir- 
cuits for executing justice and performing the 
national business, 1 Sam. vii. 16. ; and contained 
an altar whereon he and the Israelites long con- 
tinued to otfer sacrifices, as when he called Saul 
to the kmgdom, and at other times, x. 8. Saul 
was also here crowned, xi. 14, 15., and here he 
committed that offence of himself presump- 
tuously sacrificing, for which he was threatened 
by Samuel with the loss of his kingdom, xiii. 4. 
7, 8. 12. 15. ; a threat which was repeated at the 
same place by the prophet on the occasion of 
Saul's disobedience in the matter of the Amalek- 
ites when Samuel here hewed in pieces Agag their 
king, 1 Sam. xv. 12. 21. 33. It was at Gilgal 
that Judah went out to meet King David on his 
return to Zion after the death of Absalom, 2 
Sam. xix. 15. 40., and it continued to preserve its 
character as a national and religious place of 
assembly for many years afterwards, containing 
a school of the sons of the prophets, and being 
the occasional residence both of Elijah and Elisha, 
the latter of whom here miraculously healed the 
deadly pottage, 2 Kgs. ii. 1., iv. 38. But all the 
mercies Israel had received, and the wonders 



Hi 



GILGAL. 



GOD, THE HILL OF. 155 



tliey had seen, at Gilgal, seem to have been in a 
manner forgotten in after times, when it became 
a great harbour and resort of idolatry', and is 
accordingly denounced by God for its ungrate- 
ful wickedness, Hos. iv. 15., ix. 15., xii. 11.; 
Amos iv. 4., v. 6. It seems to have been again 
inhabited after the Babylonian captivity, as 
Nehemiah brought from it some of the singers to 
assist at the dedication of the newly built walls 
of Jerusalem, JSTeh. xii, 29. 

GILGAL, a place in regard to which Moses 
states, Deut. xi. 30., that the mountains Ge- 
rizim and Ebal, and the Plains of Moreh, are 
over against it. From which description, some 
have thought that this Gilgal was in their imme- 
diate neighbourhood, and altogether different 
from the Gilgal by Jei'icho ; yet there seems to 
be no reason why the latter place is not signi- 
fied in the above passage. 

GILGAL, NATIONS OF, whose king was 
one of the thirty-one kings subdued by Joshua, 
xii. 23. See Galilee. 

GILOH, a city in the mountainous part of the 
tribe of Judah, Josh. xv. 51. It was the birth- 
place of Ahithophel, David's counsellor, and also 
that of his son Eliam, one of David's mighty 
men, 2 Sam. xv. 12., xxiii. 34. Its inhabitants 
are called Gilonites. 

GIMZO, a city apparently in the S. of the lot 
of Judah, which the Philistines were permitted 
to capture, together with many others, in the 
time of Ahaz, because of his transgressions, 2 
Chron. xxviii. 18. 

GIRGASITES, or 

GIRGASHITES, one of the seven principal 
nations anciently inhabiting the land of Canaan, 
and descended from Canaan, the fourth son 
of Ham, Gen. x. 16. ; 1 Chron. i. 14. They 
were promised to be given into the hands of 
Abram and his seed. Gen. xv. 21. ; Neh. ix. 8. ; 
and were numbered by Moses amongst the idola- 
troua people with whom the Israelites were to 
make no covenant, and to whom they were to 
show no mercy, Deut. vii. 1. ; but they do not 
appear to have been conquered until the time of 
Joshua, iii. 10,, xxiv. 11. ; Judith v. 16. They 
have been supposed by many to have dwelt on 
the S. side of the L, of Gennesaret, and of the R, 
Jordan, in that country of the Gergesenes which 
is mentioned Matt. viii. 28., and was so called 
from Gerasa or Gergesa, the modern Djerash ; 
but as this does not seem to accord with the nar- 
rations in Deut. vii. 1., and Josh. iii. 10., xxiv. 



11., it seems safer to place them on this side 
Jordan, somewhere to the N. of Jerusalem. 

GITTAH-HEPHER, a city in the inherit- 
ance of the tribe of Zebulun, not otherwise 
known. Josh. xix. 13. It is conjectured to be the 
same with Gath-hepher, the birth-place of the 
prophet Jonah, 2 Kgs. xiv. 25. 

GITTAIM, a town of the tribe of Benjamin, 
whither the Beerothites fled (probably when 
their own city was invaded by the Philistines), and 
where they were dwelling in the days of David, 
2 Sam, iv. 3. ; some of its inhabitants returned 
home after the captivity in Babylon, Neh, xi, 33. 

GITTITES, a name applied to the inhabitants 
of the Philistine city Gath, Josh, xiii, 3, ; 2 Sam, 
XV. 18, 19. 22., xviii. 2., xxi, 19. ; 1 Chron. xx. 
5. It was no doubt also used to designate the 
people of other cities, as Gath-rimmon, Gittaim, 
&c. j since Obed-edom was a Gittite, into whose 
house David carried the ark after the calamity of 
Perez-uzzah, and where it abode three months, 
2 Sam. vi. 10, 11. ; 1 Chron. xiii. 13. See Che- 

KETHITES. 

GIZONITE, the patronymic of some of Da- 
vid's mighty men, 1 Chron. xi. 34.; whence 
derived does not appear. 

GOATH, a place close in the neighbourhood 
of Jerusalem, whither Jeremiah, xxxi. 39., pre- 
dicts that the measuring line shall yet go forth 
at the future rebuilding of the New City. It 
was, probably, one of those many hills standing 
round about Jerusalem with which the Psalmist 
compares the ever-watchful care of the Lord 
about His people, Ps. cxxv. 2. 

GOB, a place where two battles were fought 
between Israel and the Philistines in the days of 
David, in which two of the sons of the g-iant 
were slain, 2 Sam. xxi. 18, 19. It was probably 
a plain or district in the neighbourhood of Gezer, 
as in the parallel passage of 1 Chron. xx. 4., the 
fight is said to have been at Gezer, which was a 
city in the S.W, part of the lot of Ephraim, on the 
borders of the Philistines' territory. See Gezer. 

GOD, THE CITY OF, a title given to the 
Jewish metropolis Jerusalem, and thence trans- 
ferred to the New and Heavenly Cit}-, Ps. xlvi. 
4., xlviii. 1. 8., Ixxxvii. 3, ; Heb. xii. 22. ; Rev. 
iii. 12. 

GOD, THE HILL OF, a name applied to the 
Hill of Zion, from God having been pleased to 
fix His Temple there, Ps. Ixviii, 15., and which, 
though in itself comparatively low, was set in 
likeness to the lofty hill of Bashan Cf. Ps. 
Ixxviii, 68, 69, ; Isa. ii. 2, 3. 

GOD, THE HILL OF, i Sam. x. 5, 10., 



156 GOD, THE MOUNTAIN OF. 



Goa. 



a place mentioned in tlie early history of King 
Saul, as being then held by the Philistines, and 
near which he had his heart changed, and began 
to prophesy. It is thought to have been another 
appellation for Gezer, which was given it from 
the people going there to sacrifice, and from its 
containing a school of the prophets, or men of 
God ; others, however, refer the name to Gibeah. 
See Gezer. 

GOD, THE MOUNTAIN OF, a title given to 
Mt. Horcb, where Moses was feeding the flock of 
Jethro, his father-in-law, when God appeared to 
him in the burning bush, and sent him to deliver 
Israel, Ex. iii, 1. 12. Here, also, he met his 
brother Aaron, iv. 27. ; and here, after the Ex- 
odus, Jethro came to him, xviii. 5. Here, also 
he went up, at the command of God, to receive 
the law, and twice continued there forty days 
and forty nights. It was, likewise, in the same 
hallowed place that, nearly 600 years after- 
wards, the prophet Elijah (cf. Matt. xvii. 1. 3.) 
had his wonderful vision, when he fled from the 
vengeance of Jezebel, and was sent to anoint 
Hazael, Jehu, and Elisha, shortly before he was 
taken up into heaven, 1 Kgs. xix. 8. 

The same appellation, the Mount of God, is 
likewise given to Mt. Sinai, Ex. xxiv. 13., or as 
it is written in Num. x. 33., the Mt. of the Lord. 
See HoEEB and Sinai. 

GOG, the name of a people mentioned by the 
prophet Ezekiel in connection -with that of 
Magog, as destined to play an important part in 
the latter days of the world. Some are of 
opinion, that the former appellation is used to 
designate their leader or sovereign, and the 
latter their country ; but in many passages the 
whole race seems to be spoken of miderthe name 
Gog, as well as their king himself. It is also 
greatly disputed whether Ezekiel and John do 
or do not allude to the same people; some 
urging' that the former writes about an anti- 
christian power invading Judsea before the 
Millennium; the other, of one bursting out 
against the church at the completion of the 
Millennium. Others, again, understand Ezekiel 
to refer to Antiochus Epiphanes persecuting the 
Jews ; St, John to point oat the coming and in- 
vasion of Antichrist. There is also a very wide 
difference of opinion as to the nations that are 
signified ; the Scythians, the Goths, the Persians, 
the Tartars, the Turks, and many others, being 
thought to be included. Amidst so great a 
variety of conjectures on a subject of such ob- 
scurity and difficulty, it will be, perhaps, almost 
impossible to come to anything like a satisfac- 



tory conclusion, until, in the conrse of Divine Pro- 
vidence, the veil shall be somewhat raised. There 
are, however, a few traces which seem to point, in 
a general way, to vast bodies of people yet to come 
down upon the Jews from the North, and to be 

joined by numerous hosts from other quarters ; 
all of whom are to be sorely, and, as it appears, 
irrecoverably vanquished; though, after a set 
season, their descendants, or representatives, or 
anti-types, will again rally, in far greater numbers, 
for their final destruction at the end of the world. 

Magog is first mentioned in Gen. x. 2. ; 1 
Chron. i, 5., as the second son of Japheth, and is 
not again met with until the prophecy of Eze- 
kiel ; though both the Samaritan and Septuagint 
versions of Num. xxiv. 7., where in our version 
we read his kingdom shall be higher than 
"Agag" render it "Gog." The latter name 
first occurs in Ezek. xxxviii. 2., where it is 
closely identified with the land of Magog, and 
connected with Meshech and Tubal, two more of 
Japheth's sons, likewise enumerated in Gen, x. 
2. By Meshech is commonly thought to be 
signified the people who first settled in the N.E. 
part of Asia Minor and in N. Armenia, where 
traces of their name may be met with in the 
people called Moschi, the Moschici Montes, and 
the district Moxorne, all frequently mentioned 
by the profane authors. Colonies of them are 
thought to have proceeded N. over the Cau- 
casus, where they settled in the S.E. parts of 
the continent of Europe under the little-altered 
name of Moscovites or Muscovites. The two 
passages in Ezek. xxxviii, 2., xxxix. 1., which 
our translation renders " chief prince of Meshech 
and Tubal," are, in other versions, particularly 
the Septuagint, rendered " prince of Rosh, 
Meshech, and Tubal." It is also stated that 
the E. Araxes, which flows through Armenia 
into the Caspian was once called Posh by the 
Arabians, and that on its banks dwelt a people 
named Rosh or Rossi ; and that these last migra- 
ting into Europe, settled S. of the Mtcscovites, 
towards the Taurica Chersonesus or Crimea, 
where they were long known as the Tauri or 
Ros, a name since altered to that of Russians. 

By Tubal, Josephus affirms are signified the 
people of Iberia, a province to the S. of the Cau- 
casus, whose inhabitants were formerly called 
Thobeli. To the E. of jt lies the province of 
Albania, wherein is the city Thabilaca, and on 
the S.W. are the Chalybes; all names bear- 
ing some aflSnity to the more ancient one. 
Add to this that Ezekiel, xxvii. 13., represents 
Tubal and Meshech as trading in slaves and 

i brass, a like commerce to which is known to 

i 



GOG. 



GOLAN. 



157 



have been once actively carried on in these 
regions. The name of Tubal seems likewise 
still preserved in that of the modern Tobolsk, an 
important city and government in the N.W. 
part of Asiatic Russia. 

Closely connected with these three, Eosh, 
Meshech, and Tubal, and as if at their head, 
Ezekiel, xxxviii. 2, 3., xxxix. 1., represents Gog 
and Magog : therefore it may be fairly inferred, 
that their dwelling-places were adjacent, and we 
may expect to iind some traces of their name as 
well as of the others. Josephus and most of the 
early writers agree in identifying Gog and Magog 
with the Scythians, and placing them to theN. of 
Mt. Caucasus ; in the neighbourhood of which, 
profane authors describe the district Gogarene 
and the people Georgi, regions which we still 
distinguish by the name of Georgia. Mt. Cau- 
casus itself is thought to have been so called 
after Gog, altered perhaps from Gog-Chasan, a 
word which in the Oriental tongues is said to 
denote Gog's Fort. From these regions Gog 
and Magog are thought to have sent out colo- 
nists towards the X.W., about the banks of the 
E. Tanais or Don, and the Palus Mseotis or Sea 
of Azov. On the former, one of the heathen 
poets mentions a people called Magini or Maga- 
gini; and it does not seem unlikely that the 
latter derived its name from being called the 
Lake of Magog, or Magogitis, which would be 
easily abbreviated into Maeotis. To this it may 
be added, that the great chain of mountains run- 
ning through Tartary is called by the Ai-abian 
geographers the Rampart of Juje and 3Iajnje. 

After these conjectures about the position of 
Gog and Magog, Eosh, Tubal, and Meshech, 
we may now proceed to state the predictions 
given in Holy Scripture concerning them, Ezek, 
xxxviii. 2, 3. 14. 16. 18., xxxix. 1. 11. 15, 16. 
The prophet Ezekiel describes them as coming 
down from the North, xxxviii. 15., xxxix. 2., 
joined by Persia, Ethiopia, Libya, Gomer, 
Togarmah, and the Isles, xxxviii. 6, 6., xxxix. 
6. ; invading like a storm the land of Israel 
after the Jews in the latter days have been 
gathered out of many people, and brought 
home, and are dwelling securely and peaceably 
in their unwalled towns and villages, xxxviii. 
8. 11, 12. 14. 16, 17., xxxix. 25. 27., all for the 
sake of plunder, mischief, and destruction. But 
God promises to rise up in His people's defence 
to meet Gog in the land of Israel, and there 
Himself to contend with his hosts by earth- 
cjuake, by sword, by hailstones, fire and brim- 
stone, xxxviii. 18 — 23. ; until they shall be so 
utterly consumed upon the mountains of Israel, 



that only a sixth part shall escape, and the 
stench of the slain shall so infect the air as to 
stop the noses of the passengers, xxxix. 2. 11. ; 
Israel going forth not to fight, but] merely to 
gather the spoil; the weapons of their van- 
quished foes supplying fuel for the people for 
seven years, 8 — 10. ; and their carcases and 
bones occupying as many months to bury, until 
the whole land is cleansed, 12 — 15. The place 
of their burial (and so, probably, of the great 
destruction) is to be in the "Valley of the 
Passengers," on the E. of the Sea; i.e. either 
of the Sea of Gennesaret, where was once the 
great road of traffic between Egypt and Syria ; 
or else the Dead Sea, on the E. of which now 
is the great route of the Mahometan pilgrims 
going from Damascus to Mecca. This valley 
is to be called the Valley of Hamon-gog, and 
the city which shall be built there (for no such 
city has ever yet been built) is to be named 
Hamonah, xxxix. 11. 15, 16. Thus will God 
be sanctified and known in the eyes of many 
nations ; and Israel, also, restored and protected, 
shall know that the Lord is their God, and He 
will visit them with evil no more, xxx^dii. 16., 
xxxix. 6, 7. 13. 21, 22, 23. 27—29. 

AU the chcumstances here predicted are so 
different from those which St. John, Eev. xx. 
8., foretells concerning Gog and Magog, as to 
be irreconcil cable with them. The Apostle re- 
presents them as the whole of the " nations " 
in the four quarters of the earth, deceived by 
Satan, and with him let loose at the end of the 
1000 years, compassing the camp of the saints 
and the beloved city, until they are devoured 
by fire from heaven, and the devil is for ever 
cast into thelake of fire and brimstone, Eev. xx. 
5. 7 — 10. But w^hether the first overthrow of 
Gog and Magog be the same with that con- 
flict alluded to by the prophet Joel, iii. 2. 9 — 17., 
in connection with the Valley of Jehoshaphat, 
and again with that of St. John, Eev, x^-i. 13 — 
16., in the great battle of Ai'mageddon, remains 
yet for a coming season to declare. 

GOLAN" in Bashan, a city beyond Jordan, 
in the S.W. part of the old kingdom of Bashan, 
and given by Moses after his conquest of Og 
to the half-tribe of Manasseh, though it was 
afterwards assigned to the Levites of the family 
of Gershon, and constituted a City of Eefuge, 
Deut. iv. 43.; Josh. xx. 8., xxi. 27.; 1 Chron. 
vi. 71. It appears to have been situated to the 
E. of the Sea of Galilee, in the angle formed by 
it and the E. Hieromax, or Sheriat-el-Mamlhur, 
where are some ruins at a place now called Djei- 



158 GOLGOTHA, 



GOSHEK 



bein. It gave the name of Gaulonitis to the 
adjacent district, which is still preserved in 
that of DJolan. 

GOLGOTHA (i. e. the Place of a Skull), a small 
rising ground outside the walls of Jerusalem, 
Heb, xiii. 13., on the W. side, where the ador- 
able Eedeemer was crucified for the sins of the 
world, Matt, xxvii. 33. ; Mk. xv. 22. ; Jo. xix. 
17. It is called Calvary by St. Luke, xxiii. 33. 
See Calvary. 

GOMER, the eldest son of Japheth, whose 
sons were Ashkenaz, Riphath, and Togarmah, 
Gen. X. 2, 3. ; 1 Chron. i. 5, 6. He is thoiight 
to have first settled in the N. parts of Asia 
Minor, where traces of the names of his sons 
are found in many names recorded by the 
profane authors. The Galatians are said by 
Josephus to have been originally called Gomer- 
ites; and the name of Phrygia which was 
applied to a large tract of Asia Minor from 
Mt. Taurus to Troy, is thought by some to be 
merely a translation of Gomer. His descendants, 
called generally Cimmerians by the Greeks, 
pushed their colonies across the Euxine or Sea 
of Ashkenaz, into the Cimmerian regions, on its 
S. and E. shores, where they have left their 
name in the Krim or Crimea. Others advanced 
further W. into Europe, where in the several 
appellations of the Germans, the Cimbri of 
France and of Denmark, the Kymri or ancient 
Britons, &c., we find relics of the more ancient 
name. Gomer is also mentioned by the prophet 
Ezekiel, xxxviii. 6., as uniting his forces and 
those of his son Togarmah, with the vast host 
of Gog and Magog in the attack upon Israel in 
the latter days. 

GOMORRAH, or 

GOMORRHA, one of the Five Cities of the 
Plain, probably adjacent to Sodom, as they are 
so often mentioned together ; it formed one of 
the boundary cities of the Canaanites, Gen. x. 
19., towards Edom and Moab. It was situated 
in the beautiful and fertile Vale of Siddim, 
which was once so rich as to be compared to the 
Garden of Eden, and was well watered by the 
Jordan; which river formerly either lost itself 
in the slime pits, or in the neighbouring plains, 
or in lakes, as the rivers of Damascus now 
do; or else ran S. into the Red Sea, Gen. 
xiii. 10. Gomorrah joined the confederacy of 
the four other cities, to shake off the yoke of 
Chedorlaomer, king of Elam, by whom they had 
been enslaved for twelve years ; but, with the 
assistance of the kings of Shiuar, Ellasar, and 



the Nations, he overcame them in a battle 
which seems to have been fought in the Vale, 
when the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah were 
slain, their cities plundered, and Lot (who then 
dwelt in Sodom) was taken prisoner, though 
soon recovered by Abraham, his uncle, Gen. xiv. 
2. 8. 10, 11. Its enormous wickedness and that 
of its confederate cities brought do-\vn upon it 
one of the most awful visitations of the Al- 
mighty's vengeance against sm yet exhibited in 
the world ; and from which, having first revealed 
it to Abraham, at his intercession, God was merci- 
fully pleased to deliver Lot, xviii. 20. 29., and 
eventually the city of Zoar, ->on the entreaty of 
Lot. But the other cities were overwhelmed by 
a tempest of brimstone and fire from the Lord, 
B.C. 1898, when all the inhabitants, and that 
which grew upon the groimd, were overwhelmed, 
for a perpetual example to those that after 
should live ungodly, Gen. xix. 24, 28. It has 
continued to be a scene of solemn desolation 
ever since; the whole neighbourhood being 
likened to a land of salt and burning, that is not 
sown and does not bear, Deut. xxix. 23. ; Jer. 
xlix. 18., L 40. ; Zeph. ii. 9. Its character 
and name are sometimes transferred to the 
rebellious house of Israel, to bring them to re- 
pentance, Deut. xxxii. 32.; Isa. i. 10.; Jer. 
xxiii. 14. ; Amos iv. 11. Its terrible judgment 
is often held out as a warning to them and to 
others by Moses and the prophets, as by the 
Lord Jesus Christ and His Apostles, though we 
are taught, that in the great Day of Judgment 
it shall be more tolerable for it, than for many 
in whose ears the glad tidings of the Gospel 
have been proclaimed, Isa. i. 9., xiii. 19. ; Jer. 1. 
40.; Zeph. ii. 9.; Matt. x. 15.; Mk. vi. 11. ; 
Rom. ix. 29. ; 2 Pet. ii. 6. ; Jude 7. 

GORTYNA, a city of Crete, to the people of 
which the apocryphal writer in 1 Mace. xv. 23., 
states the Romans sent letters in favour of the 
Jews. It was situated on the S. side of the 
island, on the R. Leth^us, now Messara, and 
was famed for the excellent bows and arrows 
made there; its ruins are scattered round a 
place now known as Metropoli. There is a 
famous labyrinth here, supposed to be that of 
the fabled Minotaur. 

GOSHEN, a district of Egypt, Gen. xlvii. 27., 
into which Jacob and his family came down to 
sojourn whilst Joseph was governor of the land, 
and which was appointed as their dwelling-place 
by Pharaoh ; here, too, they remained until the 
Exodus, a period of about 215 years. Gen. xlvi. 
28., xlvii. 1. 27. That it lay on the E. side of 



GOSHElsr. 



GREAT PLAIN", THE. 159 



the Nile, is evident from the circumstance, that 
neither Jacob nor the Israelites, when leaving 
the country, are said to have crossed the river. 
It was near the territory of the Philistines, some 
of Avhom having come down from Gath, robbed 
Ephraim, and slew his children, 1 Chron. vii. 
21. ; and whose warlike and malignant enmity 
to the Jews is mentioned as one reason why the 
"latter were not led home through their country, 
though close at hand, Ex. xiii, 17. This would 
also make it in the neighbourhood of Canaan ; 
which, when Jacob left, Joseph sent Judah to 
convey him to Goshen, and himself afterwaids 
went to meet him, Gen. xlvi. 28, 29. It would 
appear, likewise, to have been near the capital, 
Gen. xlv. 10., at that time probably Zoan, Num. 
xiii. 22. ; Ps. Ixxviii. 12. 43. ; which lay at the 
Pelusiac mouth of the Nile. It must likewise 
have been adjacent to the Eed Sea, from the 
history representing the time occupied between 
the first breaking up of their camp and reaching 
the sea as very short, Ex. xiii. 20., xiv, 2.; 
Num. xxxiii. 5 — 8. It touched, also, upon the 
Wilderness of Shm% Ex. xiii. 20. ; Num. xxxiii. 
6. ; and hence the Septuagint calls it Gesem of 
Arabia, Gen. xlv. 10., xlvi. 34. Added to this it 
may be mentioned that the Septuagint of Gen. 
xlvi. 28., places Rameses near Heroopolis, which 
was a city about midway between the Mediter- 
ranean Sea. 

From all which it is plain, that the land of 
Goshen was in the Isthmus of Suez, between the 
Nile on the W., the Desert of Arabia on the E., 
the Mediterranean on the N., and the Eed Sea 
and Egj-pt on the S. Before the arrival of 
Israel and his family, it had probably been long 
tenanted by the race of the warlike Shepherd 
kings, who ha%ing been lately driven out by the 
native Egyptians, the country, though fertile, 
appears to have been unoccupied ; they were 
apparently masters of all North Egj^^t, when 
Abraham visited it, and appear to have received 
him well, though leading a nomadic life like 
themselves, Gen. xii. 16. ; whereas, in Joseph's 
days, every " shepherd " was an abomination to 
the Egyptians, Gen. xliii. 32., xlvi. 34., though 
both Pharaoh himself and his subjects are 
mentioned as possessing flocks and herds. Gen. 
xlvii. 6. 16, 17. It was reckoned amongst the 
best portions of the land, xlvii. 6. ; and being 
chiefly pasture, was most suitable for the flocks 
and herds of the Israelites, xhd. 34., xlvii. 4. ; 
1. 8. Here Jacob died, as well as Joseph and all 
his brethren, Ex. xiii. 19. ; and hence the 
children of Israel were brought away by Moses 
after the plagues by which Egypt was judicially 



visited, though the land of Goshen was pre- 
served from the tremendous visitations, Ex. viii. 
22.,' ix. 26. In some of the modern names which 
we meet with attached to vast heaps of ruins in 
these regions, such as Tel el Umd {Hill of the 
Jews'), Turhet el Ihud {Sepulchres of the Jews), 
we discover plain indications of the former re- 
sidence of the Israelites in Egypt ; but whether 
they belong to this period, or rather to the 
migration of many of them hither after the 
captivity, Jer. xliii. 4 — 7., xliv. 1., .is doubtful. 
It is called the land of Gesem in the Septuagint, 
and by the apocryphal writer of Judith, i. 9. ; in 
the latter it is mentioned amongst the countries 
smnmoned by Nabuchodonosor to assist him 
against Ai-phaxad. 

GOSHEN, the name of a Canaanitish city as- 
signed by Joshua, on the conquest of the 
country, to the tribe of Judah, Josh. xv. 51. It 
appears to have been in the S. part of the land 
on the borders of Edom; and to have given 
name to a neighbouring district, which was 
conquered by Joshua soon after his entrance into 
Canaan, x. 41., xi. 16. 

GOVERNMENTS, THE THREE, 1 Mace. x. 
30. 38., xi. 28. 34. ; and 

GOVERNMENTS, THE EOUR, 1 Mace. xi. 
57. See Apheeema. 

GOZAN, a country which Sennacherib 
boasted to Hezekiah that the kings of Assyria 
had plundered and desolated, 2 Kgs. xix. 12.; 
Isa. xxx^-ii. 12. From its being mentioned in 
connection with Haran, it is thought to have 
been in Mesopotamia; where between the R. 
Euphrates and Chaboras, the heathen geogra- 
phers mark the district of Gauzanitis, traces of 
which seem partially preserved in its modern 
name of Kouschan. The R. Chaboras, itself 
still called the Khahur, is likewise identified 
with the R. of Gozan; whither (amongst 
other places) Tiglath-Pileser carried captive the 
trans-Jordanic and northernmost tribes of Israel, 
2 Kgs. XV. 29., 1 Chron. v. 26., B.C. 740 ; and 
where some of the remnant of Israel, carried 
captive by Shalmaneser, B.C. 721, were also lo- 
cated, 2 Kgs. xviii. 11. Others, however, sup- 
pose that the R. of Gozan is further E. in 
Media, and identify it with the Kizil-Ozen, 
which runs down through the modern province 
of Ghilan into the Caspian Sea. 

GREAT PLAIN, THE, in the borders of 
Ragau, where Nabuchodonosor made war with 
Arphaxad, J udith i, 5. It appears to have been 
an extensive open country to the S. of the 



160 GEEAT PLAIN, THE. 



GREEKS. 



Caspian Sea, in the X.E. part of Media, and to 
the S. and S.E. of the city Kagau. This city is 
called Rages in Tobit i. 14., and Rhaga; by the 
profane authors, and its ruins, which still bear 
the name of Rha, are near the modern Persian 
capital Teheran. 

GREAT PLAINT, THE, 1 Mace. v. 52., or 
great Plain of Esdraelon, Judith i. 8., is called in 
Holy Writ the Yalley or Plain of Jezreel. Its 
inhabitants were amongst the host summoned to 
help Nabuchodonosor against Arphaxad ; and 
many years afterwards, the same plain (so fre- 
quently the great battle-ground of contending 
armies) Avas the scene of some of the gallant 
doings of Judas Maccabseus. See Jezreel. 

GREAT RIVER, THE, Gen. xv. 18. ; Deut. 
i. 7. ; Josh. i. 4. ; i.e. the Euphrates ; which 
see. 

GREAT SEA, THE, the name usually given 
in the Bible to that vast collection of waters 
separating the three continents of Europe, Asia, 
and Africa, which we designate the Mediteyra- 
nean Sea, Num. xxxiv. 6, 7. ; Josh. i. 4., ix. 1., 
XV. 12. 47., xxiii. 4. ; Ezek. xlvii. 10. 15. 19, 20., 
xlviii. 28. ; Dan. vii. 2. It is the largest inland 
sea in the world, its superficial extent being 
about 852,000 square miles; and though much 
smaller than any of the oceans, it is considerably 
more interesting from so many of the early na- 
tions of antiquity having settled round its shores. 
Of these we may especially mention the Jews, 
whose Promised Land it bounded on the W. side, 
Ex. xxiii.31. ; Num. xxx. 5, 6, 7. ; Deut. xi, 24. ; 
Josh. i. 4., xxiii. 4. ; Ps. Ixxii. 8,, Ixxx. 11. ; as 
it is also to bound it hereafter, when the Jews are 
finally restored to their own land, Ezek. xlvii. 
15. 19, 20., xlviii. 28. It is likewise in Holy 
Writ sometimes called the Utmost or Utter- 
most Sea, Deut. xi. 24., xxxiv, 2. ; Joel ii. 20. ; 
or the Hinder Sea, Zech. xiv, 8. ; and from 
being one of the largest bodies of water with 
which they were acquainted, it is also termed, in 
an especial way, the Sea, Gen. xlix. 13. ; Num. 
xxxiv. 5. ; Deut. xxx. 13..; Josh. xv. 4. 11. 46., 
xvi. 3. 6. 8., xvii. 9, 10., xix. 29. ; Judg. v. 17. ; 
1 Kgs. V. 9., xviii. 43, 44. ; 2 Chron. ii. 16. ; Ps. 
Ixxii. 8., Ixxx. 11., civ. 25., cvii. 23. ; Eccl. i. 
7. ; Isa. xxiii. 2. 4. 11., xxiv. 14, 15., xlii. 10. ; 
Jer. xlvi. 18. ; Ezek. xxvi. 3. 16, 17, 18., xxvii. 
3. 9. 29.; Dan. vii. 3.; Jonah i. 4—15.; Zech. 
ix. 4. 10. ; Acts x. 6. 32., xxvii. 40. ; Rev. xiii. 
1., xviii. 17. ; though it bears this appellation in 
common with the Red Sea, the S. of Galilee, 
the R. Nile, the R. Euphrates, &c. It is likewise 
called the Sea of the Philistines, Ex. xxiii. 



31., from its washing the coasts of this 
people. 

It likewise washed the W. borders of the 
tribe of Judah (as first allotted to it), Josh. xv. 
4. 11, 12. 46, 47. ; of Ephraim, xvi. 3. 6. 8. ; of 
Manasseh, xvii. 9, 10. ; of Zebulun, Gen. xlix. 
13. ; Josh. xix. 11. ; and of Asher, Josh. xix. 
29. ; Judg. V. 17. Its chief natural ports in 
Palestine were " the Haven of the Sea," Gen. 
xlix. 13. ; Joppa, 2 Chron. ii. 16. ; Zidon, Isa. 
xxiii. 2. 4. ; Tyre, Ezek. xxvii. 3. ; Csesarea, Acts 
xviii. 22., and other places had artificial harbours 
and landing-places. The Mediterranean Sea has 
many noble gulphs and bays, but none of these 
appear to be mentioned by name in Holy 
Scripture, excepting Adria, Acts xxvii. 27., the 
scene of Paul's tempestuous voyage before he was 
shipwrecked at Melita. Of the many rivers 
that run into it, Eccl. i. 7., only a few are men- 
tioned in the Bible ; as the Sihor (or Nile), the 
R. of Egypt, the Brooks Besor, Eshcol, Sorek, 
and Gaash, the R. Kan ah, the Waters of Me- 
giddo, and the R. Kishon. Among the countries 
lying round it whose names are mentioned by the 
Inspired Writers, may be enumerated in Asia, 
Canaan, Philistia, Tyre and Sidon, Syria, Cilicia, 
Pisidia, Pamphylia, and Mysia ; in Africa, Egypt, 
Libya, Lydia, Cyrene, and Phut; in Europe, 
Macedonia, Greece, lUyricum, Dalmatia, Italy, 
and Spain. These last mentioned, together with 
the . islands of the Mediterranean, such as 
Cjq^rus, Rhodes, Crete, Coos, Patmos, Samos, 
Chios, Samothracia, the Isles of Elisha, and 
Melita (the only ones mentioned by name in the 
Bible), are thought to constitute, together with 
the rest of Europe and Asia Minor, what in the 
Old Testament are sometimes called the Isles, or 
the Isles of the Sea, or the Isles of the Gentiles, 
or the Isles of the Heathen. All these countries 
have derived vast blessings from the Jews, both 
under the Mosaic and Christian dispensations: 
although it is from the Great Sea that the 
Antichristian or Popish power is represented as 
rising to corrupt the earth, and to persecute the 
saints, Dan. vii. 2, 3. ; Rev. xiii. 1.. xviii. 17. 

GRECIA, Dan. viii. 21., x. 20., xi. 2., or 

GREECE, Zech. ix. 13. ; Acts xx. 2. ; 1 Mace, 
i. 1. ; the people of which are called Grecians, 
Joel iii. 6. ; 1 Mace. vi. 2., viii. 9. 18. ; 2 Mace, 
iv. 15., xiii. 2. ; otherwise 

GREEKS, 1 Mace. i. 10. ; 2 Mace. iv. 13. 36. ; 

all names used in the Holy Scriptures and in 
the apocryphal books, with a wider or smaller 
signification. In the Old Testament, Greece and 
the Greeks (whether in the country strictly so 



GREEKS. 



IGl 



called, or in Asia Minor, or any of her colonies), 
are called Javan, after Javan, the fourth son of 
Japheth, Gen, x. 2. 4. ; 1 Chron. i. 5. ; and an old 
scholiast on Aristophanes states that " the Bar- 
barians call all the Greeks lonians" (i. e. Javan). 
The prophet Isaiah, Ixvi. 19., foretelling God's 
judgments against the wicked Jews, and the 
evangelisation of the Gentiles by some of them 
when converted, includes Javan amongst those 
nations who shall be blessed with the gospel. 
Ezekiel, xx^di. 13. 19., when denouncing woe 
against Tyre, speaks of Javan being amongst its 
merchants, especially in the persons of men ; and 
according to the prophet Joel, iii, 6., many of 
these slaves came from Judah and Jerusalem, 
having been sold to Javan by Tyre and Zidon, 
and the Philistines, for which these last three 
people are threatened with God's wrath. Daniel, 
viii. 21., X. 20., xi, 2., in his predictions concern- 
ing the conquering career of Alexander the Great 
and his war with Persia, describes him as the 
king of Gra3cia (Heb. Javan). Zechariah, ix. 13., 
when foretelling God's defence of His people, and 
their victory over their enemies, declares that 
the sons of Zion shall be raised up against the 
sons of Greece (Heb. Javari) ; a prediction which 
was fulfilled during the successes of the Macca- 
bees, and in the preaching of the gospel by the 
Apostles to the Gentiles ; or else, which remains 
yet to be fulfilled when the salvation, of all 
Israel shall prove to the whole Gentile world 
as life from the dead, Rom. xi. 12. 15. 26. 

After the death of Alexander, and the par- 
tition of his dominions amongst his successors as 
predicted by Daniel, the appellations Greece and 
Greeks were used by the Hebrews in a more 
enlarged and indefinite extent ; being applied to 
all the countries and people mastered by them, 
such as Syria, Egypt, Mesopotamia, tStc. In this 
sense, the terms are frequently used in the apo- 
cryphal writings ; where, in the struggles of the 
Maccabees, mention is made of the hostility of 
the Greeks, and the Kingdom of the Greeks 
(i. e. the Syro-Grecian empire of the Seleucidas, 
which began with Seleucus Nicator), 1 Mace. i. 1. 
10., vi. 2., viii. 9. 18. ; 2 Mace. iv. 10. 13. 15. 36., 
xiii. 2. 

In the evangelical histories, the name Greeks 
is used in a still wider sense, to designate all the 
Gentiles, even those who Avere Proselytes of the 
Gate, or devout men, Mk. vii. 26. ; Jo. xii. 20. ; 
Acts xiv. 1., xvi. 1. 3., xvii. 4. 12., xviii. 4. 17., 
xix. 10. 17., XX. 21., xxi. 28. ; Rom. i. 16., ii. 9., 
X. 12. ; 1 Cor. i. 22, 23, 24. ; Gal. ii. 3., iii. 28. ; 
Col. iii. 11. In some few of these passages it is 
possible allusion may be more especially made to 



the Greeks properly so called, i. e. such as spol<c 
the Greek language, mentioned Lu. xxiii. 38. ; 
Jo. xix. 20. ; Acts xxi. 37. ; Rev. ix. 11. ; and 

who are contradistinguished from the other 
heathen, whom they called Barbarians, in Rom. 
i. 14. The name of Greece, however, Avould 
appear to be used only once in the New Testa- 
ment, Acts XX. 2., to designate that country which 
is especially known by this name ; but which 
when the Apostle Paul travelled there, had been 
shorn of its tAvofine regions Epirus and Thessaly, 
the Romans having added these to their province 
of Macedonia. 

The names of Hellas and Hellenes, by which 
Greece and its inhabitants were anciently knowm, 
are thought to have been derived from Elishah, 
the eldest son of Javan, Gen. x. 4. ; 1 Chron. i. 
7. The prophet Ezekiel, xxvii. 7., mentions the 
Isles of Elishah, by which he may mean the 
coasts and islands of Greece and her colonies. 
The Romans obtained the name of Grajcia, by 
which they denominated these regions, from the 
Grreci, an inconsiderable tribe in Epirus, Avith 
whom, owing to their proximity, they Avere first 
acquainted. But when, in a much later age, 
they had completed the conquest of the Avhole 
country by the reduction of the states consti- 
tuting the Acha3an League, b. c. 146, they bor- 
rowed the name of the last nation that opposed 
their ambition to designate their ugav province, 
which thenceforAvard they termed Achaia. 

The land of Greece occupies only a secondary 
position in Holy Writ, though, in itself, one of 
the most celebrated countries of the world. It 
no doubt owed much of its knoAvledge and skill 
to the Egyptians, Chaldeans, and Phoenicians ; 
but it made these acquisitions completely its OAvn, 
giving them fresh energy and neAv forms ; and 
hence it is looked upon as the parent of the 
civilisation of all Europe. It has acquired a 
lasting renoAvn by the Avorks and doings of its 
heroes, poets, and philosophers ; and though its 
history is sadly disfigured by the usital vices of 
the heathen world, it contributed no ordinary 
shai-e in the deA^elopment of the arts and sciences. 
Its inhabitants Avere also distinguished for their 
love of liberty, as well as for their activity, en- 
terprise, and A'ersatility of talent ; and its lan- 
guage must be admired and cultivated, not only 
for its own beauties, and those of authors who 
haA'e written in it, but from its being the tongue 
in which the New Testament AA'as Avi-itten, and 
into Avhich also the Hebrew Old Testament wa 
translated by the Seventy, B.C. 284, a A-ersion 
which is hence called the Scptungint. It Avas 
perhaps owing to the almost universal prcva- 
U 



162 GRECIANS. 



HABOR. 



lence of its language, more than to the extent of 
its colonisation, that the Hebrews were wont to 
apply the term Greeks to all Gentiles. The 
S. part of Greece was a large peninsula called the 
Peloponnesus, now 3Iorea, being joined to the 
mainland by the Isthmus of Corinth, 'along 
which lay the state of Megaris : it contained the 
several regions of Corinth, Sicyonia, Phliasia, 
Achaia, Elis, Arcadia, Argolis, Laconica, and 
Messenia. Jf. of the isthmus were Attica, 
Bccotia, Phocis ; the Locri, Ozola^, Epicuemidii, 
and Opuntii ; Doris and Dryopia, yEtolia, Acar- 
nania, Epirus, and Thessaly. All these were long 
subject to their o"wn separate governments alone, 
more or less independent of each other, and often 
engaged in fierce wars with one another ; though 
they were not unfrequently leagued together, 
more or less extensively, for some party or na- 
tional purpose. They made a noble stand against 
the Persians and Macedonians ; but being sub- 
dued by the successors of Alexander the Great, 
they at last fell beneath the mighty and ambi- 
tious power of the Romans. 

GRECIAN'S, an appellation used in the Acts 
of the Apostles to describe those Jews who 
were not natives of Judaea, or who dwelt in Gen- 
tile cities, and spoke mostly the Greek language. 
Tliese Hellenistic Jews had their own syna- 
gogues in Jerusalem and Judtea, maintaining a 
constant intercourse with their mother-coun- 
tvy, and otherwise enjoying peculiar privileges. 
Though many of them appear to have been con- 
verted on the great Day of Pentecost, Acts ii. 5., 
vi. 1., as well as at a later period, xi. 20. ; yet 
they were mostly bitter enemies of Christianity, 
and greatly opposed the Apostles and first 
preachers of the gospel, especially Stephen, vi. 
9., and Paul, ix. 29. 

GUDGODAH, a station of the Israelites in the 



Wilderness, Deut. x. 7., called in Num. xxxii. 
32, 33., Hor-hagidgad, probably from its lying 
under Mt. Hor, where Aaron died and was 
buried. It was between the two stations of Mo- 
seroth in the land of the children of Jaakan, and 
Jotbath, 

GUNITES, a family of Naphtali, numbered 
with the rest of Israel in the Plains of Moab, 
Num. xxvi. 48. They were descended from Gimi, 
the second son of Naphtali, Gen. xlvi. 24. ; 1 
Chron. vii. 13. 

GUR, a place at the Going up to which, Aha- 
ziah, king of Judah, was smitten by the troops 
of Jehu, after the latter had killed Joram, king 
of Israel, in the field of Naboth, 2 Kgs. ix. 27. 
It was near Ibleam,. and not far from Megiddo, 
whither Ahaziah fled, and where he died ; but 
whether a town, or a part of Mt. Carmel, or 
some neighbouring height, is not known. 

GUR-BAAL, a region or city inhabited by 
the Arabians, whom Uzziah, king of Judah, in 
the beginning of his reign vanquished, 2 Chron. 
xxvi. 7. The Septuagint translates the word 
Petra ; so that, possibly, reference may be here 
made to the famous city of this name in Edom, 
Isa. xvi. 1., marg., called othei-wise Selah (i.e. 
the Eock) or Joktheel, 2 Kgs. xiv. 7. See 
Selah. 

GUTTER, THE, some part of the hill of Zion, 
whether a water-course of any kind, or the ditch 
that protected one portion of the fort, is not 
known. In Ps. xlii. 7., the word is translated 
w^ater-spout. It was to this " Gutter," that 
David provoked his troops to get up and smite 
the scornful Jebusites, who still had possession of 
Zion, 2 Sam. v. 8.; whereupon Joab led the 
way, and captured this stronghold, 1 Chron. 
xi. 6. 



HABAIAH, CHILDREN OF, a family of the 
priests, who returned home after the seventy 
years' captivity in Babylon, Ezra ii. 61. ; Neh. 
vii. 63. ; but their register not being found in 
the genealogy, they were, as polluted, put from 
the priesthood, until there should stand up a 
priest with Urim and Thummim. 

HABOR, a place whither Tiglath-Pileser, 
king of Assyria, carried captive the trans-Jor- 
danic and northernmost tribes of Israel, B.C. 
740, 2 Kgs. XV. 29. ; 1 Chron. v. 26. ; and where 



some of the remainder of the Ten Tribes carried 
captive by Shalmaneser, king of Assyria, b.c. 
721, were also located, 2 Kgs. xvii. 6., x^iii. 11. 
It is conjectured to have been upon or around 
the R. Chaboras of profane geography, which is 
still called Khabur, and flows into the R. Eu- 
phrates at Carchemish; and this the rather, 
from its being described as by the R. of Gozan, 
which itself may have been the Chaboras ; for 
the heathen authors place a district named Gau- 
zanitis, now Kouschan, betv/een it and the Eu- 
phrates. Others, however, place Habor in Me- 



IIACHILAII, HILL OF. 



IIAGARITES. 



1G3 



dia, about the banks of the river now called 
Kizil-Ozen,w\nch runs down through the modern 
Persian province of Ghilan into the Caspian Sea, 
on the S. of which is a town still called Ahhar 
or Habor, said to be very ancient. The prophet 
Ezekiel is thought to speak of Habor in his 
mention of the R. of Chebar. See Chebar. 

HACHILAH, HILL OF, where David con- 
cealed himself for a time from Saul, and where 
when betrayed by the Ziphims, Ps. liv., title, 
Saul went with hisforcesto seek him, 1 Sam. xxiii, 
19., xxvi. 1. 3. It appears to have lain to the 
S. of Jeshimon, or the Wilderness of Ziph, in the 
country of the Ziphims, about 10 miles E. of 
Hebron, and near the Dead Sea. 

HACHMONITE, THE, a patronymic of one 
of David's mighty men, who was the chief of his 
captains, 1 Chron. xi. 1 1., xxvii. 32., marg. He 
is called the Tachmonite 2 Sam. xxiii. 8., but 
whence the name is derived does not appear. 

HADASHAH, a city of the tribe of Judah in 
the Valley, Josh. xv. 37., and so, near the 
borders of Simeon and Dan. 

HADATTAH, a city belonging to the tribe of 
Judah, in its S. part, towards the frontiers of 
Edom, Josh. xv. 25, 

HADADRIMMOX, a place in the Valley of 
Megiddon, Zech. xii. 11., where Josiah, king of 
Judah, was slain by Pharaoh-Xechoh, when 
attempting to prevent his campaign against 
Carchemish on the Euphrates, 2 Kgs. xxiii. 29. ; 
2 Chron. xxxv. 22. Upon this occasion there 
w^as a great mourning and lamentation made for 
him by all Judah and Jerusalem, in which, the 
prophet Jeremiah took a conspicuous part, and 
which Avas thenceforward made an ordinance in 
Israel, 2 Chron. xxxv. 25. ; and such, it is fore- 
told b}^ Zechariah shall be the moui-ning of the 
repentant Jews at Jerusalem, when they have 
been brought back to their own land in the last 
days, made victorious over all their enemies, and 
been blessed with a spirit of grace and supplica- 
tion, Zech. xii. 6. 8. 10. Hadadrimmon was in 
the inheritance of the half-tribe of Manasseh on 
this side Jordan. Jerome says it was afterwards 
called Maximianopohs, which the Jerusalem 
Itineraiy places 17 miles from Ctesarea and 10 
from Esdraelon. 

HADID, a city of thcBenjamites, re-inhabited 
after the Babylonian captivity, Neh. xi. 34., by 
the children of Hadid or Harid, who returned 
home with Zerubbabel, Ezra ii. S3. ; Neh. vii. 37. 
It is mentioned in conjunction with Lod, i.e. 
Lydda and Ono, and so probably w^as near these 



two places. It is supposed to have been the 
same with Adida, a town in the district of 
Sc-phela, the plain country in front of the Medi- 
terranean Sea, to the S. of Joppa, and which is 
mentioned as an important town during the 
Maccabtean Avars, 1 Mace. xii. 38., xiii. 13. 
Eusebius and Jerome both place the town of Adi 
or Aditha near Lydda. 

HADORAM, the name of one of the families 
descended from Joktan, the j'ounger son of 
Eber, Gen. x. 27.; 1 Chron. i. 21. They are 
supposed to have settled somewhere in Persia, 
though others place them in Arabia. In the 
Septuagint they are called Odoora andKedouram, 

HADRACH, TI-IE LAXD OF, against which 
a burden of woe is denounced by the prophet 
Zechariah, ix. 1., Avhich is especially to rest on 
Damascus. It is uncertain Avhat place or country 
is meant, but most probably Syria itself, which 
is here designated under some appellation re- 
ferring to one of its idols, as Ashtaroth or 
Derceto, though the metropolis is called by its 
ordmaiy name. Others think that the neigh- 
bouring kingdom of Zobah, 2 Sam. viii. 4., is 
signified, and others, that Hadrach points out a 
great city which, according to the old rabbins, 
lay to the E. of Damascus, and whose site was 
still seen in their days. It is called Sedrach in 
the Septuagint. Ptolemy mentions a town in 
Coele-Syria named Adra, which is supposed by 
some writers to cany traces in it of the ancient 
Hadrach. 

HAGAB, THE CHILDREX OF, a family of 
the Nethinims that returned home with Zerub- 
babel after the Babylonian captivity, Ezra ii. 
46., as did also anotlier family of them called 

HAGABAH, THE CHILDREN OF, Ezra 
ii. 45. ; Neh. vii. 48. 

HAGARENES, or 

HAGARITES, a people descended fi-om 
Ishmael, the son of Abraham by Hagar, Gen. 
xvi. 15., xxi. 9., XXV. 12., who appear to have 
settled to the E. and S. E. of Canaan, whence 
they traded with Egypt in the productions of 
their own country and of Gilead. Some of 
them, called Ishmaelites, Gen. xxxvii. 25. 27, 
28., xxxix. 1,, or Midianites, xxxvii. 28. 36., 
appear to have bought Joseph from his brethren, 
and sold him again to Potiphar. The}- bordered 
on what became eventually the inheritance of 
Reuben and Gad in Gilead, into which they 
thrust themselves after the conquest of the 
two Amorite kings by Moses, but were soon 
driven out again by the Israelites. Three 
M 2 



164 



HAGGITES. 



HALICARNASSUS. 



families of them are afterwards especially men- 
tioned, viz. Jetur, Xephish, and Nodab, as hav- 
ing been assailed by the two and a half tribes 
beyond Jordan, and conquered by them, when 
they carried off a great spoil, 1 Chron. v. 10. 
19, 20. One of David's valiant men was a 
Haggerite, 1 Chron. xi. 38. ; and his chief 
shepherd also was a Hagerite, 1 Chron. sxvii. 
31. These and other branches of the Hagarenes 
appear to have often combined with Moab, 
Ammon, Edom, Amalek, and other enemies of 
Israel, Ps. Ixxxiii. 6., and may perhaps be 
sometimes included among the Children of the 
East and the Arabians, who from time to time 
oppressed the Jews. Hagar is made by St. 
Paul, Gal. iv. 2i, 25., to shadow forth the JeAvs 
in their bondage to their law. There is a tribe 
named Agrsei placed in this neighbourhood by 
the profane authors, and also another called 
Gerrhaei on the W. shores of the Persian Gulf, 
both of Avhich may have sprung from the 
Hagarites: and the district of Ituraa, S.W. of 
Damascus, Lu. iii. 1., no doubt derived its name 
from the Jetur mentioned above. According to 
the apocryphal book of Baruch, iii. 23., the 
Agarenes were great seekers after wisdom. 

HAGGITES, a family of the tribe of Gad, 
descended from Haggi, the second son of Gad, 
and numbered with the rest of Israel ia the 
Plains of ]\Ioab, Gen. xlvi. 16. ; Xum. xxvi. 15. 

HAI, an ancient city of Canaan to the E. of 
Bethel, near which Abram pitched his tent soon 
after his first entrance into the land, Gen. sii. 
8., and again after his return out of Egypt, 
xiii. 3. It is commonly written Ai in the book 
of Joshua. See Ax. 

HAKA^T, THE CHILDREX OF, a marginal 
reading of 1 Mace. v. 4., for the children of 
Bean, who are thus supposed to have sprung 
from Akan, Gen. xxxvi. 26., or Jakan, 1 Chron. 
i. 42., a descendant of Esau; or from the Bene- 
jaakan, or children of Jaakan, Num. xxxiii. 
31, 32., Deut. x. 6., near whom the Israelites 
had one of their encampments in the neighbour- 
hood of Mt. Hoi", They are here mentioned 
amongst those Edomites who were smitten by 
Judas Maccabjeus for their treachery. See 
Beax. 

HAKUPHA, THE CHILDREN OF, a family 
of the Nethinims that returned home with 
Zerubbabel after the seventy years' captivity 
in Babylon, Ezra ii. 51. ; Neh. vii. 53. 

HALAH, a city or region whither, amongst 
other places, Tiglath-Pileser, king of Assyria, 



carried captive the trans- Jordanic and northern- 
most tribes of Israel, B.C. 740, 2 Kgs. xv. 29. ; 
1 Chron. v. 26. ; and whither also Shalmaneser, 
king of Assyria, carried captive the remnant 
of the Ten Tribes, B.C. 721, 2 Kgs. xvii. G., 
xviii. 11. From its being mentioned together 
with Habor and the R. of Gozan, Halah is 
thought to have been in the N. part of the 
province of Assyria, where Ptolemy places the 
district Calachene ; and thus it might be iden- 
tified with the Calah mentioned in Gen. x. 11, 
12., as haviiig been built by Nimrod. Others, 
however, would assign it a more S. situation, 
near the modern city of Holwan, once a famous 
summer-residence of the caliphs, on the borders 
of Ii^ak and Kourdistan. But those who think 
the R. of Gozan is the same with the ^«2«7- Oze/i, 
which runs into the S. part of the Caspian Sea, 
would place Halah in that neighbourhood, 
about the modern Persian province of Ghilan. 

HALAK, MT. (the Smooth Blountahi), a moun- 
tain in the S. part of the land of Canaan, Avhich 
is described as going up to Seir. Between it on 
the S. and Baal-Gad in the Valley of Lebanon 
on the N., lay the dominions of the one and 
thirt}' kings conquered by Joshua, Josh. xi. 17., 
xii. 7. Indeed Mt. Halak and Baal-Gad may 
be taken as the two extremities of Canaan, iu 
the same way that the land of Israel is de- 
scribed as extending from Dan to Beersheba. 

HALHUL, a city of the tribe of Judah in 
the hill country. Josh. xv. 58., supposed to have 
been near Hebron, where Jerome mentions a 
small town called Alula. 

HALI, a city within the inheritance of the 
tribe of Asher, Josh. xix. 25. 

HALICARNASSUS, a city of the province of 
Caria in Asia Minor, said in 1 Mace. xv. 23. 
to have been one of the places to which the 
Romans wrote letters in favour of the Jews, 
testifying their friendship and confederacy. It 
was opposite the island of Cos or Coos, passed 
by St. Paul in his voyage from Ephesus to 
Jerusalem, Acts xxi. 1., on the N. shore of what 
is now called, the Gulf of Cos. On the S. shore 
of the gulf was the celebrated city of Cnidus, also 
passed by the great Apostle in his stormy voyage 
from Jerusalem to Rome, Acts xx-\di. 7. Hali- 
carnassus, now called Boodroom, was founded 
originally by a Greek colony from Troszene ; it 
became the largest and most beautiful city in 
all Caria, and was the metropolis of Doris until 
disunited fj;om the league, in consequence of a 
dispute which took place at one of their solemn 



HAM, THE LAND OF. 



HAMATH. 



1G5 



festivals. It vtsls the residence of the Carian 
kings, to one of whom, Mausolus, his qneen 
Artemisia raised such a magnificent sepulchre, 
that it was considered one of the seven wonders 
of the world, and from it all splendid tombs 
came to be called Maiisolea. The citadel of 
Halicarnassus was so strong that it was be- 
sieged in vain for a considerable time by Alex- 
ander the Great. Herodotus, the father of 
history, Dionysius Halicarnassensis, the philo- 
sopher Heraclitus, and many other great men, 
were born in this city. 

HAM, THE LAND OF, or Tabernacles 
OF, the ancient name of Egypt, derived from 
Ham, the second son of Noah, Gen. v. 32., vi. 
10., vii. 13., and father of Canaan, ix. 18. 22, 
He seems to have settled with his sons Gush, 
Mizraim, Phut, and Canaan, x. 6., chiefly in the 
continent of Africa, though they extended into 
the adjoining parts of Asia, where they are 
thought to have peopled Arabia and Canaan. 
Though Egypt is generally called Mizraim in 
the Old Testament, after Mizraim, the second 
son of Ham, yet it is occasionally named the 
laud of Ham, as in 1 Chron. iv. 40. ; Ps. 
Ixxviii. 51., cv. 23. 27., cvi. 22. ; and Plutarch 
states that the Egyptians themselves in some 
of their sacred writings, styled their country 
Chemia or Chamia, an appellation plainly de- 
rived from that of Ham. It has been thought 
by some that the iJol Hammon or Ammon, 
worshipped in Egj-pt and Lybia, was Ham ; 
but this is doubtful. See Egypt. The de- 
scendants of Ham were as follows : 



HA3I. 



1 


1 1 
Mizraim. Phut. 

1 


Canaax. 


Seba 


1 f 

Ludim 


'sidon ' 


Hm-ilah 


Auainim 


Heth 


Sabtiih 


Leliabim 


Jebusite 


Raainih — 


Naphtuliim 


Amorite 


Sabtecliah | 


Pathiusim 


Girgasite 


I^imrod 


Casluhim — . 


Hivite 




Caphtoiim 


Arkite 


SJieba 


Siuite 


JDedan 


Philisthn 


Arvadite 






Zamarite 






Hamatiiite. 



HAM, THEY OF, 1 Chron. iv. 40., is an ex- 
pression thought by certain critics to refer to 
the Philistines, or the Amalekites ; but it seems 
most likely to have designated some wandering- 
tribe of the Eg3'ptians or the Casluhim ; except 
indeed, it should have related to the Ham men- 
tioned in Gen. xiv. 5., and so possibly have 
some connection with the Ammonites and Ha- 
mathites. 

HA1\I, Gen. xiv. 5., a region or city of the 
Zazims, who were here smitten by Chedor- 



laomer, king of Elam, and the three kings that 
were with him. It may, perhaps, have been in 
the neighbourhood of the city known afterwards 
as Ammon, or Eabbath-Ammon, which became 
the metropolis of the Ammonites, and is still 
called Amman ; as it appears to have been in the 
country inhabited of old by these Zuzims and 
Zamzummims, Deut. ii. 20., lying to the S.E. of 
Mt. Gilead, on the borders of Arabia. The Sep- 
tuagint version translates the word Ham, " iv'dh 
them;" meaning that the Rephaims and Zuzims 
were both smitten. This rendering therefore, if 
correct, would account for Ham not being men- 
tioned elsewhere in Holy Writ, except it should 
be included amongst the possessions of the 
Hamathite, Gen. x, 18. Jerome states that the 
city of Amatha, which lay to the S.E. of the Sea 
of Tiberias, and was celebrated for its hot springs, 
still known as Hammet el .S/teiA/i, was founded by 
a colony of the Hamathites. 

HAMATH, the name of a country and king- 
dom to the of Canaan, the situation and 
extent of which can only be generally defined. 
Its inhabitants are supposed to be first men- 
tioned in Gen. x. 18., 1 Chron. i. 16., amongst 
the tribes descended from the eleven sons of 
Canaan, of whom the Hamathite was the 
youngest. It appears to have been in some part 
(probably towards the sea) separated from the 
land of Canaan by the district or kingdom of 
Rehob ; the spies sent out by Moses from the 
Wilderness having searched the Land of Pro- 
mise as far as the latter country, " as men come 
to Hamath," Num. xiii. 21.; though it is evi- 
dent, that the Israelitish border touched close 
upon Riblah, Nnra. xxxiv. 11,, which Avas in the 
land of Hamath, 2 Kgs. xxiii. 33. And the 
expression of the Extraxce of Hamath, Xum. 
xxxiv. 8. ; or the Entering into Hamath, Josh, 
xiii. 5. ; or the Entering in of Hamath, Judg. 
iii, 3. ; 1 Kgs. viii. Go. ; 2 Chron. vii. 3. ; Amos 
vi. 14. ; or the Entering of Hamath, 2 Kgs. xiv. 
25. ; 1 Chron. xiii. o, ; by which the X. limits 
of Israel are so often defined, in opposition to 
the S. boundaries of the R. of Egypt and the 
Sea of the Plain, seems to hint that, however 
closely the land of Hamath once bordered on 
Canaan, yet that it did not latterly actually join 
it, excepting by this means. The " Entrance " 
v.'as, perhaps, the name given to that long valley 
between the two ranges of IMt. Lebanon and 
Mt. Hor, or Anti-Lebanon, called Anion by 
some profane authors, and through which flows 
the Water of Lebanon, or the R. Leontes; its 
modern appellation is El-Behaa. The kingdom 
-bi 3 



166 HAMATH. 



HAMMON. 



of Hamath seems also to have lain to the N.W. 
of the kingdom of Zobah ; as when David went 
to establish his dominion by the K. Euphrates, 
he smote Hadadezer unto Hamath, 1 Chron. xviii. 
3. Upon this occasion, Toi, king of Hamath, 
sent presents to David, and entered into friendly 
relations with him, 2 Sam. viii. 9. ; 1 Chron. 
xviii. 9. ; having before that been at war with 
Hadadezer, and probably lost that portion of his 
territory named Hamath-zobah ; which if David 
took possession of it, as it is most likely he did, 
Solomon re-conquered, and built store-cities in 
it, 2 Chron. viii. 3, 4., though it appears to have 
rebelled again, and to have been re-conquered b}'- 
Jeroboam II. many years afterwards, 2 Kgs. 
xiv. 28. 

The land or kingdom of Hamath may per- 
haps, therefore, have once included the whole 
N. part of Syria, extending to the confines of 
Palestine betAveen Rehob and Syria-Damascus ; 
although it may have from time to time lost 
portions of its territory in wars with the neigh- 
bouring sovereigns. Its metropolis was like- 
wise called Hamath, or as Amos, vi. 2., styles it, 
Hamath the Great, and stood upon the R. 
Orontes, now Aaszy, which flows past 
Antioch into the Mediterranean Sea. It was 
probably desolated by the Assyrians, agreeably 
to the words of Amos, which may account for 
Eiblah being so often mentioned, and not 
Hamath, from which it was only 30 miles dis- 
tant. But it afterwards recovered its splendour, 
and when at a much later period it fell into the 
hands of the Greeks, they changed its name to 
Epiphania; an appellation, however, which it 
did not long retain, being still called Hamah, 
and having a population of nearly 50,000 souls. 
It has been supposed by many that there were 
two cities of this name, though both on the 
same river ; Hamath the Great having stood at 
Antioch, which being destroyed, Hamath the 
Less was built at Hamah. It would appear from 
the boasting of Sennacherib to Hezekiah, king 
of Judah, and from the blasphemous letter he 
sent him, that the Assyrian monarchs had at 
last overpowered the kingdom of Hamath, 2 Kgs. 
xviii. 34., xix. 13. ; 2 Chron. xxxii. 14. ; Isa. x. 
9,, xxxvi. 19., xxxvii. 13.; and from it, after 
the final captivity of the kingdom of Israel, 
Esar-haddon brought some of its idolatrous 
inhabitants to put them in the cities of Samaria, 
where they set up their false god Ashima, 
2 Kgs. xvii. 24. 30. ; Ezra iv. 2. 10. 

After the death of Josiah, king of Judah, 
Hamath appears to have fallen for a time into 
the hands of Pharaoh-Nechoh, king of Egypt ; 



who, at one of its cities, named Riblah, im- 
prisoned Jehoahaz, the son of Josiah, until he 
sent him to Egypt, where he died, 2 Kgs. xxiii. 
33. But it was soon recovered by the king of 
Babylon, who perhaps carried out against it the 
threatenings of Jeremiah, xlix. 23. ; and when 
Jerusalem was destroyed, b. c. 588, held his 
court at Eiblah, where they put out the eyes of 
Zedekiah, Idng of Judah, and slew his sons, 2 
Kgs. XXV. 6, 7. ; Jer. xxxix. 5, 6., Hi. 9., as well 
as many of the nobles of Jerusalem, 2 Kgs. xxv. 
20, 21. ; Jer. lii. 27. In this gradual and harass- 
ing devastation of Israel, it is not unlikely that 
Hamath in some way joined, as did most of the 
neighbouring countries. For some such offence 
the prophet Zechariah, ix. 2., denounces war 
against it. Many of the Jews are now scattered 
over this country, and are to be recovered when 
the whole nation is brought back to their own 
land, Isa. xi. 11. At that time, Hamath is once 
again to form part of the K border of the Pro- 
mised Land, and more particularly of the tribe 
of Dan, Ezek. xlvii. 16, 17. 20., xlviii. 1. 

HAMATH, ENTERING IN OF. See Ha- 
math. 

HAMATHITE, Gen. x. 18. ; 1 Chron. i. 16., 

so called from the youngest son of Canaan, whose 
descendants are thought to have settled in the 
N. part of Syria, between Asia Minor and Pa- 
lestine. See Hamath. 

HAMATH-ZOBAH, 2 Chron. viii. 3., a king- 
dom of Syria to the N.E. of Canaan, between 
Damascus and the Euphrates, the limits of which 
are not known. It is conjectured by some to be 
the same with Zobah ; but others think it was 
another and an independent state, until it was 
captured from Toi, the king of Hamath, by 
Hadadezer, king of Zobah, 2 Sam. viii. 10. ; 
1 Chron. xviii. 10. ; when it is presumed to have 
received this name, or else afterwards, when 
David vanquished Hadadezei', 2 Sam. viii. 3. 7. 
9.; 1 Chron. xviii. 3. 5. 7. 9. Hamath-zobah 
was conquered again by Solomon, 2 Chron. viii. 
3., who built cities in it, at the same time that 
he built Tadmor in the Wilderness, viii. 4., 
which is said to have been " in the land," and 
which is supposed by some to have been in 
the old territory of Hamath-zobah. See 
Hamath. 

HAMMATH, a fenced city of the tribe of 
Naphtali, Josh. xix. 35. 

HAMMON, a city of the tribe of Asher, Josh, 
xix. 28. ; supposed by some to be the same with 
Baal-hammou, So. of Sol. viii. 11., where Solomon 



HAMMON. 



IIAPHRAIM. 167 



iuid a favourite vineyard, wliic'li ho let out to 
keepers, each of whom was to pay him 1000 
pieces of silver. 

HAMMON, a city in the inheritance of 
Kaphtali, 1 Chron. vi. 7G., which is thought to 
be the same with 

HAMMOTH-DOR, Josh. xxi. 32., in the 
tribe of Naphtali, since both are mentioned as 
having been constituted Levitical cities, and 
assigned to the children of Gershon. 

H AMONAH (i. e. the Multitude), the name to 
be given to a city which is to stand apparently 
in the Valley of Hamon-Gog, after the first 
overthrow of the vast host of Gog and Magog in 
the latter days, Ezek. xxxix. 16. See Gog. 

HAMON-GOG (i.e. the IMtiticde of Gog), 
THE VALLEY OF, otherwise the Valley of 
the Passengers, where the huge armies of Gog 
and Magog, with all their followers, are to be 
miraculously overthrown, when they come up 
against the Jews, after their restoration to their 
own land, in the days before the Millennium, 
Ezek. xxxix. 11. 15. Its situation is within the 
limits of the land of Israel, on the E. of " the 
Sea ; " but whether of the Sea of Gennesaret, 
or the Sea of the Plain is signified, remains un- 
certain. Here the carcases of this mighty arm}^, 
after having for some time polluted the air so 
as to stop the noses of the passengers, are at last 
to be buried, and the valley is thenceforward to 
receive its name. 

HAMULITES, a family of the tribe of Judah, 
which was numbered by Moses with the rest of 
Israel in the Plains of Moab, Num. xxvi. 21., so 
called after Hamul, the grandson of Judah, Gen. 
xlvi. 12. ; 1 Chron. ii. 5. 

HANAN, THE CHILDREN OF, a family 
of the Nethinims, who returned home with 
Zerubbabel after the seventy years' captivity in 
Babylon, Ezra ii. 46. ; Neh. vii. 49. 

HANANEEL, the name of one of the many 
towers, Ps. xlviii. 12., in the Avails of Jeru- 
salem, probably near the N.E. corner. Jeremiah 
foretold that, after the destruction of the city 
by the Chaldeans, it should again form one of 
its limits, Jer. xxxi. 38. ; which was so far 
accomplished when the walls were rebuilt on 
the incitement of Nehemiah, who with the 
priests, and Levites, and princes of Israel, de- 
dicated them to the Lord, Neh. iii. 1., xii. 39. 
Though now in ruins, together with the rest of 
the city, it appears from the prophecy of Zecha- 
riah, xiv. 10., as if destined again to form ou(^ 



of the extreme points of the New City in the 
latter days. 

IIANES, a city of Egj'pt, whither the Jews 
in the days of Hezckiah sent ambassadors to 
ask for aid against Sennacherib, for which they 
were threatened with punishment by the prophet 
Isaiah, xxx. 4. It was probably the same with 
Tahapanes, Jer. ii. 16. ; or Tahpanhes, Jer. xliii. 
7, 8, 9., xliv. 1., xlvi. 14.; or Tehaphnehes, 
Ezek. xxx. 18. ; which was one of the chief 
residences of the Pharaohs, on the banks of the 
easternmost or Bubastic branch of the Nile, 
about midway between Zoan and Sin. Others, 
however, place it much further S., towards the 
centre of Egypt, where now is the village Ahnas, 
and formerly stood the city called Heracleopolis 
Magna. There was here a splendid palace of 
the kings of Egypt, and the city itself appears 
in the time of Jeremiah and Ezekiel to have 
been a luxurious and pompous place. It carried 
on an extensive trade with many nations 
through the Mediterranean and Red Seas, and 
was so powerful, that Jeremiah, when lamenting 
the sufferings of the Jews, mentions it specially 
amongst their persecutors. It was one of the 
cities to which Johanan carried off Jeremiah 
and the remnant of the captivity after the 
murder of Gedaliah by Ishmael, in contempt of 
the prophet's prediction of its speedy desolation 
by Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon. Accord- 
ing to a doubtful tradition, Jeremiah, who is 
believed to have been put to death in Egypt, 
was buried here. Planes is identified with the 
Anusis and the Daphnce Pelusi^e of Herodotus. 
The apocryphal writer in Judith i. 9., calls it 
Taphnes, and mentions it as one of the places 
summoned by Nabuchodonosor, king of the 
Assyrians, to assist him against Arphaxad, king 
of the Medes. 

HANNATHON, a town or district of the 
tribe of Zebulun, Josh. xix. 14. 

HANOCHITES, a family of the tribe of 
Reuben, which Avas numbered Avith the rest of 
Israel by Moses in the Plains of Moab, Num. 
xxvi. 5., and sprang from Hanoch, the eldest 
son of Reuben, Gen. xlvi. 9. ; Ex. vi. 14. ; 
1 Chron. v. 3. 

HAPHRAIjM, a town in the inheritance of 
Issachar, Josh. xix. 19., placed by Eusebius 
10 miles N. from Legio, now called Lejjun, and 
so near the R. Ivishon, and towards the "\V. 
borders of the great Plain of Jczreel. Some 
identify it Avitli the district -VplicronKi, men- 
tioned 1 Mace. xi. 34. ; but this is very doubt • 
ful. See AniEUEAiA. 

4 



168 



HARA. 



HAROD, WELL OF. 



HARA, 1 Chron. v. 26., one of the places 
whither Tiglath-Pileser, king of Assyria, re- 
moved the trans -Jordanic and northernmost 
tribes of Israel, whom he took captive, b. c. 740. 
It is conjectured to have been a district in 
Media, about the modern province of Irak ; but 
others fix it much further to the E., in the 
province of Aria, the modern Khorasan, near the 
city Aria, which is now called Herat. But it is 
not vmlikely that it is the same place with 
Haran, which Sennacherib, king of Assyria, 
boasted to Hezekiah that his fathers had de- 
stroyed, 2 Kgs. xix. 12. ; Isa, xxxvii. 12. ; 
especially as Hara is only mentioned in the 
book of Chronicles, which omits all notice of 
this Haran. See Haran. 

HARADAH, a station of the Israelites 
during their journeying in the Wilderness, Num. 
xxxiii. 24, 25. 

HARAN, an ancient city in the N. part 
of Mesopotamia, whither Abram with his 
father Terah, and Lot his cousin, removed at the 
command of God, from Ur of the Chaldees, 
B.C. 1921 ; and where he dwelt for a time, until 
after the death of Terah, Gen. xi. 31, 32., xii. 
4, 5. The name is written Charran in the Acts 
of the Apostles, vii. 2. 4., and in the Septuagint. 
It is thought to be the same with the city of 
Nahor in Mesopotamia, Gen. xxiv. 10., whither 
Abraham sent his servant to obtain a wife for 
his son Isaac, and whence he brought Rebekah. 
Hither Jacob fled to his mother's brother Laban 
after he had deceived his father in the matter of 
the blessing, Gen. xxvii. 43.. xxviii. 10., xxix. 
4. It appears to have been reduced to subjec- 
tion by some of the kings of Assyria, as Senna- 
cherib boasted of the fact when endeavouring to 
frighten Hezekiah into submission, 2 Kgs. xix. 
12. ; Isa. xxxvii. 12. ; and hence it may be not 
unlikely to have been the place called Hara 
in 1 Chron. v. 26., whither Tiglath-Pileser, 
about thirty years before, had removed some of 
the trans-Jordanic Israelites whom he had 
taken captive. The prophet Ezekiel, xxvii. 23., 
enumerates Haran amongst those places of 
the East that supplied Tyre with its rich mer- 
chandize. It is called Chai'rse in profane history, 
and is celebrated as having been the place where 
Crassus the triumvir, took refuge after his 
defeat by the Parthians; but flying by night 
towards Armenia, he was overtaken and put to 
death by his enemies, who in derision of his 
avari:e poured melted gold down his throat. 
The inhabitants of Charrae were noted for their 
worship of the host of heaven, but more espe- 



cially of the moon. The city still retains its old 
name of TIarran. 

HARARITE, the patronymic of two of 
David's mighty men, 2 Sam. xxiii. 11. 33.; 
1 Chron. xi. 34. It is written Harorite in 
1 Chron. xi. 27., or ELarodite in the margin, and 
in 2 Sam. xxiii. 25. 

HARETH, FOREST OF, a place in the 
tribe of Judah, whither David fled from Saul 
after leaving the cave of Adullam, and com- 
mending his parents to the good offices of 
the king of Moab, 1 Sam. xxii. 5., xxiii. 3. It 
was hither that Abiathar brought David the 
tidings of Saul's having slain all the inhabitants 
of Nob ; and hence David set out on his expedi- 
tion to save Keilah from the Philistines. 

HARHUR, CPIILDREN OF, a family of the 
Nethinims that returned home with Zerubbabel 
after the seventy years' captivity, Ezra ii. 51. ; 
Neh. vii. 53. 

HARIM, THE CHILDREN OF, two fami- 
lies so named returned from Babylon after th e 
captivity ; one of the priests, Ezra ii, 39. ; Neh. 
vii. 42. ; the third one in order of the twenty- 
four courses appointed by David, 1 Chron. xxiv. 
8. ; the other, of the people, Ezra ii. 32. ; Neh» 
vii. 35. 

HARIPH, THE CHILDREN OF, who 
returned from Babylon with Zerubbabel after 
the edict of Cyrus, e.c. 536, Neh. vii. 24.; 
they are called children of Jonah in Ezra ii. 
18. , 

HAROD, WELL OF (i.e. of Fear), the place 
where Gideon before his battle with the Midian- 
ites, encamped with his army of 32,000 men. 
This great host was here first reduced to 10,000 
by his proclaiming that all who were fearful and 
afraid were to return home ; and then, further 
diminished to 300, by selecting such men only 
as drank water by lapping with the hand. It 
was somewhere by the Hill of Moreh, Judg. vii. 
1., probably in the inheritance of the half- 
tribe of Manasseh on this side Jordan, in the 
neighbourhood of the fords of Beth-barah, vii. 
24, 25., where many of the Midianites were 
taken and slain. It has been supposed by some 
that it was near Mt. Gilead, from Gideon's com- 
manding all the fearful ones to depart from Mt. 
Gilead, Judg. vii. 3. ; but the expression may 
mean nothing more than their leaving him 
and his countrymen, who followed him from 
and belonged to Mt. Gilead. It is supposed 
to have been the same with " the Fountain in 



HARODITE. 



HAVOTII-JAm. 



1G9 



Jezreel," by -whicli the Israelites under Saul 
pitched, previous to the fatal battle of Gilboa, 
1 Sam. xxix. 1. ; but this seems doubtful, being 
too far from the Hill of Moreh. It is called Arad 
iu the Septuagint, 

HARODITE, the patronymic of one of 

David's mighty men, 2 Sam. xxiii. 25. ; 
written 

HAEORITE iu 1 Chron. xi. 27. See IIaka- 

KITE. 

HAROSHETH of the Gentiles, a city in the 
IST. of Cana;in, the dwelling-place of Sisera, the 
general of Jubin, king of Canaan, who reigned 
in the neighbouring city of Hazor, Judg. iv. 2. 
13. 16. It was probably in the lot of Xaphtali, 
iv. 6. 10, 11., not far from the Waters of Merom, 
and so, in the midst of Galilee, or of " the 
Nations of Gilgal," Josh, xii, 23., or " The 
Nations" of Gen. xiv. 1. 9. ; whence it may have 
derived its epithet. Sisera gathered all the hosts 
he could between Harosheth and the R. Kishon, 
on the borders of which, and of the Waters 
of Megiddo, and at Endor, he and Jabin met 
their defeat, the army being chased back to 
Harosheth, Judg. iv. 7., v. 19. 21.; Ps, Ixxxiii. 
9, 10. 

HARSHA, CHILDRE?^ OF, a family of the 
Nethinims that returned home with Zerubbabel 
after the captivity in Babylon, Ezra ii. 52. ; JSTeh. 
vii. 54. 

HARUPHITE, a patronymic of one of David's 
valiant men of Benjamin, who went and joined 
him at Ziklag, when he Avas defending himself 
against Saul, 1 Chron. xii. 5. 

HASHIMOXAH, a station of the Israelites 
when marching through the Wilderness, Num. 
xxxiii. 29, SO. 

HASKUM, CHILDREN" OF, Ezra ii. 19.; 
Neh. vii, 22. ; who returned to Judaea with Ze- 
rubbabel after the seventy years' captivity in 
Babylon ; as did also the children of 

HASUPHA, Ezra ii. 43., or Hashupha, Xeh. 
vii. 46., a family of the Nethinims; and the 
children of 

HATIPHA, another family of the Xethinims, 
Ezra ii. 54. ; Neh. vii. 56. ; and likewise the 
children of 

HATHA, a family of the porters, Ezra ii. 
42. ; Xeh. vii. 45. ; and the children of 

HATTIL, a family of Solomon's servants, Ezra 
ii. 57. ; Neh. vii. 59. 

HAYEN OF THE SEA, THE, a place where 



Jacob foretold that Zebulun should dwell when 
settled in the Promised Land, and which was to 
be for a "haven of ships," Gen. xlix. 13. Moses 
appears to allude to it in his blessing on this 
tribe, Deut. xxxiii. 18, 19., as "the Going out " 
of Zebulun, and as one of the places where they 
should suck of the abundance of tlie seas, and of 
treasures hid in the sand. It is usually identified 
with the famous gulf, now called the Bay of 
Acre, on the Mediterranean Sea; though others, 
with less reason, fix it at some place on the Sea 
of Chinnereth, such as Tiberias. 

HAYEN OF THE SEA, THE, Ezek. xxv. 
17., marg., by which dwelt the Philistines and 
Cherethims, whose destruction was foretold by 
the prophet. It may allude to the ports of Joppa, 
or Ascalon, or Gaza, as the whole sea-coast of 
the Philistines appears to be pointed at. 

HAYILAH, the second son of Cusl-, the son 
of Ham, Gen. x. 7. ; 1 Chron. i. 9. >S'ee La^jd 
OF Havilah. 

HAYILAH, LAND OF, the name of a country 
adjoining the Garden of Eden, which may have 
derived its name from Havilah, the second son 
of Cush, Gen. x. 7. ; 1 Chron. i. 9. It was com- 
passed by the R. Pison, and was rich in gold, 
bdellium, and the onyx stone. Gen. ii. 11, It is 
generally identified with that Havilah which 
is mentioned afterwards as the E. border of 
the Ishmaelites; their W. frontier being the 
land of Shur, which lay before Egypt, Gen. 
xxv. 18. ; and which is again spoken of in 1 
Sam. XV. 7., as forming the E. bounds of 
the Amalekites, whom Saul was sent to slay. 
This %vould make it correspond with the N.E. 
portion of Arabia, touching upon Chalda^a ; the 
R. Pison being conjectured to have been the same 
Avith that W. arm of the Euphrates, which, 
before the time of Alexander the Great, is said 
to have run into the Persian Gulf, but Avhich is 
now di-ied up: and in these regions there is a 
people named Chaiilotasi, mentioned by the pro- 
fane geographers. Others, hoAvever, place Hrivi- 
lah in Colchis, a countr}^ at the E. end of 
the Eiixine or Black Sea, noted for its abounding 
in gold, and for the fable of the golden fleece ; the 
R. Pison being, in this case, identified with the 
Phasis of the ancients, and now called Phaz. 
See Ede^\ 

HAYOTH-JAIR (i.e. the Villages of Jair), 
the name of a district in Argob, reckoned othor- 
AA'ise in the regions of Gilead and Bashan, Avhich 
Avas included in the lot of the half-tribe of 
Mauasseli beyond Jordan. It Avas so Ccilled 



170 HAURAN. 



HAZERIM. 



after Jair, one of the descendants of Machir, the 
son of Manasseh, who took the small towns of 
it, and gave them this name, Num. xxxii. 41. ; 
Judg. X. 4.; or that of Bashan-havoth-jak, 
Deut. iii. 14. There were at first, as it would 
appear, only twenty-three of these cities, though 
by further conquests from Geshur and Aram, 
they amounted to sixty, Josh. xiii. 30. ; 1 Kgs. 
iv. 13. ; 1 Chron. ii. 22, 23. Out of these, there 
were thirty which, in the time of Jair, the 
Gileadite, one of the judges of Israel, were go- 
verned by his thirty sons. They are sometimes 
merely called the Towns of Jair, and are men- 
tioned in 1 Kgs. iv. 1 3., as having become by 
that time great cities, with walls and brazen 
bars, and as being included in Solomon's pur- 
veyorship assigned to Ben-geber. 

HAURAN, a district of Coele-Syria, lying to 
the N.E. of the Land of Promise, of which it is 
to form one of the frontiers on the future resto- 
ration of the Jews to their own inheritance, 
Ezek. xlvii. 16, 18. It is a very fine, rich 
region, still maintaining its name of Hauran, 
lying between the great desert of Syria and 
the E. bounds of the old province of Bashan. 
It is called Auranitis by the profane authors, 
as well as by Josephus ; who frequently unites 
it with Batansea and Trachonitis, as the pos- 
session of one Zenodorus, though at a later 
period it fell under the power of the Herods. 
In the beginning of our Blessed Saviour's mi- 
nistr}^ it formed, together with Itura^a and 
Trachonitis, the tetrarchy of Philip, Lu. iii. 1. ; 
the name of Ituraja being probably still older 
than that of Hauran, having been derived from 
Jetur, a son of Ishmael, Gen. xxv. 15. ; 1 Chron. 
i. 31. ; whose descendants settled hereabouts, 
and for a time harassed the trans- Jordanic 
tribes until they were subdued, 1 Chron. v. 10. 
19—22. See Abilene. 

HAZAE-ADDAR, a place on the S. frontier 
of the land of Israel, towards Edom, between 
Kadesh-barnea and Azmon, Num. xxxiv. 4. It 
seems to be the same place called Hezron in 
Josh. XV. 3, 25., and there mentioned as one of 
the border towns of the tribe of Judah. 

HAZAR-ENAN, a city on the frontiers of 
the Land of Promise, on the N. E. side, towards 
the regions of Hamath and Damascus, Num. 
xxxiv. 9, 10. Eusebius calls it Enan, and says 
it is the border of Damascus. It is foretold by 
the prophet Ezekiel as one of the frontier places 
of the Jews when finally restored to their own 
inheritance, and particularly of the tribe of Dan, 
Ezek. xlvii. 17., xlviii. 1. 



HAZAAR-GADDAH, a city of the tribe of 
Judah in its S. part, in the neighbourhood of the 
coast of Edom, Josh. xv. 27. 

HAZAR»HATTICON,ortheJJiJ(;Ze Village, a 
place near the coast of Hauran, which is to form 
part of the N. E. border of the land of the Jews 
at their final restoration to their own country, 
Ezek. xlvii. 16. 

HAZARMAVETH, the descendants of a son of 
Joktan of that name, Gen. x. 26. ; 1 Chron. i. 
20. ; who is conjectured to have settled in the S. 
part of Persia, or, according to others, on the 
S. shores of Arabia Felix, in the neighbourhood 
of the Indian Ocean, in a region much celebrated 
for its myrrh and frankincense. They are 
thought by some to have been the same people 
frequently mentioned by the heathen authors 
under the names of Chatramotitie and Adramitre, 
whose metropolis Sabota, now probably Mazeb, 
was the great market for their valuable gums. 
These last inhabited the S. coast of Arabia, where 
the modern district of lladramaut is thought 
still to retain traces of the old appellation. 

HAZAR-SHUAL, a city of Israel, on the 
frontiers of Edom, at first allotted to the tribe of 
J udah. Josh. xv. 28., but afterwards assigned to 
Simeon, xix. 3. ; 1 Chron. iv. 28. It was re-in- 
habited by Judah after the Babylonian captivity, 
Neh. xi. 27. 

PIAZAR-SUSAH, a city in the inheritance 
of the tribe of Simeon, Josh. xix. 5., called 
Hazar-susim in 1 Chron. iv. 31. 

HAZAZON-TAMAR (i.e. Citij of Palm-trees), 
2 Chron. xx. 2., or Hazezon-tamar, Gen. xiv. 
7., the same place Avith Engedi ; which see. 

HAZEROTH, an encampment of the Israel- 
ites in the Wilderness, whither they removed from 
Kibroth-hattaavah, where the quails had been 
given them in wrath, and so many of the people 
died of the plague that followed. Num. xi. 35., 
xxxiii. 17, 18. It was here that Miriam and 
Aaron raised a sedition against Moses, because 
of the Cushite woman whom he had married, for 
which Miriam was smitten with leprosy, and, 
though healed at the prayer of Moses, was shut 
out of the camp seven days, Num. xii. 1 — 16. 
Their station is also mentioned amongst those at 
which Moses delivered many of his judgments to 
Israel, Deut. i. 1. 

HAZERIM, between which and Azzah, i.e. 
Gaza, dwelt the Avims, Deut. ii. 23, or Avites as 
they are called in Josh. xiii. 3., until they were 
driven out and destroyed by the Caphtorinis. 
It may have been the same with Hazeroth. 



HAZOR. 



HEBREWS, THE. 171 



HAZOR, an old Canaanitish city in the N. 
part of tho land, the king of which, named 
Jabin, made a league with several other kings 
against Joshua and the Israelites, soon after 
their entrance into the Promised Land; but 
they were all utterly routed by the Waters of 
Merom, with great slaughter by Joshua, who 
burnt Hazor with fire, Josh. xi. 1. 10, 11. 13., 
xii. 19. On the division of the land, it was 
allotted to the tribe of Naphtali, xix. 3G. But 
after the death of Joshua, when the Israelites for 
their idolatry were delivered into the hands of 
their enemies, the Canaanites made head against 
them, and oppressed them for twenty years 
during the reign of their king Jabin, whose 
residence was at Hazor, Judg. iv. 2. 17. ; 1 Sam. 
xii. 9. ; but he and his general Sisera, with their 
whole host, were at last sorely smitten by 
Deborah and Barak, Judg. iv. 16. 18. 24. ; Ps. 
Ixxxiii. 9, 10. It was considered of such conse- 
quence, probably from its being on the N. E. 
frontier, towards Hamath and Syria-Damascus, 
that Solomon fortified it, together with a few 
other important places, 1 Kgs. ix. 15, ; but many 
years afterwards it was conquered by Tiglath- 
Pileser, king of Assyria, together with all the N. 
part of Israel, when he carried captive the inha- 
bitants, B. c. 740, 2 Kgs. XV. 29. ; Isa. ix. 1. It 
lay, probably, at only a short distance from the 
Waters of Merom and the E. Jordan, near the 
furthest bounds of Naplitali, and is thought to 
have been the same place with Esora, men- 
tioned in the apocryphal book of J udith iv. 4., 
the inhabitants of which sent messengers to Je- 
rusalem for assistance against Holofernes. 

HAZOR, the name of two cities within the 
inheritance of the tribe of Judah, Josh. xv. 23. 
25., one or both of which recovered from its 
desolation after the Babylonian captivity, Xeh. 
xi. 33 

HAZOR, THE KINGDOMS OF, mentioned 
together with Kedar, and so, probably, adjacent 
to it, on the borders of Arabia Felix and 
Arabia Deserta, towards the shores of the Red 
Sea, in the N. part of the modern province of 
Hedjaz, where is a considerable place called 
Hajar. They are numbered with " the Men of 
the East," and were probably concerned in 
many of the attacks made by these bodies tipon 
the Jews. This may have led to the woe de- 
nounced against them by Jeremiah, xlix. 28. 
30. 33., of being stripped of their wealth by 
Nebuchadnezzar, king of Bab3don, and their 
country made a desolation for ever. 

HEATHEN, THE. See Gektilks. 



HEATHEN, ISLES OF THE, Zepli. ii. 11. 

See ISLKS OF THE GliMTlLKS. 

IIEBERITES, a fiimily of the tribe of Asher, 
numbered by Moses in the Plains of Sloab to- 
gether with the rest of Israel, Num. xxvi. 45. ; 
they were so called after Ileber, the grandson of 
Asher, Gen. xlvi. 17. ; 1 Chron. vii. 31. 

HEBREWS, THE, an appellation given to 
the Jews in Holy Scripture, the origin of which 
is very uncertain. It is supposed by some to 
have ,been derived from Eber or Ileber, the 
father of Peleg, and son of Salah, who was the 
grandson of Shem, Gen. x. 24, 25., xi. 14. 17.; 
1 Chron. i, 18, 19. 25. ; Lu. iii. 35. ; whence the 
title of the children of Eber, Gen. x. 21., and 
even Eber itself. Num. xxxiv. 24., is used to de- 
signate the Israelites. And further, since Eber 
was the father of Peleg, in whose days the earth 
was divided, it is supposed that the descendants 
of Eber were not concerned in the building of 
the Tower of Babel, and that therefore they re- 
tained tho original language, which became 
thenceforward peculiar to themselves. But still 
there seems no known reason why Abi-aham, 
who was the sixth in descent from Eber, should 
take his own name, or give name to the Jews, 
from this patriarch, more than from any other 
of his ancestors, especially Shem, who is parti- 
cularly called the " Father of all the Children 
of Eber," Gen. x. 21. ; except, indeed, all the 
ancestors of Abrahdm up to Eber, received the 
same name likewise. Others, therefore, con- 
jecture that the appellation was derived from a 
word signifying beyond; the HebrcAvs having 
come into the Promised Land from beyond the 
Euphrates, as they were reminded in his last 
daj-s by Joshua, xxiv. 2, 3. 14, 15.; so that 
their very name was a perpetual memorial to 
them of their having had the land of others 
given to them, that they were only strangers 
and pilgrims in it, and through it, typically, 
must look to a yet better country. Cf. Gen. xA-ii, 
8., xxiii. 4. ; Dent. ix. 6., xxvi. 5. ; Heb. xi. 13. 

Generally speaking, the appellation of Hebrews 
is only adopted by the Israelites themselves 
towards foreigners, and used by foreigners to 
describe them ; for example, Abram and the 
Amorites and Hittites ; the Israelites and Egyp- 
tians ; the Israelites and Philistines ; Jonah and 
the men of Tarshish ; though it gradually fell 
into more common use. It is first employed, in 
Gen. xiv. 13., to designate Abram himself, who 
is called Abram the Hebrew; then by the 
Egyptians to Joseph, Gen. xxxix. 14. 17., xii. 
12., and by Joseph himbclfto Canaan, which he 



172 HEBREWS, LAND OF THE. 



HEBKOK 



calls tlie Land of the Hebrews, Gen. xl. 15. 
Afterwards, it is frequently used by the Egyp- 
tians to denote the brethren of Joseph, Gen. 
xliii. 32. ; and at a later period, the whole mighty 
nation sprung from Jacob, whom the Egyptians 
were atllicting, Ex. i. 15, 16. 19., ii. 6, 7. Then 
Moses employs it when speaking of his own 
people, Ex. ii. 11. 13. ; and at length God Him- 
self is pleased to call Himself the Lord God of 
the Hebrews, iii. 18., v. 3., vii. 16., ix. 1. 13., x. 
3. After the Exodus the name is seldom met 
with ; it occurs thrice in regard to the laws of 
slavery, Ex. xxi. 2. ; Deut. xv. 12. ; Jer. xxxiv. 
9. 14. ; more frequent!}^ in the account of the 
Philistine wars, 1 Sam. iv. 6. 9., xiii. 3. 7. 19., 
xiv. 11. 21., xxix. 3. ; and once in the history of 
Jonah, i. 9. It is seldom found in the New 
Testament, and then evidently as a mark of 
distinction, being emplo}'ed only in tAvo ways. 
One, to describe the sacred language of the 
nation, as the names of the miraculous pool, of 
the scenes of Christ's judgment and suffering, 
and in Pilate's inscription over the cross, Lu. 
xxiii. 38.; Jo. v. 2., xix. 13. 17. 20.; in the 
Blessed Eedeemer's address to St. Paul at his 
conversion, Acts xxvi. 14. ; in this apostle's 
defence of himself to his countrymen, Acts xxi. 
40., xxii. 2. ; and in the translation of some 
words relating to the reign of Antichrist, Rev. 
ix. 11., xvi. 16. The other case is, when a distinc- 
tion is drawn between the pure Jews and those of 
foreign extraction or mixed descent, as in the 
dispute between the parties about the distribution 
of alms, Acts vi. 1. ; and in Paul's assertion of 
his own dignity in this respect, 2 Cor. xi. 22., 
being a Hebrew of. the Hebrews, Philip, iii. 5, 
(by descent from both parents, by education, and 
by speaking the language of their forefathers), 
which gave him more claim to be heard in his 
wonderful Epistle to the Hebrews themselves. 

The appellation is also used occasionally in the 
apocryphal writings, but always as a term of 
dignity by the Jews themselves, or of con- 
temptuous distinction by foreigners, Judith x. 
12., xiv. 18. ; 2 Mace. vii. 31., xi. 13., xv. 37. 
See Israel. 

HEBREWS, LAND OF THE, Gen. xl. 15. ; 
another name for Canaan ; which see. 

HEBRON", a famous royal cit}' of the Amorites 
in the S. of Canaan, so ancient, that we read it 
was built seven years before Zoan in Egypt, 
Num. xiii. 22., the great capital where the 
Pharaohs held their court in the time of Moses, 
Ps. Ixxviii. 12. It stood on an eminence in the 
Vale of Hebron, Gen. xxxvii. 14., called other- 



wise the Plain of Mamre, Gen. xiii. 18., xiv^. 13., 
xviii. 1., and it is hence sometimes called 
Mamke, Gen. xxiii. 17. 19., xxv. 9., xxxv. 27., 
xlix. 30., 1. 13., after Mamre the Amorite, the 
i brother of Aner and Eshcol, Gen. xiv. 13. 24., 
I who may perhaps have enlarged or fortified it. 
j It was likewise called Kirjath-Arba, before it 
I received the name of Hebron, after Arba, the 
father of Anak, and a chief of the Anakims, 
Josh. xiv. 15., xxi. 11. It was here that 
Abraham settled after parting Avith Lot, whom 
he went hence to rescue from the bands of Che- 
dorlaomer ; and it was here that he entertained 
the three angels who came to destroy the Cities 
of the Plain, Gen. xiii. 18., xiv. 13., xviii. 1. 
Here Sarah died, xxiii. 2., and was buried in 
the Field of Machpelah, before Hebron, which 
Abraham bought of Ephron the Hittite, xxiii. 
17. 19. ; where the good patriarch also was 
himself buried, xxv. 9., as likewise were Isaac 
and Rebekah, who had lived here, xxxv. 27., 
xlix. 30. 31., and Jacob and Leah, who had for 
a time dwelt here, until Jacob went down into 
Egypt, xxxvii. 14., xlix. 31., 1. 13. Cf. Acts 
vii. 16. 

Hebron was visited by the spies whom Moses 
sent to search the land, and who found it in- 
habited by the Anakims, Num. xiii. 22. ; Josh, 
xiv. 12. ; but its king having made a confederacy 
with four other kings against the Israelites, soon 
after their entrance into the Promised Land, it 
was attacked and taken by Joshua, when all the 
inhabitants were put to the sword, Josh. x. 3. 5. 
23. 36. 39., xii. 10. ; except a few of the Anakims, 
who appear to have escaped, but were eventually 
slain. Josh. xi. 21. At his own urgent petition, 
and in fulfilment of the promise of Moses to him, 
Joshua gave Hebron for an inheritance to Caleb, 
Josh. xiv. 13, 14, 15., xv. 13., who drove thence 
such of the old inhabitants as remained, Judg. i. 
10. 20. On the division of the land it fell within 
the borders of the tribe of Judah, Josh. xv. 54. ; 
but was afterwards constituted a City of Refuge, 
Josh. XX. 7., xxi. 13., and assigned to the sons 
of Aaron for a possession. Josh.' xxi. 11. 13.; 1 
Chi-on. vi. 55. 57. It was to a hill before this 
city that Samson carried the gate of Gaza, witli 
its posts and bar, when the Philistines had way- 
laid him there, Judg. xvi. 3. 

Hebron seems to have sided with David 
during his persecution by Saul, 1 Sam. xxx. 31. ; 
after whose death he came up hither by God's 
direction, where he was made king of the house 
of Judah, and eventually king over Israel; and 
remained for seven years and a half during the 
contest with Ishbosheth and Abner, many of his 



HEBPtOX. 



IIEMATH THE GREAT. 173 



sons being born here, 2 Sam. ii. 1. 3. 11. S2., iii. 

2. 5. 19, 20. 22. 27. 32., iv. 1. 8. 12., v. 1. 

3. 5. 13.; 1 Kgs. ii. 11.; 1 Chron. iii. 1. 4., 
xi. 1. 3., xii. 23. 38., xxix. 27. It was also the 
place whither Absalom retired from David and 
hatched his rebellion, 2 Sam. xv. 7. 9, 10. 
After the division of the kingdom, it was 
strongly fortified by Eehoboam, 2 Chron. xi. 10. 
During the Babylonian captivity, it was seized 
upon by the Edomites, who had some time 
before made considerable im'oads on the S. of 
Judah, when they constituted it their metropolis 
for some years until driven aAvay by the 3Iacca- 
bees, 1 Mace. v. 65. I'leuce in the later times, it 
is of:en reckoned to Idumaja or Edom, though 
tlii- mu-t be only understood of the name in an 
exLcnde I and improper sense. After the edict of 
Cyrus, and the return of many of the Juvrs 
to their own land, Hebron was again inhabited 
by them, Xeh. xi. 25. ; and became no doubt, 
both fi-om its situation and traditionary interest, 
an important place. It was in a district of the 
same name, in the mid.vt of the hill country of 
Judah, Lu. i, 39. ; and was probably the 
dwelling-place of Zacharias and Elizabeth, 
where John the Baptist was born. Hebron was 
about 20 miles to the S. of Jerusalem, and 
as many from Beersheba and Kadesh-bamea ; it 
is now called Ka fr Ibrahim or El-Klialil. 

HEBEOX, a city of the tribe of Asher, 
probably not far from Zidon, Josh. xix. 28. 

HEBEOX, YALE OF, Gen. xxxvii. 14., 
otherwise the Plain of Mamre, in which stood the 
great city of Hebron or Mamre. ^ee Hebrox. 

HEBROXITES, a Le%-itical family, so called 
after Hebron, the son of Kohath, Ex. vi. 18. ; 
1 Chron. vi. 2. 18. They were numbered with 
the rest of Israel soon after the Exodus, and again 
in the Plains of Moab, and are afterwards men- 
tioned as employed in the service of the sanc- 
tuary, Xum. iii. 27., xxvi. 58.; 1 Chron. xv. 9., 
xxvi. 23. 30, 31. 

HELA3I, a place between the Euphrates and 
Jordan, probably in the neighbourhood of the 
former, where the Syrians beyond the river 
came to the assistance of those Syrians who had 
been assisting the Ammonites against David; 
bat they were here sorely beaten by David, 
losing 700 chariots, 40,000 men, and Shobach 
their general, 2 Sam. x. 10, 17. It is identified 
by many witti the Alamatha of profane geogra- 
phy, on the banks of the Euphrates, to the X.W. 
of Tiphsah or Thapsacus ; and is said to be now 
called Elamiri. See Xeii£la>ute. 



i IIELBAII, a city of the tribe of Asher, from 
' which they did not drive out the old Canaanite 
inhabitants, Judg. i. 31. 

HELBOX, a city mentioned by the prophet 
Ezekiel, xxvii. 18., as famous for its wine, with 
which it supplied Tyre. It is no doubt the same 
with the celebrated city Chalybon of the heathen 
authors, the name of which, when it fell into the 
hands of the Macedonians, was changed to 
Bergea. By this last appellation it is described in 
2 Mace. xiii. 4., as the place where Antiochus 
Eupator had Menelaus put to death. It is situ- 
ated in the X. of Spia, about midway between 
Antioch and the Euphrates, on the Chalos 
or Coich ; a little river, the fish of which were, 
it is said, considered gods by the Syrians, 
who would not sutler them to be injured. It is 
still called Haleb or Aleppn, and is an important 
and populous city, the capital of a T urkish pa- 
; chalic of the same name. 

HELEK, THE CHILDEEX OF, Josh. xvii. 
2. ; or the 

HELEKITES, Xum. xxvi. 30., a family 
of the Gileadites, numbered by Moses in the 
Plains of TJoab, and who on the division of the 
land by Joshua received a portion in the half- 
^ tribe of Manasseh. 

j HELEPH, Josh. xix. S3., a city in the inherit- 
\ ance of the tribe of Xaphtali. 

j HELIOPOLIS (i.e. the City of the Sun), 
\ Ezek. XXX. 17., marg., a city of Egypt, which 
in the text is called Aven, and against which 
the prophet denounces woe by the hand of 
Xebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon. It is 
also called On, Bethshemesh, and Irchemesh. 
I See A^-EN. 

' HELKATH, a city of the tribe of Asher, 
Jo.^h. xix. 25., afterwards assigned for a pos- 
I session to the Levites of the family of Gershon, 
I xxi, 31. It is identified by some with that 
Hukok mentioned 1 Chron. vi. 75. 

HELKATH-HAZZUEIM (or the Field of 
Strong Men), a place in Gibeon, in the tribe 
of Benjamin; so called from the mortal skir- 
mish between twelve of David's men under 
' Joab, and twelve of Ishbosheth's under Abncr, 
which ended in the routing of Ishbosheth's 
army, and their being chased back into Gilead, 
2 Sam. ii. IG. 

I HEMATH THE GREAT, Amos vi. 2., other- 
j wise HA:\rATH ; which see. It was the metropolis 
j of the kingdom and country of Hamath, and 
; was probably desolated by one of the kings of 



174 HEMATH, ENTERING IN OF. 



IIERMONITES, LAND OF THE. 



Assyria, according to the boasting of Senna- 
cherib to Hezekiah, 2 Kgs. xviii. 34., xix. 13. ; 
Isa. xxxvi. 19., and the tenor of Amos' pro- 
phecy. It has been supposed that there were 
two cities of this name, both on the R. Orontes, 
now called Aaszy, Avhich floAVS from Mt. Le- 
banon through the N. part of Syi'ia into the 
Mediterranean Sea. The older of these two 
cities may have been that here alluded to as 
Hemath the Great, near the mouth of the 
river, where afterwards stood the famous city 
Antioch, which still retains its name in that 
of Antakia. On its destruction by the As- 
syrians, it is thought another Hamath was 
built further S., towards the borders of Syria- 
Damascus. The name of this latter city when it 
fell into the hands of the Greeks was changed 
to Epiphania, but after a time it appears 
to have recovered its old appellation, as it is 
now called Hamah. See Antioch. 

HEMATH, ENTERING IN OF, 1 Chron. 
xiii. 5. ; Amos vi. 14. See Hamath. 

HENA, a place which Sennacherib, king of 
Assyria, boasted to Hezekiah that his fore- 
fathei-s had conquered, 2 Kgs. xviii. 34., xix. 
18. ; Isa. xxxvii. 13. It is called Ana in the 
Septuagint, and is identified by many with the 
Anatho of profane history, now called Anali, on 
an island formed by the R. Euphrates, near 
the common limits of Babylon, Mesopotamia, 
Syria, and Arabia. 

HEPHER, one of the ancient royal cities of 
Canaan, the king of which was vanquished by 
Joshua, xii. 17. It seems to have given name 
to THE Land of Hepher, which with Aruboth 
and Sochoh, constituted one of Solomon's pur- 
veyorships under the charge of Ben-hesed, 1 
Kgs. iv. 10. It appears to have been somewhere 
in the inheritance of Benjamin, on the borders 
of Ephraim. 

HEPHERITES, so called after Hepher, a son 
of Manasseh, who were numbered by Moses 
with the rest of Israel in the Plains of Moab, 
Num. xxvi. 32. They had their inheritance 
assigned them by Joshua in the half-tribe of 
Manasseh on this side Jordan, Josh. xvii. 2. 

HEPHZIBAH (i. e. 3Iij delight is in her), a 
name hereafter to be applied to Zion at the 
glorious restoration of Jerusalem, Isa. Ixii. 4. 

HERES, MT., a place in the lot of the children 
of Dan, fi-om which they could not drive out 
the Amorites, Judg. i. 35. It was in the district 
of Aijalon, and was probably a spur of Mt. 
Ephraim. 



HERMON, MT., a lofty mountain on the 
N.E. frontiers of Palestine, of which it is often 
described as one of the limits in this direction, 
Deut. iii. 8., iv. 48. ; Josh. xi. 17., xii. 1. It 
was a ridge of the Anti-Lebanon, which broke 
away from it towards the source of the R. 
Jordan, and strack down into the kingdom of 
Og in Bashan, Josh, xii, 5. The neighbouring 
country at one time was inhabited by the 
Hivites, Josh. xi. 3. ; but after the subjection of 
Og, who is said to have reigned in Mt. Hermon, 
Josh. xii. 5., it formed part of the N. bounds 
of the half-tribe of Manasseh bej'ond Jordan, 1 
Chron. v. 23.,' though they do not appear to have 
conquered all the people near it at the death of 
Joshua, Josh. xiii. 5. 11. It was famed for its 
fir-trees, and was called Sirion by the Sidouians, 
Deut. iii. 9. ; Ps. xxix. 6. ; Shenir by the Amor- 
ites, Deut. iii. 9. ; So. of Sol. iv. 8, ; or Senir, 
1 Chron. v. 23.; Ezek. xxvii. 5.; and also 
Sion, Deut. iv. 48. It was one of the loftiest 
mountains in all the country, some of its peaks 
being covered with perpetual snow. It would 
appear from the Song of Solomon, iv. 8., to have 
been the haunt of lions and leopards, and to 
have been called in some portion of it Amana ; 
though it has been conjectured that Mt, 
Amana was another range in the extreme N. 
of Syria. Perhaps the name of Amana may 
have been applied to a lower ridge of it towards 
the W., called Mt. Paneum in the heathen 
authors, where was Lake Phiala, the reputed 
source of the R. Jordan. The whole of 5It. 
Hermon is now called Heish or Jehel-esh-SheihJi. 
The apocryphal Avriter in Ecclus. xxiv. 13., 
describes the mountains of Hermon as famed 
for their cypress trees. 

It is commonly thought that there was 
another Mt. Hermon, distinguished by some as 
the Little Hermon (cf. Ps. xiii. 6., marg.), on 
the W. side of the Jordan, near Mt. Tabor, the 
situation and the dew of which are alluded 
to by the Psalmist, Ps. Ixxxix. 12.. cxxxiii. 
3. But there seems no reason why these pas- 
sages should not be referred to the above-men- 
tioned mountain ; Tabor on the W. and Hermon 
on the E. of Jordan, representing the Eastern 
and Western parts of the world: though the 
Hill Mizar, Ps. xiii. 6., or the Little Hill, may, 
perhaps, be applied to the mountain near Taboi', 
if it should not rather designate Mt. Paneum, 
or some hill in the neighbourhood of Mahanaim, 
beyond Jordan, where David was probably in 
exile when he wrote the words. 

HERMONITES, LAND OF THE, Ps. xiii. 



HESED. 

6., probably that part of the trans- Jordanic terri- 
tory Avhere David took refuge during the re- 
bellion of liis son Absalom, on the borders of 
Gad and IManasseh, towards the S. slopes of 
Mt. Hermon. 

HESED, 1 Kgs. iv. 10. See Ben-Hesed. 

HESHBOX, an ancient city in the country 
beyond Jordan, about 20 miles E. of the river, 
opposite Jericho, in a commanding position 
on the top of a hill which formed part of the 
mountains of Abarim. It stood in a region of 
the same name, Num. xxi. 30. ; Dent. ii. 24., 
xxix. 7. ; Josh. ix. 10., xii. 5., xiii. 27. ; Neh. 
ix. 22. ; Judith v. 15. ; and belonged originally 
to the Moabites, from whom it (and all this 
country as far S. as the K. Arnon) had been 
taken by the Amorites, after which it became 
their capital and the residence of the sovereign, 
Deut. i. 4., ill. 2., iv. 4G. ; Josh. xii. 2., xiii. 10. 
21. ; whence it gave name to his kingdom. It 
was taken from their king Sihon by Moses 
shortly before his death. Num. xxi. 25, 26, 27, 
28. 30. 34. ; Deut. xxix. 7. It was assigned 
to the children of Reuben, by whom it was 
restored and rebuilt. Num. xxxii. 3. 37. ; Josh, 
xiii, 17. ; though it stood close upon the borders 
of the inheritance of Gad, Josh. xiii. 26. It was 
afterwards appointed to be a Levitical city, and 
given for a possession to the children of Merari, 
Josh. xxi. 39. ; 1 Chron. vi. 81. Three hundred 
years later, the Ammonites endeavoured to wrest 
it and all the neighbouring country from the 
Israelites, imder the pretence that the latter 
had taken it from them ; but Jephthah, having 
rehearsed the real history of the conquest with- 
out the Ammonites retiring from theii- invasion, 
fell upon them, and with great slaughter drove 
them within their own borders, Judg. xi. 19. 26. 
There were some celebrated fishpools in Hesh- 
bon, which are mentioned in the Song of Solo- 
mon, vii. 4. After the captivity of the trans- Jor- 
danic tribes by Tiglath-Pileser, king of Assyria, 
the Moabites again took possession of their old 
territory; whence the prophet Isaiah, xv. 4., 
xvi. 8, 9,, and Jeremiah, xlviii. 2. 34. 45., xlix. 
3., when foretelling the desolation of Moab, 
speak of Heshbon as in their country. Hence, 
too, it is often described in the ecclesiastical 
writers as a city of Arabia. It is still called 
Hesban, and contains extensive remains of the 
ancient city. 

HESHMON, a city in the inheritance of the 
tribe of Judah, Josh. xv. 27. 

HETH, THE CHILDREN OF, one of the 



HIGH COUNTRIES. 175 

old nations of the land of Canaan, so named after 
lleth, the second .sou of Canaan, Gen. x. 15. ; 
1 Chron. i. 13. ; from whom Abraham bought 
the Cave of Machpelah, Gen. xxiii. 3. 5. 7. 10. 
16. 18. 20., xlix. 32. They dwelled round 
Hebron, which was probably their capital. 
From fear of Jacob marrying one of the 
daughters of Heth, Gen. xx\di. 46., as Esau 
had done, xxvi. 34., Isaac and Rebekah'sent him 
to Llesopotamia. They were also called Ilittites ; 
which see. 

HETHLON, a place in the neighbourhood 
of the Mediten-anean Sea, mentioned by the 
prophet Ezekiel, xlvii. 15., xlviii. 1., as forming 
one of the N. botuids of the Promised Land 
at the future restoration of the Jews. 

HEZRON, one of the border towns of the 
tribe of Judah towards Edom, Josh. xv. 3. 25. ; 
thought to be the same with Hazar-addar, 
mentioned in Num. xxxiv. 4., as forming part 
of the S. frontier of the land of Israel. 

HEZRONITES, two famihes of the Israelites, 
who were numbered by Moses, together with 
the rest of the nation, in the Plains of Moab,. 
Num. xxvi. 6. 21. ; one called after a son of 
Judah, 1 Chron. ii. 5. 9., iv. 1. ; and the other^ 
after a sou of Reuben, 1 Chron. v. 3. 

HIDDEKEL, one of the four rivers which 
proceeded out of the Garden of Eden, Gen. ii, 
14., mentioned by the prophet Daniel, x. 4.,. 
as the great river by the side of which he was 
favoured with one of his visions. See Eden. 

HIERAPOLIS, a city of Asia Minor, in the 
W. part of the province of Phrygia, on the 
confines of Lydia and Caria, near the springs 
of the R. Ma^ander. It was a Greek colony^ 
noted for its worship of the heathen deity 
Apollo, and for its hot mineral springs. There- 
was also a famous cavern here, called Plutcniumy 
fabled to be the descent into the nether Avorld,. 
owing to the constant vapours issuing from it 
being so poisonous as to destroy any living crea- 
ture coming within their reach, except the ido- 
latrous priests. There was a Christian church at 
Hierapolis, which is alluded to by St. Paul in his 
Epistle to the Colossians, iv. 13., as being, to- 
gether with Colosse and Laodicea (which w^ere 
only a few miles to the N. of them), especially 
cared for by Epaphras. Hierapolis is noAV 
called Taluk Kalisi. 

HIGH COUNTRIES, the mountainous coun- 
tries of Armenia, AssATia, and Media, into- 
which Antiochus Epiphanes passed over from 
Autioch shortly before his death, 1 Mace. iii . 



176 



HIGH GATE. 



HmNOM, THE VALLEY OF. 



37., Yi. 1. Cf. 2 Mace. ix. 28. This region 
appears to be the same with the Hill Country 
mentioned Judith i. 6., ii. 22., in the campaign 
of Nabuchodonosor against Arphaxad. 

HIGH GATE, or Higher Gate. See Gate 
OF Benjamin. 

HILEN, a city in the inheritance of Judah 
which was eventually assigned to the sons of 
Aaron for a possession, 1 Chron. vi. 58. It 
is called Holon in Josh. xxi. 15. 

HILL COUNTRY, THE (i.e. of Lebanon), 
an appellation given to the mountainous region 
on the frontiers of Palestine, Phoenicia, and 
Syria, in the jS". part of the inheritance of Asher 
and Naphtali. It lay between the Mediterra- 
nean Sea and the springs of the Jordan, about 
the termination of the two great ranges of 
Lebanon and Anti-Lebanon, and, though within 
the limits of the Promised Land, was not 
completely subdued and portioned out by 
the Israelites until after the death of Joshua, 
Josh. xiii. 6. It seems to have been the 
scene of some of the operations of Holofernes' 
army, Judith vi. 11. The name appears to be 
also applied to the country about Mt. Gilboa, 
Judith vii. 18. 

HILL COUNTRY OF JUDAH, the central 
part of the inheritance of the tribe of Judah, S. 
of Bethlehem, and in the neighbourhood of the 
city of Hebron, Josh. xxi. 11. It is also called 
the Country of the Hills, Josh. x. 40., or the 
Mountain of Judah, Josh. xx. 7., or the Hill 
Country, Lu. i. 39. ; Judith v. 15. ; or the Hill 
Country of Judcea, Lu. i. 65. ; and was the 
dwelling-place of Zacharias and Elizabeth, 
where they were visited by the Virgin Mary, 
and where John the Baptist was born. 

HINDER SEA, an appellation given by the 
prophet Zechariah, xiv. 8., to the Mediterranean j 
Sea (as it is conjectured by the Jewish doctors), 
into which one half of the living waters that are 
to go out from Jerusalem in the latter days are 
to flow, the other half running into the Former 
Sea (marg. Eastern Sea), i. e. as they say, the 
Persian Gulf. 

HINNOM, THE VALLEY OF, or Gehin- 
NOM, or the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, or 
the Valley of the Children of Hinnom, a long j 
narrow valley on the S. side of Jerusalem, which | 
partly formed the border between the two tribes j 
of Judah and Benjamin, Josh. xv. 8., xviii. 16. ; 
Neh. xi. 30. ; communicating on the S. with the 
Valley of the Giants, and on the E. with the 



Valley of Kidron, towards the E. Gate of Jeru- 
salem, Jer. xix. 2. It was bounded on the S. 
by an elevation, which is described as the 
mountain that lies before the Valley of Hinnom, 
Josh. XV. 8., xviii. 16. The valley is traversed 
by a small rivulet, which ran into the Brook 
Kidron; and it was originally a fertile and 
pleasant place, until the idolatrous Israelites 
here established the worship of the idols Moloch 
and Baal, though forewarned by Moses against 
such wicked craelty. Lev, xviii. 21., xx. 2.; 
Deut. xii. 31., x^aii. 10.; Jer. xix. 5. It was 
likewise called Tophet, Isa. xxx. 33. ; Jer. vii. 
31, 32., xix, 6. 11, 12, 13, 14.; or Topheth, 
2 Kgs. xxiii. 10., from the tabrets or drums (in 
Hebrew topli), which were beaten to drown the 
shrieks of the victims. Ahaz, 2 Kgs. xvi. 3., 
2 Chron. xxviii. 3., and Manasseh, 2 Chron. 
xxxiii, 6., with many others, Ps. cvi. 37, 38., 
fell into this dreadful idolatry; whence its 
frequent mention by the prophets, and their de- 
nunciations of God's wrath against it, Isa. Ivii. 
5. ; Jer, vii. 31, 32., xix. 2, 6., xxxii. 35. ; Ezek, 
xvi, 20, 21, 36. 45., xx, 26. 31., xxiii. 37. The 
detestable idol is said to have been a large 
brazen image with the face of a bull, having 
its arms extended to receive the children, whence 
they dropped into the furnace of fire beneath. 
The place was defiled by Josiah, 2 Kgs. xxiii. 
10. 16., who unconsecrated it by burning and 
bui-ying dead bodies there; and afterwards, 
when great numbers were here slain in the siege 
of Jerusalem by the Chaldeans, or died by the 
famine that followed, it became a common 
burying-place of the Jews, Jer, vii, 32., xix. 6, 
7, 11.; whereby was fulfilled the prophecy of 
Ezekiel, vi. 4, 5. 13., that God would lay the 
dead carcases of the Israelites before their idols. 
Cf. Lev, xxvi, 30. After the Babylonian cap- 
tivity, when the Jews were turned from idolatr}^, 
the Valley of Hinnom became hateful to them, 
and hence they abandoned it to the vilest uses ; 
every description of filth and garbage being 
cast into it, and the bodies of criminals being 
interred there. To prevent the pestilence which 
might arise from putrefaction, huge fires are 
said to have been kept alwa3's burning, to 
consume the mass of useless and foul corruption ; 
on which account, as well as from the horrid 
cruelties which had been so long practised there, 
the valley appears to have received the appella- 
tion of the Gehenna of Fire. Hence, by an 
easy metaphor, the name is transferred to that 
lake of eternal fire, which shall not be quenched ; 
and which in the original Greek of the New 
Testament is called Gehenna at Matt. v. 22. 29., 



HITTITES. 



HIVITES. 



177 



X. 28., xviii. 9., xxiii. 15. 33. ; Mk. ix. 43. 47. ; 
Lu. xii. 5. ; Jam. iii. G. Cf. Isa. xxx. 33. ; Rev. 
XX. 10. 14, 15. The prophet Jeremiah, xxxi. 
40., calls it " the Valley of the Dead Bodies and 
of the Ashes; " but foretells that, notwithstand- 
ing the former iniquities performed there, it 
shall be a place holy unto the Lord at the 
coming restoration of Jerusalem. 

HITTITES, so named after Heth, the second 
son of Canaan, Gen. x. 15. ; 1 Chron. i. 13. ; 

•whence they are likewise called the children of 
Heth. They were one of the wicked nations of 
Canaan given by God to Abraham and his 
seed, Gen. xv. 20. ; Xeh. ix. 8. From them 
Abraham purchased the cave of Machpelah, 
Gen. xxiii. 10., xxv. 9., xlix. 29, 80., 1. 13. ; and 
his grandson Esau took two wives from amongst 
their nation, Gen. xxvi. 34., xxxvi. 2., which 
induced Isaac and Rebekah to send Jacob to 
Mesopotamia, xxvii. 46. They are first met 
with in the mountainous country round Hebron, 
Gen. xxiii. 2, 3. ; Xum. xiii. 29. ; which probably 
was their capital, and the neighbourhood of 
which is called the land of the Hittites, Judg. i. 
26. It seems not unlikely that at one time 
they were the leading tribe of Canaan; as all 
the country on this side Jordan is called " the 
land of the Hittites," Josh. i. 4., as the trans- 
Jordanic territory is called the land of the 
Amorites ; whence the prophet Ezekiel, xvi. 3. 
45., reproaches apostate Israel with having had 
an Amorite for their father, and a Hittite for 
their mother. 

The promise of possessing their country was 
frequently renewed to the Israelites by God, 
who undertook to drive out the Hittites from 
before them, commanding His people to root 
them out, and not to copy their evil ways, or to 
make alliances with them, Ex, iii, 8. 17,, xiii. 5., 

xxiii. 23. 28., xxxiii. 2., xxxiv. 11. ; Deut. vii. 
1., XX. 17. ; Josh. iii. 10. Their country was 
traversed by the spies, whom Moses sent out 
from Kadesh to search the land, Xum. xiii. 29. ; 
and about forty years afterwards, when Jericho 
and Ai had been smitten, and the law had been 
rehearsed from Mt. Ebal and Mt. Gerizim, the 
Hittites were attacked and subdued by Joshua 
in several encounters, Josh, ix, 1., xi. 3., xii. 8., 

xxiv, 11., and after his death by the tribe of 
Judah, Judg. i. 4,, though they were not at first 
wholly destroyed, but dwelt among the children 
of Israel, Judg, iii. 5. It was a Hittite who 
showed the tribe of Ephraim, when thej^ were 
assaulting Bethel, the entrance into the city; 
for which service he was permitted to return to 



his own countr}', and to Ijiiild a city which lie 
named Luz, Judg. i. 20. Two of David's com- 
panions were Hittites, viz., Ahimelech, who 
shared his fortunes when fleeing from Saul, 
1 Sam. xxvi. 6. ; and Uriah, one of his mighty 
men, whose wife Bathsiheba, was taken by 
David, 2 Sam. xi. 3. 6. 17. 21. 24,, xii. 9, 10,, 
xxiii. 39.; 1 Kgs, xv. 5.; 1 Chron. xi. 41. 
Some of Solomon's strange wives were Hittites, 
1 Kgs. xi. 1. The remnant of the Hittites that 
had not been cut off in Solomon's days, were by 
him reduced to a tribute of bond-service, 1 Kgs, 
ix. 20, ; 2 Chron. viii. 7. Their name is thought 
to be used then, and at a still later period, to 
designate all the Canaanites who dwelt amongst 
the Israelites, including probably the Philistines ; 
and their ralers (whatever was the amount of 
their power) ai'e called the kings of the Hittites, 
1 Kgs. x. 29, ; 2 Kgs. vii. 6. ; 2 Chron. i. 17, 
Some of them seem even to have survived the 
Babylonian captivity, and to have intermarried 
with the Jews who returned home, Ezra ix. 1, 2. 

HIVITES one of the devoted nations of 
Canaan, so named after the sixth son of Canaan, 
Gen. x. 17., 1 Chron. i. 15., whose country was 
promised by God to Abraham. They are con- 
jectured to have been the same with the Avims, 
or Avites, who dwelt on the coast of the Medi- 
terranean Sea near Gaza, until they were expelled 
by the Caphtorims, Deut. ii.'23., after which their 
country became that of the Philistines, Josh, 
xiii. 3., and they themselves were driven more 
inland, and to the N. of Palestine. One of Esau's 
wives was a Hivite, Gen. xxxvi. 2., and Hamor, 
of whom Jacob purchased a field near Shalem, 
in Shechem, and who with his son Shechem, 
and all their townsmen, were slain because of 
Dinah, is called a Hivite, Gen. xxxiv. 2. The 
promise of their subjugation by Israel thi'ough 
God's special help was often renewed, when they 
were commanded to extirpate the wicked race, 
and neither to copy their abominations, nor to 
intermarry with them, iii. 8. 17., xiii. 5,, xxiii. 
23. 28, ; Ex. xxxiii. 2,, xxxiv. 11, ; Deut, vii. 
1., XX. 17. ; Josh. iii. 10. But after the destruc- 
tion of Jericho and Ai, the Hi%-ites who dwelt in 
Gibeon, and its three confederate cities, con- 
trived to save their lives by making a covenant 
with Israel, under the plea that they lived a 
very long way off" (alluding, perhaps, to those 
Hivites who dwelt near Lebanon), and ha^•ing 
thus fallen away from the league, which appears 
to have been previously made with the other 
Canaanites against Joshua and his host, they 
drew down upon them the hostility of their old 



178 



HOBAH. 



HOREB, MT. 



confederates, and were only saved from destruc- 
tion by the timely help of their new allies, with 
the miraculous interference of God in behalf of His 
people, Josh. ix. 1. 7,, x. 1 — 14. These Hivites 
of Gibeon were the only Canaanites with whom 
the Israelites made peace, Josh. xi. 19. ; and 
even these, when their device was discovered, 
since Israel could not break the covenant so 
unadvisedly made, were reduced to a state of 
bond-service, as hewers of wood and drawers of 
water for the congregation for ever. Josh. x. 
16—21. Cf. 2 Sam. xxi. 1, 2, 6. The rest of the 
Hivites, as well those that lived under Hermon 
and Lebanon, Josh. xi. 3., as the others, Josh, 
xii. 8., were all either utterly destroyed, or 
reduced to a measure of subjection and tribute 
by Joshua, xi. 23., xxiv. 1 1., though the Israel- 
ites dwelt among such as had been left, and 
during the time of the judges, intermarried with 
them, and copied their idolatrous ways, Judg. 
iii. 3. 5. Those in the K of the land were still 
in their cities under Lebanon, when David sin- 
fully numbered the people, 2 Sam. xxiv. 7. ; but 
they and all the other Canaanites who remained 
in the days of Solomon, were reduced by him to 
a tribute of bond-service, 1 Kgs. ix. 20.; 2 
Chron. viii. 7. See NETHmiMS. 

HOBAH, a place on the left hand (i. e. to the 
N.) of Damascus, whither Abraham pursued 
Chedoidaomer, king of Elam, and the confede- 
rate kings, until he recovered Lot and the other 
captives, with all the goods they had seized, 
Gen. xiv. 15. Nothing further is knoAvn of its 
situation, though some identify it with a city 
called Cochaba, placed near Damascus by profane 
authors, and others with Chobai mentioned 
Judith XV. 4, 5., in the account of the chase of 
the routed army of Holofernes. 

HODA VI AH or Hodevah, a family of the Le- 
vites that returned home with Zerubbabel after 
the seventy years' captivity in Babylon, Ezra 
ii. 40. ; ISTeh. vii. 43. They are called the sons of 
Judah by Ezra, iii. 9. 

HOLOjS", a city of the tribe of Judah, in the 
mountains. Josh. xv. 51., aftewards assigned for 
a possession to the priests the children of Aaron, 
xxi. 15. It appears to be the same with that 
called Hilen in 1 Chron. vi. 58. 

HOLON", a city of Moab, in the plain country, 
against which, in conjunction with other cities 
near it, the prophet Jeremiah, xlviii. 21., de- 
nounces woe. 

HOLY CITr, THE, an appellation given to 
the city of Jerusalem, from its containing the 



Temple of God, and from the Lord's dwelling 
there in the midst of His people, and graciously 
vouchsafing them His blessed presence and peace, 
ISeh. xi. 1, 18,; Isa. xlviii. 2., Hi. 1.; Dan. ix. 
24. ; Matt. iv. 5., xxvii. 53. ; Eev. xi. 2. Hence 
the name is applied also to the New Jerusalem, 
Rev. xxi. 2., xxii. 19. Cf. Ezek. xlviii. 35. ; 
Zech. viii. 3. The present modern city of Jeru- 
salem is still called by the Eastern nations El- 
Khoddes, i.e. The Holy. 

HOLY LAND, THE, a name given to the 
Land of Promise by the prophet Zechariah, ii. 
12., in his vision concerning it in the latter days 
of its final restoration; probably from God's 
having called it His own land, Deut. xxxii. 43., 
and made it the dwelling-place of His people, 
Ex. xix. 5, 6,, and blessing it with His gracious 
presence, Deut. xi. 12. ; Zech. ii. 10. 

HOE, MT., a lofty mountain of Arabia Pe- 
trasa, on the borders of Edom, in the great 
ridge of Mt. Seir, about midway between 
the Eed Sea and the Sea of the Plain. It 
was one of the stations of the Israelites in 
their journeying through the Wilderness, and 
probably gave name to another station called 
Hor-hagidgad, Num. xxxiii. 32, 33. It was in 
Mt. lior that in the fortieth year after the Ex- 
odus, Aaron died, being 123 years old ; having, 
at the command of God, gone up into the 
mountain, and been there stripped by Moses of 
his holy garments, which were put upon Eleazar 
his son. Num. xx. 22. 23. 25. 27., xxi. 4., 
xxxiii. 37, 38, 39. 41. ; Deut. xxxii. 50. The 
mountain is now called 3It. Haroun, and on it is 
an edifice which is shown as Aaron's Tomb. 
It overhangs Wady 3Iousa, where are the ruins 
of the celebrated city of Selah or Petra, once the 
metropolis of Edom. 

HOE, MT., a mountain in the N. part of 
the land of Canaan, between which and the 
entrance of Hamath, Moses drew the N. 
frontier of Israel, Num. xxxiv. 7, 8. It appears 
to have been near the Great Sea, and was proba- 
bly that spur of Mt. Hermon which runs 
towards the Mediterranean, and is called in 
the profane authors Anti-Lebanon ; since Joshua 
defines the same border as lying between Mt. 
Plermon and the entering into Hamath," Josh, 
xiii. 5. 

HOEEB, MT., or Oreb, the name of a 
mountain in that peninsula of Arabia Petraea 
which lies between the two heads of the Eed 
Sea, now called the Gtdfs of Suez and Ahahah. 
It would appear to be used in two very different 



IIOREB, MT. 



IIORONAIiVr. 



179 



ways; being sometimes applied to the wliule 
magnificent range which fills the S. end of the 
peninsula, thus including Mt. Sinai ; and in 
other jiassages being confined to a separate ele- 
vation distinct from that particular mountain 
where Moses actually received the law ; or else 
it may be regarded as used of the people congre- 
gated round Horeb, receiving the law Avhich 
was given from Sinai. There are two noble and 
well-defined peaks in the range, the IST. one 
of which (noAv called Jebd 3Iusa), is that com- 
monly distinguished as Mt. Sinai; the S. one 
is called Mt. Katherine, and forms part of the 
ridge called Jebel Humr. There is an extensive 
valley to the N. of Jebel Musa, called W. er 
Eahah and W. es Sheikh, in which, it is con- 
jectured, the Israelites assembled at the giving 
of the Law. 

It was on some part of this mountain that 
Moses was feeding the flock of Jethro, his 
father-in-law, when God appeared to him in the 
burning bush, and sent him to deliver Israel, 
Ex, iii. 1.; and here also, after the Exodus, 
when the people murmured for water, God was 
pleased to direct Moses to smite the rock in 
Horeb whereon he stood, that water might flow 
forth for the people to drink, Ex. xvii. 6. Here 
likewise it was, that they made the golden calf 
whilst Moses was in Sinai, Deut. ix, 8. ; Ps, cvi. 
19. ; and of which, when he had ground it to 
powder and cast it into the brook that descended 
from the mount, he made them to drink of the 
water, and in token of their humiliation before 
God to strip themselves of their ornaments, Ex. 
xxxii. 20., xxxiii. 6. ; Deut. ix. 21. In this 
barren and rocky region of Horeb, the Israelites 
wandered for nearly a year, Deut. i. 2. 6. 19. ; hav- 
ing signally conquered the Amalekites in one of 
its valleys called Eephidim, Ex. xvii. 8. ; and 
received the law of God written on the two 
tables of stone, when God spake to them out of 
the midst of the fire, and made a covenant with 
them, Deut. iv. 10. 15., v 2., xviii. 16., xxix. 1. ; 
1 Kgs. viii. 9. ; 2 Chron. v. 10. ; Mai. iv. 4. It 
was to Bit. Horeb, likewise, that the prophet 
Elijah fled from Jezebel, when he was favoured 
with his wondrous vision and sent to anoint 
Hazael, Jehu, and Elisha, shortly before he was 
carried up into heaven, 1 Kgs. xix. 8. In 
the last reference, Horeb is called the Mount of 
God, as it is also in other passages. See Moun- 
tain OF God. 

Tlie apocryphal writer of the second book of 
Esdras, ii. 33., states that he here received 
a charge of the Lord to go to the people of 
Israel, 



IIOREM, a fenced city of the tribe of Xapli- 
tali. Josh, xix. 38, 

HOR-IIAGIDGAD, a station of the Israel- 
ites in the Wilderness, while journeying tONvards 
Mt. Hor, from which it may perhaps have re- 
ceived its name, Num, xxxiii, 32, 33. It ap- 
pears to be the same with the cncampment called 
Gudgodah at Deut. x. 7. 

HORIMS or HoRiTES, an ancient race of 
people, Avho dwelt to the S. of Canaan in Mt. 
Seir, and in the Wilderness of El-Paran. They 
were governed by their own rulers before the 
time of Abraham ; but Avere smitten by Chedor- 
laomer, king of Elam, and his confederates. Gen. 
xiv. 6. ; and at a later period by the descendants 
of Esau, who seem for a time to have dwelt 
amongst them, though they eventually destroyed 
them, Gen. xxxvi. 20, 21. 29. ; Deut. ii. 12. 22. 
They are conjectured to have belonged to the 
gigantic race of the Rephaims. See Giants. 

HORMAH (i. e. Utter Destruction), a place in 
the S. of Canaan, not far from Seir and the 
borders of Edom, whither the rebellious Israelites 
who would invade the land against the will of 
God, were chased by the Amalekites and Ca- 
naanites, and discomfited, Xum. xiv. 45. ; Deut. 
i. 44. It has been supposed to be the same place 
with that Hormah mentioned in Xum. xxi. o., 
where, about forty years afterwards, the Canaan- 
ites under King Arad came out against the 
Israelites when they were encamped near Mt. 
Hor, and were signally beaten ; but this seems 
doubtful. It may probably have been the same 
with the royal city of Hormah, whose king was 
conquered by Joshua, Josh. xii. 14. ; and which 
was at first allotted to the tribe of Judah, Josh. 
XV. 30., though given afterwards to that of 
Simeon, xix. 4. ; 1 Chron. iv. 30. After Joshua's 
death these tv;o tribes imited to bring it again 
into subjection, and changed its name from Ze- 
phath to Hormah, Judg. i. 17. David had 
friends in Hormah to whom he sent some of 
the spoils taken from the Amalekites after the 
plunder of Ziklag, 1 Sam. xxx. 80. ; it has been 
identified with a place now called Sebata, 

HOROXITE, a patronymic given to Sanballat, 
one of the chief opposers of the Jews in the time 
of Xehemiah, Neh. ii. 10. 19., xiii. 28., probably 
from his haA^ng been a petty prince of Ho- 
ronaim. 

HOROXAIM, a city of Moab. It appears to 
have been built upon an eminence, and to have 
been a great thoroughfare and place of conse- 
quence ; the prophet Isaiah, xv. 5., and Jeremiah, 
N 2 



180 HORSE-GATE. 



ICONIUM. 



xlviii. 3. 5. 34., both foretell its desolation. See j 

HORONITE. 

HORSE-GATE, one of the gates of Jerusalem, 
probably on the S.E. side, towards the Brook 
Kidron and the Valley of Hinnom. It is con- 
jectured to have obtained its name from the 
king's horses being taken in and out through it, 
as it was near his house, 2 Kgs. xi. 16. Hard 
by, Athaliah, who had usurped the crown of 
Judah, was slain in the days of Joash, when 
Jehoiada restored the kingdom, 2 Chron. xxiii. 
15. It was repaired under Nehemiah after the 
Babylonian captivity, Neh. iii. 28. ; and at the 
future restoration of Jerusalem, its site, together 
with the rest of the city, is again to be holy 
unto the Lord, Jer. xxxi. 40. 

HORSEMElNl", CITIES OF THE, 1 Kgs. ix. 
19. ; 2 Chron. viii. 6. ; certain cities in Palestine 
which Solomon seems to have built by an ex- 
tensive levy upon the people ; probably to house 
the numerous horses Avhich he had, as well as to 
receive his cavalry. Cf. 1 Kgs. iv. 26., x. 25. 
28., xxii. 4. ; 2 Kgs. iii. 7. ; 2 Chron. i, 16., ix. 
24, 25. 28. ; Isa. ii. 7. 

HOSAH, a town in the inheritance of the 
tribe of Asher, apparently on the sea-coast be- 
tween Tyre and Achzib, Josh. xix. 29. 

HUKKOK, a city in the inheritance of the 
tribe of Naphtali, Josh. xix. 34., supposed b}' 
some to be the same with that Hukok men- 
tioned in 1 Chron. vi. 75., as a Levitical city 
possessed by the Gershomites, in the lot of 
Asher. Others, however, identify this latter 
with Helkath, in the tribe of Asher, Josh. xix. 
25,, xxi. 31. 

HUL, a son of Aram, and grandson of Shem, 
Gen. X. 23. ; 1 Chron. i. 17. ; whose descendants 



are thought to have settled in the N. cf Syria, 
in the neighbourhood of the city Chalybon, now 

Aleppo, and the district Chalcidice. 

HUMTAH, a city of the tribe of Judah, in the 
hill country, Josh. xv. 54. 

HUPHAMITES or Huppim, a family of 
the tribe of Benjamin, numbered by Moses, to- 
gether with the rest of Israel, in the Plains of 
Moab, Num. xxvi. 39., so named after Hupham 
or Huppim, Benjamin's son, Gen. xlvi. 21.; 1 
Chron. vii. 12. 

HUE, THE SON OF, orBEN-HuR, the Pur- 
VEYORSHip OF, was in Mt. Ephraim, 1 Kgs. 
iv. 8. 

HUSHATHTTE, a patron^'mic of one of 
David's mighty men, named Sillechai, who slew 
Saph, one of the race of the giants, 2 Sam. xxi. 
18. ; 1 Chron. xi. 29., xx. 4., xxvii. 11. He ap- 
pears to be also called Mebunnai at 2 Sam. 
xxiii. 27. ; whence the appellation was derived 
does not seem to be known. 

HUZZAB (marg.. That which was established), 
a name applied by the prophet Nahum, ii. 7., to 
the city of Nineveh, in his prediction of its de- 
struction. Some suppose it to designate the 
whole mighty and ancient Assyrian empire ; but 
it probably refers to the metropolis itself sitting 
as a queen in the midst of her strong and almost 
impregnable defences. 

HYDASPE, a place mentioned by the apo- 
cryphal writer of the book of Judith, i. 6., as one 
whence the neighbouring people came to join 
Arphaxad, king of the Medes, in his war with 
Nabuchodonosor, king of Nineveh. It may per- 
haps allude to the R. Hydaspes, now Jhylum, one 
of the five rivers of the Punjab, in the N.W. of 
India, flowing into the Indus : or perhaps to the 
Indus itself. 



IBLEAM, a town belonging to the half- 
tribe of Manasseh on this side Jordan, within 
the limits of Issachar and Asher, Josh. xvii. 11., 
from which they did not drive out the old 
Canaanite inhabitants, Judg. i. 27. Near it 
Ahaziah, king of Judah, was overtaken in his 
chariot and killed by the servants of Jehu, 
2 Kgs. ix. 27. It lay probably in the N.W. 
corner of Manasseh, between the E. Kishon and 
the sea-coast, about Ciesarea. 

ICONIUM, a populous city of Asia Minor, 



originally reckoned to the great province of 
Phrygia, but latterly in the smaller one of 
Lycaonia, of which it may be called the capital. 
It was said by the mythologists to have derived 
its name from a little statue, which was there 
set up by Prometheus or Perseus. Its chief 
interest to the Christian arises from its having 
been visited by Paul and Barnabas, on their first 
missionary tour in the peninsula. Acts xiii. 51., 
xiv, 1. ; upon which occasion they were obliged 
to fly from it, in consequence of the persecution 
raised against them by the Jev^s, who followed 



IDALAIL 



INDIA. 



181 



them to Lystra, where tliey persuaded tlie 
people to stone Paul, xiv. 19. 21. Its neighbour- 
hood was afterwards again visited by the great 
Apostle la company with Silas, when he met 
with and circumcised Timothy, Acts xvi. 2., 
who was already a disciple, having perhaps been 
converted by him in his first journey, and been 
a witness of his persecutions and afSictions, 
1 Tim. i. 2. ; 2 Tim. iii. 11. It is still a very 
considerable place, called Konla, and one of the 
chief seats of government in the Turkish pro- 
vince of Karamania; but like all Mussulman 
cities it is m a sad state of neglect and apparent 
desolation. 

IDALAH, a city in the lot of the tribe of 
Zebulun, Josh. xis. 15. 

IDU:\LEA, Isa. xxxiv 5, 6. ; Ezek. xxxv. 
15., xxxvi. 5.; Mk. iii. 8.; 1 Mace. iv. 15. 29. 
61., v. 3., vi. 31. ; 2 Mace. x. 15, IG., xii. 32. 
See Edom. 

IJE-ABAPJM (i.e. Heaps of Aharim), Xum. 
xxi. 11., xxxiii. 44. ; called also 

IIM, iSTmn. xxxiii, 45. ; a station of the 
Israelites, two journeys to the S. of the R. 
Arnon, in the Wilderness before Moab, towards 
the E. ; and on the borders of this land. It 
is conjectm-ed to have been a part of the great 
range of Abarim, which extended to the N., 
and in which they pitched before Nebo, which 
was one of its peaks, Xum. xxxiii. 48. 

IIM, a town of the tribe of Judah, towards 
the frontiers of Edom, Josh. xv. 29. 

IJOX, a fortified city, apparently in the tribe 
of Xaphtali, Avhich was smitten by Benhadad, 
king of Syria, when leagued with Asa, king of 
Judah, against Baasha, king of Israel, 1 Kgs. 
XV. 20. ; 2 Chron. xvi. 4. It was also one of 
the places mastered by Tiglath-Pileser, king of 
Assyria, when, 200 years afterwanls, he carried 
captive the Northern and trans-Jordanic tribes 
of Israel, 2 Kgs. xv. 29. Cf. 1 Chron. v. 26. ; 
Isa. ix. 1. 

ILLYRICUM, a large province in the S.E. of 
Europe, lying along the E. shores of the Adriatic 
Sea. It was bounded on the iST. by Noricum and 
Pannonia, and on the E. by Moesia and Mace- 
donia, including parts of the modern Austrian 
districts of Carniola and Croatia, and the Turkish 
divisions of Bosnia, Dalmatia, Herzegovina, 3Ionte 
Negro, &c. Its two great di\'isions were Libur- 
nia on the X., and Dalmatia on the S. The for- 
mer is not mentioned in the Bible, but to the 
latter St. Paul, in his second Epistle to Timothy, 



iv. 10., mentions Titus as liaving gone. He 
tells the Komans, xv. 19., that from Jerusalem 
round about unto Illyricum, he had fully preached 
the Gospel of Christ ; so that he had then la- 
boured all through Palestine, Syria, Asia Minor, 
Greece, and Macedonia, and had approached as 
near to Rome as the borders of this province. 
The Illyrians were a widely dispersed people, 
and are represented as having been savages and 
robbers ; a pretext used by the Romans for at- 
tacking them 200 years B.C., but they were not 
subjugated till the reign of Augustus. The 
lUyrians and Thracians are said by Strabo to 
have been the only two known nations in the 
N. of Europe who tattooed their skins. 

IMilAXUEL'S LAXD, a name applied to the 
Holy Land by the prophet Isaiah, viii. 8., when 
foretelling God's judgment against it for the 
infidelity of the people ; but darkly shadowing 
its final deliverance by the promised ]\Iessiah, 
the Divine Proprietor of the whole of Israel's 
inheritance. 

IMMER, a town or district, probably in Chal- 
d£ea or Mesopotamia, whence some of the Jews 
returned home with Zerubbabel. These cap- 
tives had belonged probably to some of the Ten 
Tribes who had been so much longer in captivity 
than Judah and Benjamin; but, having lost 
their genealogy, they could not lay claim to any 
inheritance, though they desired, and were per- 
mitted, to dwell among then- own people, Ezra 
ii. 59. ; Xeh. vii, 61. 

IMMER, CHILDREX OF, Ezra ii. 37., Xeh. 
vii. 40., one of the four families of the priests 
who alone, out of the twenty-four courses, re- 
turned home from Babylon after the edict of 
Cyrus. 

IXDIA, otherwise Hoddu or Hoxdu, the 
well-known country of Asia, to the E. of the R. 
Indus, which is still distinguished by the same 
name. It is not mentioned in Holy "Writ any- 
where but in the hook of Esth. i. 1., viii. 9., 
where it is stated to have then constituted the 
E. frontier of the Persian empire, the W. ex- 
tending to Ethiopia. But though not named 
elsewhere, some of its products appear to have 
been known to the Jews as early as the days of 
Moses, Ex. XXV. 6., xxx. 23. 34., xxxvii. 29., 
probably through commerce with the people of 
Arabia; and long afterwards, some of its regions 
may have been visited by Solomon's navy, 
1 Kgs. X. 22. The India which is mentioned in 
1 Mace. viii. 8., as having been given by the 
Romans to Eumenes, must either refer to some 
other coimtry, or (as is conjectured) must be 
N 3 



182 IR-NAHASH. 



ISHMAELITES. 



an error of the transcriber for Ionia, since India 
itself was never in the power either of the 
Romans, or Eumenes. 

IR-NAHASH (i.e. City of the Serpent), marg. 
City of Nahash, 1 Chron. iv. 12,, a place in 
Judah, otherwise not known. 

IRON, a fenced city of the tribe of Naphtali, 
Josh. xix. 38. 

IRPEEL, a city in the inheritance of Benja- 
min, Josh, xviii. 27. 

IRSPIEMESH, a city of the tribe of Dan, 
Josh. six. 41. 

ISAAC, HIGH PLACES OF, Amos vii. 9., an 
altar and grove set up by the idolatrous Jews at 
Beersheba, where Isaac had dwelt, and built an 
altar to the God of Abraham, as afterwards did 
Jacob likewise, Gen. xx^d. 25., xlvi. 1. ; an 
abuse of which the degenerate people were 
solemnly warned by Amos, v. 5., viii. 14. 

ISHMAELITES or Ish^ieelites, the de- 
scendants of Ishmael (i.e. God shall hear), the son 
of Abraham by Hagar ; who, though not per- 
mitted to remain in his father's house, or to in- 
herit the birthright, was yet in an especial way 
blessed of God, Gen. xvi. 11. 15, 16., xvii. 20. 
26., xxi. 9.; 1 Chron. i. 28.; Gal. iv. 25. 30. 
Ishmael settled in the Wilderness of Paran, where 
he became an archer, and married an Egyptian, 
Gen. xxi. 20, 21. ; and here the promises made to 
him, that he should be multiplied and become a 
great nation, not to be numbered for multitude, 
and that he should beget twelve princes, began 
to be fulfilled. His sons were Xebajoth, Kedar, 
Ad-beel, Mibsam, Mishma, Dumah, Massa, Ha- 
dar, Tema, Jetur, ISTaphish, and Kedemah. All 
these, at first, dwelt from Plavilah to Shur, be- 
tween Egypt and Assyria, Gen. xxv. 12 — 15. 
18. ; and are thought to have thence gradually 
overspread the peninsula of Ai-abia, the people 
of which are reputed to be their descendants. 
See JoKSHAN and Joktast. They have well 
exemplified the character predicted of Ishmael, 
that " he should be a wild man, his hand against 
every man and every man's hand against him ; " 
for. they have ever since lived a wandering and 
predatory life, scorning cities, and making a 
home of that vast barren wilderness, where they 
still dwell in as much real independence as 
Ishmael did nearly 4000 years ago. Their roving, 
lawless, and murderous character has led them 
to assail every place and people within their 
reach ; and during the middle ages, these Sara- 
cens, as they are called by the Christian writers, 
made such rapid conquests over some of the 



fairest pro\inces of Asia, Africa, and Europe, as 
to set up one of the largest empires that have 
ever existed in the world. And though they 
have all along been driven back from their new 
possessions on every side at various times, yet 
the combined power of all the neighbouring, as 
well as more distant, nations, has never been 
able to subdue thejn in their own land. The 
arms of Sesostris and Cjtus, of Pompey and 
Trajan, as well as of all others who in any way 
have made the effort, have never been able to 
achieve the conquest of Arabia. They are still 
anned against mankind ; their alliance is never 
courted, and can never be obtained; and the 
utmost that any nation has been able to accom- 
plish with them, is a partial and purchased for- 
bearance. They still maintam their prophetic 
character, and will probably continue to do so, 
until their kings in the latter day shall bring 
their gifts to the Lord, and their land shall 
stretch out its hands unto God, Ps. Ixviii. 31., 
Ixxii. 10. 15. ; Isa. Ix. 7. ; and meanwhile they 
are a standing memorial of His truth, whose 
covenant was made with their forefather. 

It was a company of Ishmaelites going with 
their camels to Egypt, with spicery, balm, and 
myrrh, to whom Joseph was sold by his 
brethren, and by whom he was again sold to 
Potiphar, Gen. xxxvii. 25. 27, 28., xxxix. 1. 
They are called Midianites in xxxvii. 28. 36., 
perhaps from their having come from that 
quarter, or from some of the latter people being 
with them. Cf. Judg. \in. 24. 26. Some of the 
Ishmaelites bordering on the Land of Promise, 
are called Hagarenes in Scripture, and appear to 
have begun to harass the Israelites soon after 
their settlement in the trans -Jordanic country, 
when the two tribes and a half mastered them 
and seized on their 'possessions, 1 Chron. v. 
18 — 22. They also joined the Midianites in op- 
pressing Israel in the days of Gideon, by whom 
they were signally defeated, Judg. viii. 24. : 
and many times afterwards they appear to be 
described as the Children of the East, and to 
have assailed the Jews when an opportunity 
offered. David seems once to have taken refuge 
among them, when flying from Saul, 1 Sam. 
xxv. 1. ; and some of them were also at that 
time united with the Israelites; for Jesse's 
daughter Abigail married an Ishmaelite, who 
was the father of Amasa, 1 Chron. ii. 17. ; 
2 Sam. xvii. 25., marg.; and two of David's 
officers, whom he set over his camels and 
flocks, were likewise of the same nation, 1 Chron, 
xxvii. 30, 31. But the Psalmist still complains 
of their conspiracies and enmity, and prays 



ISH-TOB. 



ISRAELII ES. 



183 



against their oppression, Ps. Ixxxiii. 6., exx. 5. ; 
and the prophets Isaiah, xxi. 13—17., and , 
Jeremiah, xlix. 28., denounce God's judgments j 
against them for their persecution of His people, 
though the former promises their entrance into 
the church in the latter days, Isa. Ix, 6, 7. 
The author of the apocryphal book of Judith, 
ii. 23., speaks of their having been smitten by 
Holofernes, the general of Nabuchodonosor ; and 
during the Maccabtean wars they were often 
mixed up in the affairs of all parties with vary- 
ing success and defeats, 1 Mace. xi. 16, 17. 39., 
xii. 31. ; 2 Mace. v. 8., xii. 10, 11. See Arabia. 

ISH-TOB, or the Men of Tob, who joined 
the Ammonites in their war against David 
on the occasion of the ill-treatment of his am- 
bassadors, and were beaten by Joab, 2 Sam. x. 
6. 8. Their country is first mentioned as the 
Land of Tob, Judg. xi. 3. 5., whither Jephthah 
fled from his brethren, xmtil he was brought 
back by the Gileadites to be their captain 
against the Ammonites. It is probably the 
same with the places of Tobie, 1 Mace. v. 13., 
where during the Maccaba?an wars, the Jews 
were cruelly massacred, though many of them 
appear to have continued in that neighbourhood, 
whence they were called Tubieni, 2 Mace. xii. 
17. It seems to have bordered on the Am- 
monite country, in the N.W. part of Arabia, 
near the region now called Hauran ; and to the 
E. of which Ptolemy places a town which he 
calls Thauba, 

ISLANDS OF THE SEA, or the Isles, or 



the Isles of the Gentiles, or the Isles beyond 
the Sea, or the Isles of the Heathen, or the 
Isles of Elishah, or the Islands of Chittim. 
See Isles of the Gentiles. 

ISLE, THE, Isa. xxiii. 2. 6. See Tyre. 

ISRAEL, THE PEOPLE OF, or 

ISRAELITES, an appellation given in Holy 
Writ to all the descendants of Jacob, whose 
name had been changed from Jacob to Israel 
(i.e. a Prince of God) by the angel with whom he 
wrestled at Peniel, Gen. xxxii, 28., xxxv. 10. ; 
Ex. xxxii. 13. ; 1 Kgs. xviii. 31. ; 2 Kgs. xvii. 34. 
It is also used in a more confined way to 
distinguish the kingdom of the Ten Tribes 
after its separation from the kingdom of Judah ; 
though, at a later period, it is again applied 
to the united body of the two tribes and of 
that small remnant of the whole nation, which 
returned home after the Babylonian captivity. 

The name appears to occur first for that of all 
the descendants of Jacob in Gen. xxxiv. 7. in 
the matter of Dinah ; and next, in the account 
of their migration to Egypt, B.C. 1706, and of 
Jacob's blessing them at his death. Gen. xlvii. 
27., xlviii. 20., xlix. 7. 16. 28. In the last 
reference, mention is first made of " the twelve 
tribes of Israel," and it may be here convenient 
to enumerate them according to the dilTerent 
lists given in Holy Writ ; which, though they 
somewhat vary in agreement with the aiTange- 
ments of Almighty God in His dealings with 
them as a nation, always confine the number to 
twelve. 











The Twelve Tribes 












The Twelve Tribes 




as represented by 












as blessed by Jacob, 




the spies, Num. 












Gen. xlix.; and 


The Twelve 


xiii. 2., as 


The Twelve 


The Twelve 


The Twelve 




.Tacob's sons, 


as appointed to 


Tribes as 


appointed to divide 


Tribes in 


Gates of the 


Tribes in the 




Gen. xxix.. 


pronounce the 


blessed by 


the land. Num. 


Ezekiel's 


New City of 


Sealing Vi- 




XXX., xxxv. 


blessings and curses 


Moses, Deut. 


xxxiv. IS. ; and as 


vision, Ezek. 


Jerusalem, 


sion of St..Tohn, 






in Gerizim and 


xxxiii. 


settled in the Land 


xlviii. 


Ezek. xlviii. 


Kev. vii. 






Ebal, Deut. xxvii. 




of Promise, 












12, 13. 




Num. xxxii.; Josh, 
xiii., XV., xvi,, xviii., 
xix. 








1. 


Reuben. 


Reuben 


Reuben. 


Reuben. 


Reuben. 


Reuben. 


Reuben, 




Simeon. 


Simeon. 




Simeon. 


Simeon. 


Simeon. 


Simeon, 






3'. 

4. 


Levi. 
Judah. 


Levi. 
Judah. 


Levi. 
Judah. 






Levi. 
Judah. 


Levi. 
Judah. 


Judah, • 


Judah. 


5. 


Dan. 


Dan. 


Dan. 


Dm. 


Dan. 


Dan, 




6. 


Naphtali. 


Naphtali. 


Naphtali. 


Naphtali. 


Naphtali. 


Naphtali. 


Naplitali. 


7. 


Gad. 


Gad. 


Gad. 


Gad. 


Gad. 


Gad. 


Gad. 


8. 


Asher. 


Asher. 


Asher. 


Asher. 


Asher. 


Asher. 


Asher. 




Issachar. 


Issachar. 


Issachar. 


Issachar. 


Issachar. 


Issachar. 


Issachar. 


lb! 


Zebulun. 


Zebulun. 


Zebulun. 


Zebuhin. 


Zebulun. 


Zebulira. 


Zebulun. 


11. 


Joseph. 
Benjamin. 


Joseph. 
Benjamin. 


Joseph. 
Benjamin. 






Joseph. 
Benjamin. 


Josc|.h. 
Benjamin. 


Benjamin. 


Benjamin. 


Joseph's C 


Mauasseh. 




Manasseh. 


Manasseh. 




Manasseh. 


sous X 


Ephraim. 






Ephraim. 


Ephraiin. 















From this time the name occurs so constantly of Jacob and Joseph, and all that generation, 
in the Bible, that only some of the principal another king arose in Egypt, Avho out of fear at 
references to it are here made. After the death the amazing increase of the Israelites, oppressed 

N 4 



184 



ISRAELITES. 



them grievously, and commanded all their male 
children to be cast into the river. Bnt God 
sent Moses to deliver them, who, after having 
been long rejected by Pharaoh, brought the 
ten plagues upon Egx^t, at the end of which 
Pharaoh sent them away, but afterwards pursu- 
ing them, all his host was drowned in the Red 
Sea, Gen. 1. 25. ; Ex. i. 7. 12., ii. 23. 25., iii. 16., 
iv. 22. 31., V. 2., vi. 5. 13., ix. 4. 7.,xii. 6. 15. 19., 

21. 37. 47. 51., xiv. 2, 3. 5. 8. 10. 15, 16. 19. 20. 

22. 25. 29, 30, 31., xv. 1. 19. The IsraeHtes left 
Egypt 430 years after God's covenant with 
Abraham, even in the selfsame day, Gen. xv. 13. ; 
Ex. xii. 41. ; and though they went down there 
only seventy-five souls in all, they came up 
600,000 that were men, beside children, Ex. i. 5. 
xii. 37. ; Acts vii. 14. The energetic expressions 
employed in Ex. i. 7., admirably display the 
unparalleled multiplication of the Israelites in 
Egypt, according to the repeated promises of 
God, and also show that they were as remarkably 
strong and healthy. It is computed that their 
number was doubled every fourteen years, from 
Jacob's going down into Egj-pt until the Exodus. 
After wandering a short time in the desert of 



Shur, where they vanquished the Amalekites, 
who had attacked them, they came to Mt. Sinai, 
and received from God the Law of the Tea 
Commandments, as well as many of the statutes 
and ordinances by which their nation was 
thencefoi^ward to be governed, and the directions 
about the Tabernacle and the Levitical service. 
The Tabernacle was then first reared, Aaron and 
his sons were consecrated to their office, and the 
tribe of Levi set apart for its service by God, 
and given to the priests in place of the firstborn, 
the overplus of the latter (273) being redeemed 
for money, Ex. svi. 1, 2., xvii. 5. 8., xviii. 1. 8, 

9. 12. 25,, xxiv. 1. 4. 9., xxix. 43., xxxi. 17., 
xxxii. 4., xxxiv. 27. ; Lev. iv. 13., x. 6., xvii. 
3. 8. 10. 12, 13., XX. 2., xxii. 18., xxiii. 42., xxiv. 

10, 11., XXV. 55. ; Num. v. 1. 9., vi. 2. 23. 27., 
vii. 2. 84., viii. 6. 11. 16., ix. 2. 10., x. 4. Here 
likewise all the tribes were first numbered; as 
they were also again in the Plains of Moab 
thirty-eight years afterwards ; every male above 
twenty years old, all that were able to go forth 
to war. The Levites were reckoned from a 
month old and upwards, Xum. i. 2, 3. 16. 44. 
45. 49. ; iii. 12, 13. 40. 46. 50. 



Reuben 
Simeon 
Gad - 
Judah - 
Issachar 
Zebulun 
Ephraim 
IVLinasseh 
Benjamin 
Dan - 
Asher - 
Naphtali 



Levites 



Gershonites 7,500 
Kohathites 8,600 
Merarites 6,200 



When numbered 
in Sinai, Num. i.. 



Males above twenty. 
46,500 
59,300 
45,650 
74.600 
54,400 
67,400 
40,500 
32,200 
35,400 
62,700 
41,500 
.53,400 



603,550 



22,300 



625,850 



WTien numbered in the 
Plains of Moab, Num. 
xxvi. 



i above twenty 
43,730 
22,200 
40,500 
76,500 
64,300 
60,500 
32,500 
52,700 
45,600 
64,400 
53.400 
45,400 



601,730 



624,730 



But when David numbered the p^ple, he 
found in Judah 600,000, and in Israel 1,100,000, 
in all 1,600,000 fighting men, above twenty 
years of age, 2 Sam. xxiv. 9. ; 1 Chron. xxi. 5. ; 
though even these numbers seem to be exclusive 
of Levi and Benjamin, 1 Chron. xxi. 6. So 
that the whole population, including the Levites, 
the women, and all imder twenty years old, 
would thus probably amount to the number of 
8,000,000 souls ; an amazing increase since they 
went down into Egypt, 690 years before, only 
seventy-five souls ; showing how faithfully God 



had fulfilled His promise hitherto, that He 
would "increase Israel like the stars of the 
heavens," Gen. xv. 5.; 1 Chron. xx^-ii. 23. 
And all this, notwithstanding their continual 
wars with the Amorites, Canaanites, Moabites, 
Ammonites, Philistines, Syrians, Edomites, 
Ai-abians, and others, in which they had been 
more or less engaged ever since they entered 
the Promised Land; to say nothing of the 
destructive civil contests which sometimes raged 
amongst themselves. 
This vast host, as numbered by Moses, travelled 



ISRAELITES. 



185 



through the Wilderness, under the guidance of 
the pilhxr of cloud and of fire (moving when it 
moved, and resting -where it rested), in four great 
divisions, under the banners of the four leading 
tribes; the priests and Levites with the Sanc- 
tuary, and all that appertained to its service, 
being in the midst, Num. ii. 2. 32. 34., iii. 38., ix. 
17, 18, 19. 22., X. 3G. The following was the 
order of their march : — 

Standard of the Camp of Judah. 

1. Judah. 

2. Issachar. 

3. Zebulun. 

Gershonites. 
Merarites. 

(With the Tabernacle.) 

Standard of the Gamp of Reuben. 

4. Reuben. 
6. Simeon. 

6. Gad. 

Kohathites. 

(With the Sanctuary.) 

Standard of the Camp of Ephraim. 

7. Ephraim. 

8. Benjamin. 

9. Manasseh. 

Standard of the Cajip of Dan. 

10. Dan. 

11. Asher, 

12. Naphtali. 

When encamped in their tents, their order 
Avas as follows : — 

N. 

Standard of Dan. 



■ pa 



A slier. 


Dan. 


Naphtali. _ 


.3 






1 
3 


Merari. 


Issa 








Gershon. 
Ephraim. 


Tabernacle. 

■ 


Moses, Aaron ai 
his Sons. 

Judah. 




Kohath. 














lulun. 






Simeon. 


'Gad. 


Reuben. 



Standard of Reuben. 
S. 



In this manner they marched N. to the 
borders of Canaan, near Kadesh-barnea, when 
Moses sent off the twelve spies to search the 
land ; but the people murmuring over their re- 
port, and purposing to make a captain of their 
own, and to return to Egypt, Avere sentenced by 
God to wander forty years in this desert (i. e. a 
year for everj^day the spies were away searching 
the land), until that whole generation was dead, 
excepting Joshua and Caleb, who alone of the 
twelve spies had brought up a good report of 
the land, Num. x. 12. 28, 29., xi. 4. 16., xiii. 2. 
26. 32., xiv. 5. 10. 27. 39. God having thus re- 
fused to go with the Israelites into Canaan, and 
the people having experienced by defeat from 
the Canaanites and Amaleldtes, how useless it 
was to attempt an entrance without His aid, they 
remained here for a season, and received more 
laws for their guidance. Then they turned to 
the S., and took their journey into the Wilderness 
again, by the way of the Red Sea, round Mt. 
Seir and Edom, wandering from place to place, 
{see Num. xxxiii.), and making many encamp- 
ments until after they arrived at Mt. Hor, where 
Aaron died. Num. xv. 2. 18. 32. 38., XAa. 2. 40, 
41., xvii. 2. 5., xviii. 5. 14. 24. 32., xix. 2., xx. 
1. 12, 13, 14. 19. 29. Subsequently they pro- 
ceeded across the R. Arnon into the land of the 
Amorites, where they conquered the two kings 
Sihon and Og, whose dominions were divided 
amongst the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and half 
Manasseh by Moses. Soon after this, the people 
were numbered the second time; and Moses 
having concluded the code of statutes for the 
guidance of the nation, given them his parting- 
charge and blessing, and consecrated Joshua to 
succeed him, was commanded by God to go up to 
Mt. Nebo and die there, b.o. 1451. Num. xxi. 1. 
10. 21. 24. 31., xxii. 1., xxiii. 23., xxiv. 5. 17., 
XXV. 2., xxvii. 8. 12. 21., xx^dii. 2., xxix. 40., 
XXX. 1., xxxi. 2,, xxxii. 4., xxxiii. 1., xxxiv. 
2., XXXV. 2. 10., xxxvi. 1. 13.; Deut. i. 3., 
xxxiv. 12. Joshua led the Israelites over the 
Jordan; and after the renewal of circumcision 
at Gilgal, and the destruction of Jericho and 
Ai, he set up the altar on Mt. Ebal, and there 
wrote the Law upon stones. Josh. i. 2., ii. 2., iii. 
l.,iv.4.,v.l.,vi.l.,\ai. l.,viii. 10. 30. 35. He then 
subdued all the kings in the S. that opposed him, 
as well as those in the N. who came out against 
him at the Waters of Merom; and after a hard 
conflict, in Avhich thirty-one kings of the Canaan, 
ites were conquered (Josh, xii.), the Tabernacle 
was set up at Shiloh, where the land was dlA ided 
by lot among the nine and a half tribes, and the 
six Cities of Refuge and the forty-eight Leviticai 



186 



ISRAELITES. 



Cities were definitively appointed. A few years 
after this, Joshua died, b.c. 1426, Josh. ix. 1., 
X. 1., xi. 5., xiii. 6., xiv. L, xviii. 1., xx. 2., xxi. 
1., xxii. 9., xxiii. 2., xxiv. 1. 31. After the 
death of J oshua, the people were ruled, during a 
space of about 450 years (Acts xiii. 20.) until 
Samuel the prophet, by judges, who in some 
cases only governed certain portions of the coun- 
try, though in others the whole nation. Their 
names, as given in the book of Judges, were, 

Othniel, iii. 9. Jair, x. 3. 

Ehud, iii. 15. Jephthah. xii. 7. 

Shamgar, iii. 31., v. 6. Ibzan, xii. 8. 

Deborah, iy. 4. Elon, xii. 11. 

Barak, iv. 6. Abdon, xii. 13. 

Gideon, vi. 11. Samson, xv. 20. (Se- 
dan?) 

Abimelech, ix. 6. Eli, 1 Sam. iv. 18. 

Tola, X. 2. Samuel, 1 Sam. vii. 15. 

Though a few bold campaigns were undertaken 
against the Canaanites after the death of Joshua 
during the time of the elders who outlived him, 
yet a large part of the nation neglected to drive 
out the old inhabitants, and b}^ intermarrjing 
with them, soon fell into idolatry, and worshipped 
false gods, Judg. i., ii. 11—13., xvii., xviii. This 
so provoked God, that He gave them into the 
power of their enemies ; from whom, however, 
at their cry, He again delivered them, though 
they quickly fell into the same sin, Judg. ii. 
14 — 23. They were oppressed by Chushan-rish- 
athaim, king of Mesopotamia, for eight years, 
until delivered by Othniel, iii. 8. Then by 
Eglon, king of Moab, for eighteen years, until 
they were delivered by Ehud, iii. 14. ; by Jabin, 
king of Canaan, for twenty years, and delivered 
by Deborah and Barak, iv. 3. After an interval 
of some years, they were given into the power of 
the Midianites, Amalekites, and the Children of 
the East, who grievously tyrannised over them 
for seven years, until they were beaten off by 
Gideon, vi. 10. They were then enslaved by the 
Philistines and Ammonites for eighteen years, 
until delivered by Jephthah, x. 8.; and again 
b}' the Philistines for forty years, until Samson 
(or Bedan, i. e. Ben-Dan, or the son of Dan, of 
which tribe he Avas a native, 1 Sam. xii. 11.) 
kept them in check for a time, though at last 
he perished with the lords of their nation, xiii. 
1. ; and at a still later period, by the same 
people, when the two sons of Eli were slain and 
the ark of God was taken, 1 Sam. iv. 10, 11. 
After this, they were more than ever oppressed 
by the Philistines, but were at the end of twenty 
}-ears, 1 Sam. vii. 2., freed from their bondage 



by Samuel, who had been raised up by God as 
their deliverer. He ruled them for upwards of 
forty years ; when, having been obliged to em- 
ploy his sons as his assessors, their misconduct 
gave the people a pretext for casting off the 
invisible dominion of God, and being governed 
by a king, like the neighbouring nations, who 
should go out before them and fight their battles, 

1 Sam. viii, 1. 5. 7., xii. 12. Upon which Saul 
was at the command of God anointed to be their 
king, B.C. 1095, 1 Sam. ix. 15, 16., x. 1., and 
reigned over them forty years. Acts xiii. 21. 
Both he and his two successors, David and Solo- 
mon, are called kings of Israel, and their domi- 
nions the kingdom of Israel, 1 Sam. xxiv. 14. 20. ; 

2 Sam. V. 3. 5., vi. 21. ; 1 Kgs. i. 34., ii. 4., viii. 25., 
though after the division of the kingdom on the 
accession of Eehoboam, these names were con- 
fined to the kingdom of the Ten Tribes. 

B.C. 

1095. Saul is anointed king by Samuel, and 
afterwards chosen king by lot at 
Mizpeh, 1 Sam. x. 1. 17—24. 
He delivers Jabesh-Gilead from the Am- 
monites, xi. 1 — 11. 

1093. Jonathan smites the Philistine garrison 
at Geba, which greaily provokes them, 
xiii. 3—5., 17 — 23. The Israelites 
assemble against the Philistines at 
Gilgal, where Saul, weary of staying 
for Samuel, himself offers sacrifice, for 
which he is severely reproved, xiii. 
6—14. 

1087. Jonathan again smites a garrison of the 
Philistines, Avho are afterwards attacked 
and routed by all Israel, xiv. 1 — 46. 
Saul attacks Moab, Ammon, Edom, 
Zobah, Amalek, and the Philistines, 
vexing all his enemies on every side, 
though the latter people fought against 
him all his days. xiv. 47—52. 

1079. He is sent to root out the Amaleldtes, 
and to destroy all that they had ; but 
violating both injunctions, by sparing 
Agag and the best of the spoil, he is 
rejected from being king, xv. 1 — 35. 
The Spirit of the Lord departed from 
him, and an evil spirit from the Lord 
troubled him, x\d. 14. 

1063. Samuel is sent by God to Bethlehem to 
anoint David king, xvi. 1—13. Saul 
sends for David to quiet his evil spirit. 
The Israelites and Philistines go out to 
battle at Ephes-dammim. Goliath is 
slain by David, and the Philistines 
are worsted, xvii. 1 — 58. 



ISRAELITES. 



187 



Saul at first keeps David at Ins court, \ 
but observing tlie frieiulsliip bctAveen 
him and Jonatlian, becomes envious 
of him, and repeatedly seelvs to kill 
him, xviii. — xxvii. 
1056. Saul conquered by the Philistines at 
Mt. Gilboa, ^\-here himself and his 
three sons are slain, xxviii., xxix., 
xxxi. ; 1 Chron. x. 

David reigned over Israel forty years, 1 Kgs. 
ii. 11.; 1 Chron. xxix. 27. ; Jand brought its 
dominion and prosperity to a pitch they had 
never reached before; extending his kingdom 
to the E. Euphrates on the E., Gen. xv. 18. ; 
2 Sam. viii. 3. ; 1 Chron. xviii. 3. ; and to the 
Eed Sea on the S., 2 Sam. viii. 14. ; 1 Kgs. xi. 
15,16.; 1 Chron. xviii. 13. 

B.C. 

1055. David is made king of Judah at Hebron, 
■where he reigns seven years and a half. 
Abner makes Ishbosheth, the son of 
Saul, king of Israel, but after^vards 
revolts to David, and Ishbosheth is 
slain, 2 Sam. ii., iii., iv. ; 1 Chron. xi. 

lOiS. David is anointed king of all Israel by 
the tribes at Hebron. He takes Zion 
from the Jebusites, and dwells there, 
2 Sam. v. 1—10. ; 1 Chron. xii. 23—40. 

1047. He conquers the Phihstines twice, 2 Sam. 
V. 17—25. ; 1 Chron. xiv. 8—17. 

1042. He brings the ark from Kirjath-Jearim 
to Zion, 2 Sam. vi. ; 1 Chron, xiii. 

XV. 

1040. He conquers the Philistines, Moabites, 
the kings of Zobah, and Syria-Da- 
mascus, the Ammonites, Amalekites, 
and Edoniites, recovering his border 
to the R. Euphrates and the Eed Sea, 
2 Sam. viii. ; 1 Chron. xviii. 

1033. Pie takes Eabbah from the Ammonites, 
after first vanquishing the Sp-ians, 
2 Sam. X., xii. 26—31. ; 1 Chron. xix., 
XX. 1—3. 

1023. Absalom conspires against David, who 

flies fi-om Jerusalem ; Absalom is killed ; 

David returns to Zion, 2 Sam. xv., x\-i., 

xvii., x'S'iii., xix. 
1018. Tlie Philistines beaten in four battles, 

2 Sam. xxi. 15—22. ; 1 Chron. sx. 

4—8. 

1017. David numbers the people. The three 
days' pestilence. He buys Araunah's 
Threshing-floor in 'Mt. Moriah, and 
prepares materials to build the Temple 



B.C. 

there, 2 Sam. xxiv. ; 1 Chron. xxi., 
xxii., xxviii., xxix,; 2 Chron. iii. 1. 
1015. David dies, having first caused Solomon 
to be anointed king, 1 Kgs. i., ii. 1 — 
11.; 1 Chron. xxiii. 1., xxviii. 1 — 8., 
xxix. 26—30. 

Solomon likewise reigned forty years over 
all Israel. His peaceful rule was undisturbed 
by any invasions or wars ; he greatly strength- 
ened the laws and institutions of his country, 
which, under his government, advanced to a 
pitch of prosperity and magnificence it never 
knew before or since, 1 Kgs. iii. 13. ; 1 Chron, 
xxix. 25. ; 2 Chron. i. 12. But because of his 
falling into idolatrous practices in his old age, 
God stirred up as adversaries against him, 
Hadad the Edomite, Eezin, king of Sj-ria- 
Damascus, and Jeroboam, the son of 2Nebat, 
1 Kgs. xi. 

B.C. 

1015. SoL03ioN anointed king at Da\*id's com- 
mand, 1 Kgs. i. ; 1 Chron. xxix. 22 — 25. 

1012. He begins to build the Temple 480 
years after the Exodus, 1 Kgs. v., vi., 
vii. ; 2 Chron. iii., iv., v. 

1004. The Temple dedicated, 1 Kgs. viii. 1.; 
2 Chron. ^± 

992. Solomon's na^-y brings gold from Ophir. 

The queen of Sheba visits him, 1 Kgs. 

ix., X. ; 2 Chron. viii. 17, 18., ix. 1—12. 
984. His strange wives draw him to idolatry, 

1 Kgs. xi. 1 — 25. 
980. Jeroboam is promised the rale over Ten 

Tribes, 1 Kgs. xi. 26—40. 
975. Solomon dies, 1 Kgs. xi. 41 — 13. ; 2 Chron, 
ix. 26—31. 

After the death of Solomon, his son Eehoboam 
went to Shechem to receive the homage of the 
Xorthern tribes, who for many years seem to 
have considered themselves a distinct portion of 
the commonwealth from Judah, and perhaps 
Benjamin. Cf. Josh. xi. 16. 21. ; 1 Sa%, xvii, 
52., xviii. 16.; 2 Sam. ii. 9, 10. 17. 28., iii. 10. 
12., iv. 1,, V. 1. 5., xi, 11,, xii. 8., xix. 11. 20. 40 
— 43., XX. 1, 2., xxi. 2., xxiv. 1. 9. ; 1 Kgs. ii. 32, 
But Eehoboam, rashly rejecting the advice of 
his father's aged counsellors, and following that 
of the younger men, the signal for rebellion was 
quickly given ; and in fulfilment of the threaten- 
ing of God to Solomon, 1 Kgs. xi. 9 — 13., and of 
His promise to Jeroboam, tlie son of Xebat, 
xi. 29 — 39., ten out of the twelve tribes revolted 
from the house of David, and henceforward 
became a separate kingdom, called the Ki>'g- 



188 



ISRAELITES. 



DOM OF Israel, the two remaining tribes being 
now distinguished as the Kingdom of Judah ; 
though the old name of Israel is still occasionally 
found applied to the latter, 1 Kgs. xii. 17. ; 
2 Chron. xii. 1. The former included the tribes 
of Ephraiui, Manasseh, Simeon, Dan, Issachar, 
Zebulun, Asher, Naphtali, Keuben, and Gad; 
the latter, those of Judah and Benjamin. After 
levying a large army to bring back the in- 
surgent tribes to his dominion, he was forbidden 
by the Lord to march against them ; and was 
forced to be content with ruling the two tribes, 
who alone remained faithful to the house of 
David, 1 Kgs. xii. 1—24. ; 2 Chron. x., xi. 1—4. 
But the priests and Levites that were in all 
Israel, took part with Rehoboam ; the cities of 
the former having been all within the bounds of 
the two tribes, one only excepted, which was 
just within the limits of Simeon, Josh. xxi. 
9 — 19., and now, probably, united with Judah ; 
and the Levites leaving their possessions and 
coming to dwell in Judah and at Jerusalem, 
because Jeroboam had stripped them of their 
office, 2 Chron. xi. 13, 14. Many of the religious 
people in the Ten Tribes likewise came at first 
to Jerusalem to sacrifice, according to the law of 
God, xi. 16, 17. ; but in order more completely 
to break off all comiection between the two 
kingdoms, Jeroboam set up his two golden 
calves, one at Bethel, on the borders of Judah, 
and the other at Dan, in the northernmost part 
of his dominions. He also made priests of the 
lowest of the people, appointed a feast and 
sacrifices of his own device, set up high places 
to worship " devils," and did all he could to 
alienate the minds of his people from the national 
religion and the true worship of God, 1 Kgs. 



xii. 2G— 33. ; 2 Chron. xi. 15., xiii, 9. Hence he 
is so often said to liave made Israel to sin, 
and was forewarned that the kingdom should 
at length be taken from his house, 1 Kgs. xiv. 
7—16. 

The metropolis of the kingdom of Israel 
appears to have been at first Shechem, which 
was built, or enlarged and strengthened by 
Jeroboam, 1 Kgs. xii. 25. Tirzah was also a 
royal residence, xiv. 17., xvi. 6. 8. 15. 23., until 
the time of Omri, who built Samaria, xvi. 24. ; 
which soon became the capital, and contributed 
the name of Samaria to the whole kingdom of 
the Ten Tribes, 1 Kgs. xiii. 32. ; 2 Kgs. xvii. 74. 
Jeroboam was of the tribe of Ephraim, and was 
succeeded by eighteen other kings out of several 
dynasties, who, amidst many seasons of divisions 
and civil Avar, and two periods of anarchy, ruled 
the country for a space of 254 years, until they 
were carried captive by Shalmaneser, king of 
Assyria, B.C. 721, 2 Kgs. xvii. 6 — 23.; the 
trans-Jordanic and the Northern tribes having 
been led captive thither nineteen years before, 
2 Kgs. XV. 29. ; 1 Chron. v. 26. ; Isa. ix. 1. 

The kingdom of Judah continued to be go- 
verned by successive descendants of the house of 
David, in all twenty kings (including Reho- 
boam), during a period of 387 years, until it was 
finally carried captive to Babylon, and Jerusalem 
itself destroyed, by Nebuchadnezzar, b. c. 588, 
2 Kgs. XXV.; 2 Chron. xxxvi. 19, 20.; Jer. 
xxxix., lii. ; the seventy years' captivity hav- 
ing commenced eighteen years before, when 
he plundered Jerusalem and the Temple, taking 
a great spoil and many prisoners to Babylon, 
2 Kgs. xxiv. 1 — 4. ; 2 Chron. xxxvi. 6, 7. ; J er. 
XXV. 1—12. ; Dan. i. 1, 2—7. 



Propliets of 
Judah. 



Kingdom of Judah. 

20 Kings — 587 Years. 



Rehoboam (17 years ; did evil). Tiie 
Israelites assemble at Shechem to 
crown him ; but by reason of his re- 
fusing their suit, they revolt, kill 
Adoram, and make Rehoboam flee to 
Jerusalem. He raises an army, but 
is forbidden by Shemaiah. The priests 
and Levites resort to Mm out of all 
Israel. War between Rehoboam and 
Jeroboam all their days, 1 Kgs. xii. 1 
—24., xiv. 30. ; 2 Chron. x., xi. 1—17. 



Rehoboam and all Judah with him forsake 
the law of the Lord, building high 
places, images, and groves, 1 Kgs. xiv. 
22—24. ; 2 Chron. xii. 1. 



Shisliak, king of Egypt, plunders Je- 
rusalem, and the Temple, 1 Kgs, xiv. 
20— 23.; 2 Chron. xii. 2—12. 



B.C. 

975 



972 



971 



Kingdom of Israel. 
19 Kings — 254 Years. 



Jeroboam (22 years ; made Israel to 
sin). Tlie Ten Tribes rebel. Jero- 
boam sets up the calves at Bethel and 
D,m, making priests of the lowest of 
the people. He builds Shechem. 
Man of God from Judah prophesies 
against the altar at Bethel, 1 Kgs. xii. 
25—33., xiii. 



Prophets of 
Israel. 



ISRAELITES. 



189 



'rophets of 
Judah. 


Kingdom of Judah. 

20 Kings —3S7 Years. 




Kingdom of Iskaf.l. 
VJ Kings — 2.01 Vf.ir<. 


Prnplicts of 
Jsrael. 




Rehoboam dies. 

Abijam (3 years ; walked in all the sins 
of his father) succeeds his father, 1 
Kgs. xiv. -iO— 31., XV, 1, 2.; 2 Chron. 
xii. 13—16., xiii. 1, 2. 


B.C. 

958 


War between Abijam and Jeroboam all 
their days, 1 Kgs. xv. 2.; 2 Chron. 
xiii. 2. 


Aliijah the Si 






Abijam having declared the right of his 
cause attacks Jeroboam, 1 Kgs. xv. 
3—6.; 2 Chron. xiii. 1—20. 


957 


Jeroboam conquered by Abijah. God's 
judgment denouncetf against the 
house of Jeroboam. The captivity 
of Israel foretold, i Kgs. xiv. 10—16. ; 
2 Chron. xiii 15—20. 


c" 
re 






Abijam dies. 

Asa (41 years ; did right) succeeds his 
father, 1 Kgs. xv. 7—11.; 2 Chron. 
xiii. 21, 22., xiv. 1, 2. 


955. 










954 


Jeroboam dies. 

Nadab (2 years ; did evil) succeeds h's 
father, TKgs. xiv. 19, 20., xv. 25, 26.; 
2 Chron. xiii. 20. 






War between Asa and Baasha all their 
days, 1 Kgs. xv, 16. 32. 


953 


Nadab killed by Baasha. 

Baasha (24 years ; did evil)succeeds,and 

destroys the house of Jeroboam, 1 

Kgs. XV. 25—34. 






Asa destroys idolatry from amongst his 
people, 1 Kgs. xv. 12—15.; 2 Chron. 
xiv. 3 — 8., XV. 


951 






> 
1 




Zarah the Ethiopian attacks .4sa\vith 
a host of 1,000,000, but is smitten by 
him, 2 Chron. xiv. 9—15. 


941 










Asa hires Benhadad, king of Syria, 
against Baasha, for which he is re- 
proved by Hanani, whom he im- 
prisons. 


940 


Baasha attacks Asa, until driven off bv 
Benhadad, 2 Chron. xvi. 1—10. 










930 


Baasha and his house denounced bv 
Jehu, the son of Hanani. Baasha 
dies. 

Elah (2 years ; made Israel to sin) suc- 
ceeds his father, I Kgs. xvi. 1—8. 13. 




hu, the son ol 






929 


Ela h killed by his servant Zimri. 
ZiMRi (7 days ; did evil) succeeds, and 

slays all the house of Baasha, 1 Kgs 

xvi. 9—15. 










929' 


Zimri, besieged in Tirzah, burns the 
palace over his head, and dies. The 
people divided into two parties, that 
of Tibni and that of Omri, 1 Kgs. 
xvi. 16-21. 

Tibni dies. 

Omri (12 years; did worse than all 
before him) succeeds. He builds Sa- 
maria, 1 Kgs. xvi. 22—26. 










918 


Omri dies, and is succeeded by his son 
Ahab (22 years ; did evil above all 
before him) ; he marries Jezebel, and 
builds an altar to Baal, 1 Kgs. 27—33. 








Asa dies, and is succeeded by his son 
Jehoshaphat ^25 years; did right) 


914 


Hiel the Bethelite rebuilds Jericho, 1 
Kgs. xvi. 34. 




e:' 
p- 



190 



ISRAELITES. 



Prophets of 
Judah 


Kingdom of Judah. 

20 Kings — 3S7 Years. 




Kingdom of Israel. 
19 Kings _ 254 Years. 


Prophets of 
Israel. 


Jeliu, the son of Hanani, Eliezer. 

Jahaziel. 


Jehu. 


Jehoshaphat — {continued) 
makes peace with Israel, 1 Kgs. xv. 
23, 24., xxii. 41—46. ; 2 Chron. xvi. 
11—14., xvii. 


B.C. 

914. 

906 




K 

W 
tr 

3 

O 

O 
o 
p- 

1 1 
s 




Elijah slays the prophets of Baal at 
Kishon. End of the three and a half 
years' famine. Elijah anoints Elisha, 
1 Kgs. xvii., xviii., xix. 


• - 


901 


Benhadad, king of Syria, besieges Sa- 
maria ; by the direction of a man 
of God, the Syrians are slain ; 
but returning the following year, are 
smitten twice, when Ahab makes a 
covenant with them, 1 Kgs. xx. 




898 


Ahaziah begins to reign jointly with his 
father. 


Jehoshaphat visits Ahab, and goes with 
him against Kamoth-Gilead, where he 
is in danger of being slain, but 
returns safely to Jerusalem, 1 Kgs. 
xxii. 1 — 40. He joins himself to 
Ahaziah, xxii. 48, 49. 


897 


Ahab, seduced by false prophets, attacks 
the Syrians in Ramoth-Gilead, where 
he is slain. He is succeeded by his 
son 

Ahaziah (2 years ; did evil), who now 
reigns alone, 1 Kgs. xxii. 51 — 53. ; 2 
Chron. xviii. 


The Moabites, Ammonites, and Edom- 
ites, invade Judah, but are miracu- 
lously repulsed. 
Jehoshaphat's ships which he made to 
go to Tarshish, with Ahaziah, are 
broken at Ezion-geber, 1 Kgs. xxii. 
48, 49. ; 2 Chron. xx. 


896 


Moab rebels against Israel, Elijah 
threatens Ahaziah with judgments 
for his idolatry. Ahaziah dies, and is 
succeeded by his second son 

Jehoram (12 years; did evil) or 
Joram. Elijah taken up into heaven, 
2 Kgs. i., ii., iii. 1—5. 




Jehoshaphat assists Jehoram against 
the Moabites. 


895 


Jehoram persuades Jehoshaphat and 
the king of Edom to assist him 
against the Moabites, who are mira- 
culously vanquished. The king of 
Moab burns tiie king of Edoni's son, 
2 Kgs. iii. 6—27. 


Jehoram begins to reign jointly with his 
father for four years ; then lour years 
alone, 2 Kgs. viii. 16. 


892 


Benhadad, king of Syria, besieges Sa- 
maria. The famine induces women 
to eat their children. The Syrians 
are miraculously driven away, 2 Kgs, 
vi., vii. 


Jehoshaphat dies, and is succeeded 

by his son 
Jehoram (8 years'; did evil), or 

Joram, who marries Ahab's daughter. 

He slays all his brothers. The Edom- 

ites rovolt. Libnah revolts. He 

makes high places in Judah, 1 Kgs. 

xxii. .50.; 2 Kgs. viii. 17—22.; 2 

Chron. xxi. 1 — 15.. 


889 




The Philistines and Arabians invade 
Judah, and pillage Jerusalem. Je- 
horam is smitten with an incurable 
disease, 2 Chron. xxi. 16 — 18. 


887 




Jehoram dies, and is succeeded by his 
son 

Ahaziah (1 year; did evil), called also 
Azariah or Jehoahaz, 2 Kgs. viii. 23 — 
27. ; 2 Chron. xxi. 19, 20,, xxii. 1—4. 


885 


Elisha goes to Damascus, whereBenha- 
dad sends Hazael to inquire about his 
recovery. Hazael kills Benhadad, 2 
Kgs. viii. 7—15. 



ISRAELITES. 



191 



Prophets of 
J udah. 


Kingdom of Judah. 
20 Kings — 587 Years. 




. Kl.NOUOM OF ISRARL. 
1 y King, — 2.0 1 Years. 


Proiihetsof 
Israel. 




Ahaziah joins Jehoram in his campaign 
against Hazael. He is shiin by Jehu, 
c\ncl is suocGGclGci by liis niothGr 

AiiiALiAH (() years; did evil), who 
usurps the kingdom, destroying all 
the seed royal except Joash, who was 
concealed from her in the Temple, 2 
Kgs. viii. 28, 29., ix. 27— 29., x. 12— 
14., xi. 1—3.; 2 Chron. xxii. .3—12. 


B.C. 

884. 


Jehoram attacks Hazael in Ramoth- 
Gilead and is wounded. He returns to 
Jezreel, where he is slain by Jehu. 
Jezfcbcl is killed. 

Iehu (28 years; did evil) succeeds, 
and destroys all the house of 
Ahab, and also the worshii pers of 
Baal, 2 Kgs. ix. I— 26., 30—37., x. 1— 
11., 15—31. 






JrnoASH (40 years; did right all the 
davsof Jehoi"ada),or Joash, is anointed 
king by Jehoiada. Athaliah is slain. 
The house of Baal is destroyed, 2 Kgs. 
xi. 4—21.; 2 Chron. xxiii. 


873. 










860. 


The Lord begins to cut Israel short. 
Hazael smites the trans-Jordanic 
tribes, 2 Kgs. x. 32, 33. 








Jehoash repairs the Temple and restores 
the worshij), 2 Kgs. xii. 1—16.; 2 
Chron. xxiv. 4 — 14. 


856. 


Jehu dies, and is succeeded by his son 
Jehoahaz (17 years; did evil). God 
delivers Israel into the hands of 
Hazael and Benhadad all their days. 
2 Kgs. X. 34—36., xiii. 1—3. 


Jonah. 










841. 


Jehoash begins to reign jointly with his 
father, 2 Kgs. xiii. 1—7. 






c 




Jehoash and the people fall into idolatry. 
Zechariah is stoned. The Syrians in- 
vade Judah, sack Jerusalem, and de- 
stroy the nobles, 2 Kgs. xii. 17, 18. ; 2 
Chron. xxiv. 17 — 24. 


840. 










Jehoash slain by his servants. He is 
succeeded by his son 

Amaziah (29 'years; did right), who 
slays his father's murderers. Me 
numbers the people, 2 Kgs. xii. 19— 
21.,xiv. 1—6.; 2 Chron. xxiv. 25— 1;7., 
XXV. 1—10. 


839. 


Jehoahaz dies, and is succeeded by h's 
son 

Jehoash (16 years; did evil), or 
Joash. The next year the Moabites 
invade Israel, 2 Kgs. xiii. 8—11., 20, 
21. 










837. 


Jehoash associates Jeroboam II. in the 
kingdom with him ; the following 
year the Syrians are beaten three 
times, as Elisha had foretold. 2 Kgs. 
xiii. 14—19 , 22—2.5. 






Man of God. 




Amaziah hires 100,000 Israelites to help 
him against the Edomites, but at the 
bidding ofa prophet, he dismisses them. 
He conquers the Edomites and takes 
Selah ; but serves the gods of Ednra, 
2 Kgs. xiv. 7.; 2 Chron. xxv. 6—16. 


827 


Jehoash allows 100,000 of his subjects to 
be hired by Amaziah against the 
Edomites ; " but being sent home 
again, they pillage Judah and mas- 
sacre the people in revenge. 










Amaziah provokes Jehoash to battle and 
is conquered by him. Jerusalem and 
the Temple are plundered by Jehoash , 
2 Kgs.xiv. 8—14. 


826 


Jehoash provoked to war by Amaziah, 
defeats him, breaks down 'the wall of 
Jerusalem, and pillages it and the 
Temple, 2 Chron. xxv. 17—24. 










825 


Jehoash dies, and is succeeded by his 
son 

Jeroboam II. (41 years; did evil), 
who soon restores the coast of Israel 
according to the prophecy of Jonah, 
2 Kgs. xiii. 12, 13., xiv. 15, 16. 23—27. 


o 

3 





192 



ISRAELITES. 



Prophets of 
Judah. 


Kingdom of Judah. 
20 Kings _ 387 Years. 




. Kingdom of Israel. 

19 Kings — 2.54 Years. 


Prophets of 
Israel. 


Zechariah, who had understanding iuthe visions of God. j 


Joel. 


Aniaziah slain by conspiracy. He is suc- 
ceeded by his son 

UzziAH (.52 years ; did right) or 
Azariah, who builds Elath on the Red 
Sea, and restores it to Judah, 2 Kgs. 
xiv, 17 — 22., XV. 1 — 4.; 2 Chron. xxv. 
25—28., xxvi. 1—5. 


B.C. 

810 


He recovers Damascus and Hamath, 2 
Kgs. xiv. 28. 


Hosea. Hosea. 
Amos. Amos. ^^ed 


He conquers the Philistines, Arabians, 
and Mehuriins. Other nations court 
his favour. He beautifies and forti- 
fies Jerusalem, 2 Chron. xxvi. 6— 15. 


800 






784 


Jeroboam 11. dies. 

Interregnum of 11 years, 2 Kgs. xiv 
28. 




773 


Zachariah (6 months ; did evil), son of 
Jeroboam II., made king, 2 Kgs. xiv. 29., 
XV. 8. 9. 




772 


He is slain by 

Shallum (1 month), who succeeds 
him, 2 Kgs. xv. 10—13. 




772. 


Shallum is sl-iin by 

Menahem (10 years; did evil), who 
succeeds him. He captures Tiphsah 
on the Euphrates, 2 Kgs. xv. 14—18. 


Isaiah. 




771. 


Pul, king of Assyria, invades Israel, but 
is bribed off by Menahem, 2 Kgs. xv. 
19, 20.; 1 Chron. v. 26. 


Uzziah, invading the priest's ofEcp, is 
smitten with leprosy. Jotham his son 
rules for him, 2 Kgs. xv.5.;2 Chron. 
xxvi. 16—21 


765. 






761. 


Menahem dies, and is succeeded by 
his son 

Pekahiah (2 years ; did evil), 2 Kgs. 
XV. 21—24. 




759. 


He is slain by his captain 

Pekah (20 years-; did evil), the son 

of Remaliah, who succeeds him, 2 

Kgs. XV. 2.5—28. 




Isaiah. 


Uzziah dies, and is succeeded by his son 
Jotham (16 years ; did right), who 

strengthens Jerusalem, and conquers 

the Ammonites, 2 Kgs. xv. 6, 7. 

32—35. ; 2 Chron. xxvi. 22, 23., xxvii. 

1-6. 


753. 




Judah invaded by Pekah and Rezin, 
king of Syria. Jotham dies, and is 
succeeded by his son 

Ahaz (16 years; did not right), who 
introduces idolatry, and makes his son 
pass through the fire. He keeps 
Israel and Syria in check, 2 Kgs. xv. 
36—38., xvi. 1—6.; 2 Chron. xxvii. 
7—9., xxviii. 1 — 4. 


742. 


Pekah invades Judah, together with 
Rezin, king of Syria, but they are 
beaten off, though Rezin captures 
Elath on the Red Sea. 


Judah brought low because of Ahaz, 


741. 


Pekah and Rezin conquer Ahaz, plunder 



ISRAELITES. 



193 



Prophets 
Judah 


of 


KixVGDOM OF Judah. 

20 Kings — ."S7 Years. 




Kingdom of Israel. 

19 Kings — 254 Years. 


Prophets of 
IhTael. 




Isaiah. 




sins, by Pekah and Rezin. The 
Edomites and Philistines ravage 
Judah, 2 Chron. xxviii. 17—19. 


B.C. 
741. 


Jiidah, and take many prisoners, whom 
Oded warns them to resiore, 2 Chron. 
xxviii. 5 — 15. 


C 












Ah^z in his distress takes the silver and 
gohl from tlie Temple, and hires Tig- 
lath-Pileser, king of Assyria, to help 
him, 2 Kgs. xvi. 7—16.; 2 Chron. 
xxviii. 16. -20,21. He goes to Da- 
mascus and becomes more idolatrous. 
> 


740. 


Tiglath-Pilcser, king of Assyria, car- 
ries captive the trans-Jordanic and 
the NoThern tribes of Israel ; he slays 
Reziii, and captures Damascus, 2 Kgs. 
XV. 29, ; 1 Chron. v. 26, 














Ahaz strips "the Temple to bribe off 
Tiglath-Pileser, 2 Kgs. xvi. 17, 18.; 
2 Chron. xxviii. 22—25.; 


739. 


Pekah is slain by Hoshea. 

Anarchy for 9 years, 2 Kgs.xv. 30, 31. 
















730. 


HosHEA (9 years ; did evil) becomes the 
settled king. Shalmaneser attacks 
him, and makes him tributary, 2 Kgs. 
xvii. 1—3. 














Ahaz dies, and is succeeded by his son 
Hezekiah (29 years ; did right), who 
destroys idolatry, and restores the true 
worship, 2 Kgs." xvi. 19, 20., xviii. 1 — 
6.; 2 Chron. xxviii. 26, 27., xxix., 
xxs., xxxi. 


72'5. 










Micah. 


Isaiah. 




He casts off the Assyrian yoke ; he con-' 
quers the Philistines, and prospers on 
all sides, 2 Kgs. xviii. 7, 8. 


725. 


Hoshea confederating with So, king of 
Egypt, and sending no tribute to the 
king of Assyria, is aitatked and im- 
prisoned by the latter, 2 Kgs. xvii. 4. 




Hosea. 












721. 


After a siege of 3 years Samaria is 
taken by Shalmaneser, king of As- 
syria, who carries Israel captive to 
Hal ah, Habor, Gozan, and the cities of 
the Medes, 2 Kgs. xvii. 5—23., xviii. 
9—12. 







Kingdom of Judah. 

20 Kings. — 587 Years. 



Sennacherib, king of Assyria, invading Judah, but being bribed by a tribute, retires. 
Hezekiah's sickness and recovery, 2 Kgs. xviii. 13— 16., xx. 1 — 11.; 2 Chron. xxxii. 
]_8. 24—26. 



Sennacherib sends his threatening message and letter to Hezekiah. The .\ssvrian armv 
is miraculously destroyed, 2 Kgs. xviii. 17—37., xix. ; 2 Chron, xxxii. 9—23. 



Hezekiah dies, and is succeeded by his son 

Man^sseh (55 years ; did evil) who establishes idolatry and sheds much innocent blood, 
2 Kgs. XX. 20, 21., xxi. 1—16. ; 2 Chron. xxxii, 27—33., xxxiii. 1—10, 

677. 

Manasseh taken captive and carried to Babylon. Upon his humbling himself before 
God, he is released, and returning, puts down idolatry, 2 Chron. xx.xiii. 11—17. 

The strange nations sent bv the king of Assyria into Samaria, being plagued with lions, 
make a mixture of religions, 2 Kgs. xvii. 24—41. ; Ezra iv. 2. 10. 



643. 

Manasseh dies, and is succeeded by his son 

Amon, (2 years ; di(it evil), who forsakes God, 2 Kgs. xxi. 17—22. ; 2 Chron. xxxiii. 
18—23. 

o 



94 



ISRAELITES. 



Kingdom of Judah. 

20 Kings _ 387 Years. 



Amon is slain by his servants, nnd succeeded by his son 
JosiAH (31 years; did right), 2 Kgs. xxi. 23 — 26., xxii. 1, 2. 
xxxiv. ], 2. 



2 Chron. xxxiii. 24, 25. 



He repairs the Temple, finds the bock of the Law, and the next year keeps a more 
solemn Passover than any since the days of Samuel, 2 Kgs. xxii. 3 — 20., xxxiii, 1 — 
25.; 2 Chron. xxxiv. 3—33., xxxv. 1—19, 



610. 

Pharaoh-Nechoh, king Egypt, going to attack the king of Assyria, is hindered by 
Josiah, who is slain by him at Megiddo. Josiah is succeeded by his son 

Jehoahaz (3 months ; did evil), or Shallum, 2 Kgs. xxiii. 25—32.; 2 Chron. xxxv. 
20—27., xxxvi. 1, 2. 



Jehoahaz is deposed by Pharaoh-Nechoh, who sets up his brother 
Jehoiak!M (11 years ; did evil) or Eliakim in his place, exacting a heavy tribute, 2 
Kgs. xxiii. 33 — 37. ; 2 Chron. xxxvi. 3 — 5. 



He is conquered by Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, who plunders Jerusalem and 
the Temple,' and takes many prisoners to Babylon. The seventy years' captivity 
begins from this date, 2 Kgs. xxiv. 1. ; 2 Chron. xxxvi. G, 7. 



599. 

After being pressed by the Chaldees, Syrians, Moabites, and Ammonites, he dies and is 
succeeded by his son 

Jehoiachin (3 months ; did evil) or Jeconiah. Jerusalem is again taken 'and 
pillaged by Nebuchadnezzar, and large numbers of the people are taken captive to 
Babylon, 2 Kgs. xxiv. 2—11. ; 2 Chron. xxxvi. 8—10. 



He is taken captive to Babylon a'^d is succeeded by h 

was changed by Nebuchadnez7ar to 
Zedekiah (11 years ; did evil), 2 Kgs. xxiv. 12—18.; 2 Chron 



uncle Mattaniah, whose name 
xxxvi. 11, 12. 



588. 

After a siege of 2 years Jerusalem is taken, and, together with the Temple, is burned. 
The eyes of Zedekiah are put out, and his sons and all the nobles are slain. Vast 
treasures are taken to Babvlon ; the people are all carried captive, except a few of the 
poor, who are left to till the land, 2 Kgs. xxiv. 19, 20., xxv. 1—21, ; 2 Chron. xxxvi. 
13-21. 



Gedaltah (2 months) is made governor of the land by Nebuchadnezzar, but being 
slain by Ishmael of the seed roval, all the Jews who had been lefc, fly into Egypt 
from fear of the Chaldeans, 2 Kgs. xxv. 22-26. 



.580. 

Nebuchadnezzar dedicates his golden image, Dan., iii. 



5C9. 

He is distracted 7 years, Ean. iv. 



562. 

Evil-Merodach, king of Babylon, releases and advances Jehoiachin, 2 Kgs. xxv. 27—30. 



538. 

Belshazzar's impious feast and" death. Darius the Median ^kes the kingdom,' and 
makes Daniel his chief president, who the next year is thrown inito the den of lions, 
Dan. v., vi. 



ISRAELITES. 



195 



Prophets of 
Judah. 



Kingdom of Judah. 

20 Kings — 387 Years. 



B.C. 
53G. 

Crnis, succeeding Darius, issues an edict for the Jews to return home under 
Zerubbabel appointed their governor. They hegin to return ; the ieveiity years' cap 
tivity ends, 2 Chron. xxxvi. 22, 23. ; Ezra i., ii., iii. 1—7. ; Neh. vii. G— 73., xii. I— 2G. 



The foundations of the Temple are laid, but the help of the Samaritans being rejected, 
they frustrate the work all the days of Cyrus and Artaxerxes, Ezra iii. 8 — 13., iv. 



The Jews, incited by Haggai and Zechariah, resume the building of the Temple, Ezra 
V. 1—5. 



The Samaritans again disturb them, but a decree is obtained from Darius for complet- 
ing the Temple. The feast of Ahasuerus. Vashti is deposed, Ezra v. 6 — 17., vi. J — 12. 
Esther i. 



The Temple is dedicated and the Passover kept. Esther is made queen by Ahasuerus. 
Ezra vi. 13—22. : Esther ii. 



510. 

Haman's plot against the Jews is defeated by Esther. The following year the Jfws 
defend themselves against their enemies, and slay HaCian's ten sons. The feast of 
Purim is ordained, Esther iii., iv., v., vi., vii., viii., ix. 



457. 

Ezra is sent hy Artaxerxes to be governor of Judsa. Ma"y Jews return with him. He 
makes the people put away their strange wives, Ezra vii., viii., ix., x. 



445. 

Nehemiah being sent by Artaxerxes to govern Judsea for a season, rebuilds Jerusalem, 
though opposed by Sanballat and other enemies. He restores order, and purifies 
the vvTorship of God, and after eleven years' absence, returns back to the Persian court 
as appointed, Neh. i., ii., iii., iv., vi. vii. 1 — 5., viii., ix., x., xi., xii. 27 — 47., xiii. 1—3. 



He returns again to Jerusalem after a short stay at the Persian court, and continues his 
v.'ork of reformation, Neh. xiii. 4—31. 



397, 

Malachi prophesies. The Canon of the Old Testament closes. 



Tliougli the edict of Cyras extended to 
" all the people of God," and that of Artaxerxes 
to " all the people of Israel," only a few out of 
the Ten Tribes returned vnth Zerubbabel and 
Ezra ; the vast body of them remaining behind, 
and being still scattered over the earth, no 
one knows where. Those who returned being 
mainl}^ of the two tribes of Judah and Ben- 
jamin, Ezra 1. 5., iv. 1., x. 9., the people became 
henceforward denominated Jews after the lead- 
ing tribe of Judah. See Jews. There was, | 
however, still a recognition of the Twelve Tribes , 
by the nation even to the end of their polity, ! 



however much they were dispersed abroad: 
hence Zerubbabel at his first Passover, offered 
twelve he-goats, according to the number of the 
Twelve Tribes, Ezra vi, 17., and at a later period 
the people under Ezra offered twelve bullocks 
with the same view, Ezra viii. 35. St. Paul 
speaks of the Twelve Tribes instantly serving God, 
Acts xxvi. 7. St. James addi-esses his Epistle 
to the Twelve Tribes which are scattered abroad. 
Jam. i. 1. ; and oin- Lord annoitnces to His faith- 
ful followers their judgment of the Twelve Tribes 
of Israel, Matt, xix, 28. ; Lu. xxii. 30. The 
name Israel was also still employed to designate 
o 2 



196 



ISRAELITES. 



the whole nation both in the book of Ezra, 
ii. 2. 69. 70., vi. 16., vii. 7. 13,, viii. 35., ix. 1., x. 
1, 2. 5. 10. 25., and Nehemiah, i. 6., ii. 10., vii. 6 L. 
73., ix. 1. 17., X. 39., xi. 3., xii. 47., xiii. 3. 
(c/! 1 Chron. ix, 2.) ; as well as in the New 
Testament, Matt. viii. 10,, ix. 33., x. 6. 23., xv. 
24., xxvii. 9, 42, ; Mk. xv. 32. ; Lu. i. 16, 54. 80., 

11. 25. 32. 34., vii. 9., xxiv. 21. ; Jo. i. 31. 49., iii. 
10., xii. 13.; Acts i. 6., ii. 22. 36., iii. 12., iv. 8. 
10. 27., V. 21. 31. 35., ix. 15., x. 36., xi. 7. 25, 
26., xiii. 16, 17. 23, 24., xxi, 28,,'xxviii. 20, ; 
Rom. ix. 4. 6. 31., x. 1., xi. 1. 7. 25, 26. ; 1 Cor. 
X. 18. ; 2 Cor. xi. 22. ; Gal. vi. 16. ; Eph. ii. 12. ; 
Philip, iii. 5. ; Heb. viii. 8. 10. ; Eev. vii. 4., xxi. 

12. ; though with much less frequency than had 
previously been the case. It is likewise used 
in most of the apocryphal books in the same 
occasional way. 

The promises of mercy and of covenant 
blessings made to Israel throughout the whole 
of the Old Testament, are far too numerous 
to be here enumerated. They are constantly 
called His son. His first-born, His people. His 
hosts. His own peculiar people. His chosen 
nation, His inheritance and portion ; blessings 
are pronounced upon such as bless them, and 
^curses txpon such as curse them, examples of 
which are not wanting in Holy Writ. But 
if the promises of mercy, deliverance, and glory, 
on the condition of their obedience, were great 
and wonderful, the threatenings denounced 
against them on their rejection of God and His 
laws were dreadful and alarming. A summary 
of both these was exhibited to them twice by 
Moses ; once in the first year after the Exodus, 
Lev. xx^'i. ; and again, shortly before his 
death, Deut. xxviii. But notwithstanding all 
the religious advantages they possessed, greater 
than any nation that had ever existed, and 
the abundant reasons they had to continue the 
;faithful servants of God, as well as the warnings 
they had received to guard against their own stifi"- 
necked ways, they grievously degenerated from 
the laws of God, fell gradually into awful crimes 
and idolatries, until the season came for removing 
them out of their own land, and scattering them 
amongst the heathen, as they had been forewarned 
should surely be the case. These predictions con- 
cerning their captivity are too numerous and 
manifold to be noted here, but the following 
are a few of them . Lev. xxvi. 33. ; Deut. iv. 
27., xxviii. 63—68., xxx. 3., xxxii. 26. ; 1 Kgs. 
xiv. 15.; 2 Kgs. xxiii. 27.; Neh. i. 8.; Ps. 
xliv. 11., Ix. 1., cvi. 27. ; Isa. xviii. 2., xxiv. 1., 
1. 1„ li. 17—20.; Jer. ix. 16., x. 21., xiii. 24,, 
XV. 1., xviii. 17., XXV. 34. ; Ezek. v. 2. 10. 12., 



vi. 8., xii, 14, 15,, xx. 23,, xxii, 15. ; Dan. xii. 
7. ; Hos. iii. 4. ; Joel iii. 2. ; Amos vi. 7, 8., ix, 
1—10, ; Mic. i. 16. ; Hab. iii. 14. ; Zeph. 1. In 

due season the wrath of God came upon them, 
and they were led into captivity 

TsrflPl I ^- Tiglath-Pileser, b.c. 740. 
Israel By Shalmaneser, b.c. 721. 

Judah. III. By Nebuchadnezzar, b,c, 606 and 

588. 

IV. By the Romans, a.d. 70. 

But the promises of their future return from 
their present dispersion, and of their final re- 
storation to their own land, are no less abvmdant 
and striking ; though many of them may also 
have a secondary bearing upon the glorious 
increase and settlement of the Christian church. 
A few of them are here given : Isa, i, 26,, ii. 1 — 
5., xi, 11 — 16., xiv. 1., xviii, 7,, xxvii. 12, 13., 
xl. 1, 2., xlix. 9—12., li, 11—15. 22., liv. 6—10., 
Ix. 1., Ixii. 4., Ixv. 9. 17—25., Ixvi. 8. ; Jer. xii. 
14, 15., xvi. 14, 15., xxiii. 3. 7, 8., xxx. 3., 
xxxi. 1 — 14., xxxii. 36, 37., xxxiii. 26., xlvi. 
27, 28. ; Ezek. xi. 17., xx. 34. 41., xxviii. 25., 
xxxiv. 12., xxxvi. 24., xxxvii., xl. — xlviii. ; 
Hos. i. 10.; Joel iii. 1.; Amos ix. 11—15.; 
Obad. 17—21. ; Mic. ii.l2, 13., iv. 1—7. ; Zeph. 
iii. 10. 13. ; Zech. ii., viii. 1 — 8., x. 5 — 12., xii. 
9—14., xiv. 

Other nations shall be subject to them, and be 
instructed by them, Isa. xlix. 22., liv. 3., Iv. 5., 
Ix. 3—7. 9—12. 16., Ixi. 5, 6., Ixii. 2., Ixvi. 12. 
19, 20.; Zech. xiv. 16—19. See Gentiles. 
And those nations that have oppressed and per- 
secuted them, shall suffer for it in return. Gen. 
xxvii. 29. ; Num. xxiv. 9. ; Deut. xxx. 7. ; Isa. 
xvii. 12., xxvi. 21., xxxiii. 1., xxxiv., xlvii., 
xlix. 25,, Ix. 14., Ixiii. 4—6., Ixvi, 24,; Jer. 
xlvi. 25., L ; Ezek. xxxviii, xxxix. ; Joel iii. 2, ; 
Mic, V. 8,, vii. 16, 17. ; Zeph. iii. 8. ; Hagg. ii. 
22. ; Zech. i. 15., x. 5., xii. 4. 9., xiv. 1—15. 

The position of the Twelve Tribes at their final 
restoration, both with respect to each other and 
the country at large, is altogether difi"erent from 
that in which they were settled by Moses and 
Joshua. Ezekiel describes them as all possessing 
equal portions of 25,000 reeds in length by 
10,000 in breadth (the reeds being six cubits 
and a hand breadth, xl. 5.. i.e. probably about 11 
feet) ; seven tribes being to the N. and five to 
the S, of the Oblation. This Oblation is to be an 
exact square of 25,000 reeds, xlviii. 20. : the 
northernmost portion in which is to be a portion 
for the priests, of the same dimensions as those 
of the other tribes, a square space being left in 
the midst of it for the sanctuary, with its 
suburbs, of 500 reeds each side. To the S. of 



ISRAELITES. 



ISSACIIAE. 



197 



them is to be a similar portion for the Levites ; 
and still farther S. a portion of half the breadth, 
but the same length, for the city and its fields 
for food. The city is to be in the midst of the 
last-mentioned portion, and is to be a square 
measuring 4500 reeds on every side, the residue 
of the portion being for food for them that serve 
the city. On the E. and W. sides of the whole 
Oblation, is to be a portion for the prince, but 
its width does not appear to be given, Ezek. 
xlii. 20., xlv. 1—8., xlvii. 13—23., xlviii. 



Dan. 



Xaphtali. 



Ephraim. 



Reuben. 



Judah. 



Sanctuarv. 

a 

The Priests. 



The Levites. 
City. 



the City. 



Benjamin. 



Simeon. 



Issachar. 



Zebulun. 



Gad. 



There is yet to be mentioned that spiritual and 
heavenly sense in which the name Israel and 
Israelite often occurs in the Bible, applied to the 
truly obedient and believing of this chosen race, 
in contradistinction to its more extensive and na- 
tional use. Hence our Lord speaks of an "Is- 
raelite indeed," Jo. i. 47. St, Paul affirms " they 
are not all Israel which are of Israel," Eom. ix 
G., and prays for peace and mercy upon " the 



Israel of God," Gal. vi. 16." Similar instances are 
scattered up and down both Testaments. The 
name is likewise connected, in a most conde- 
scending and encouraging way, with that of 
Almighty God and His Blessed Son Jesus 
Christ our Lord ; so that in passages far too nu- 
merous to be noted, we meet with the well- 
known expressions, the God of Israel, the Holy 
One of Israel, the Eock of Israel, the Strength 
of Israel, the Shepherd of Israel, the Hope of 
Israel, the Consolation of Israel, the King of 
Israel, the Glory of Israel. 

ISRAEL, LAND OF, the name occasionally 
applied to the Holy Land, as being the abode 
and possession of the descendants of Jacob, 1 
Sam. xiii. 19. ; 1 Chron. xiii. 2., xxii. 2. ; 2 Chron. 
ii. 17. ; Ezek. vii. 2., xi. 17., xii. 19., xiii, 9., xx. 
38. 42., xxi. 2., xxv. 3. 6., xxxvii. 12., xxxviii. 
18, 19., xl. 2.; Matt, ii, 20, 21, See Canaan. 
It is likewise occasionally applied to the domin- 
ions of the Ten Tribes, in contradistinction to the 
land of Judah, 2 Kgs. v. 2., vi. 23. ; 2 Chron. 
XXX. 25., xxxiv. 7. ; Ezek. xxvii. 17., xlvii. 18. 

ISRAEL, MOUXTAIXS OF, an appellation 
designating that lofty range of hills connecting 
Mt. Ephraim, Gilboa, and Hermon, which runs 
through the whole kingdom of the Ten Tribes. 
It formed a place of retreat for the Canaanites in 
their war with Joshua, who drove them from it, 
especially those of them called Anakims, Josh, 
xi. 16. 21. Here also in the latter days of their 
kingdom, the Israelites erected high places, 
against which the prophet Ezekiel was com- 
manded to prophesy, Ezek. vi. 2, 3. Mt. Mo- 
riah or Mt. Zion in Jerusalem, seems also meant 
by the mountain of the height of Israel, Ezek. 
xvii, 23., XX, 40., where, in the last days, God 
promises to plant the Gospel. The Valley of 
Israel is likewise mentioned in Josh. si. 16. as 
ha'S'ing been mastered by Joshua: it was pro- 
bably the low groimd towards the shore of the 
Mediterranean Sea. See Valley. 
ISSACHAR (i.e. a Hire'), one of the twelve 
j tribes of Israel, so called after Issachar, the 
I ninth son of Jacob, by Leah, Gen. xxx. 18., 
j XXXV. 23. ; Ex. i. 3. ; 1 Chron. ii, 1. ; who had 
: four sons. Gen. xlvi. 13. ; 1 Chron. vii. 1, When 
the tribe came up out of Egypt, 256 years after 
I the birth of Issachar, they amounted to 54,400 
: fighting men, Xum. i. 8. 28, 29., ii. 5. ; when the}' 
! were again numbered thirty-eight years after- 
j wards in the Plains of Moab, they had increased to 
64,300, Xum. xxvi. 23. 25. They marched under 
the standard of Judah, being the second tribe as 
ranged in the order of their journe\-ing, followed 
*o 3 ' 



198 ISSACHAK. 



ISSACHAR, GATE OF. 



by Zebulun, these three tribes being the foremost 
of the twelve : and when encamped, they pitched 
their tents on the E. side of the Tabernacle, 
towards the rising of the sun, Num. ii. 3. 5., x. 
15. Their offerings for the service of God were 
made on the second day, vii. 18. They were a 
laborious, peaceful, and patient people, much in- 
clined to agricultural pursuits, and averse to 
war ; though, when called to arms, they showed 
themselves valiant, and ready to bear its burden, 
as much as that of their more welcome occu- 
pation in the field, Judg. v. 15., x. 1. This 
was in accordance with the blessing pronounced 
upon Issachar by Jacob at his death, Gen. xlix. 
14, 15. : " Issachar is a strong ass, couching down 
between two burdens ; and he saw that rest was 
good, and the land that it was pleasant; and 
bowed his shoulder to bear, and became a servant 
unto tribute." Like their brethren of Zebulun 
(with whom they are always linked in the 
Wilderness, in Canaan, and in the latter days), 
they appear to have been zealous for the ordi- 
nances of God ; always ready to offer the sacri- 
fices of righteousness out of their just gains, and 
not only forward to go up to Jemsalem at the 
appointed times, but using their influence with 
others to accompany them thither, and hospita- 
bly entertaining them when there out of their 
abundant prosperity. 

One of their number was appointed by Moses 
to go with the other spies to search the land, and 
another of them to join men from the other 
tribes whom it concerned, in dividing Canaan 
amongst the Israelites after its conquest under 
Joshua, Num. xiii. 7., xxxiv. 26. They were like- 
wise one of the six tribes appointed to stand upon 
Mt. Gerizim and bless the people, when Joshua 
Avrote the law on Mt. Ebal, Deut. xxvii. 12. 

The lot of Issachar, Josh, xix, 17. 23., fell in 
the N. part of the Holy Land ; being bounded on 
the E. by the Jordan, xix. 22., which separated 
it from Gad ; on the S. by Manasseh, this side 
Jordan; on the W. probably by some small 
portions of Ephraim and Manasseh, Josh. xvii. 
10, 11. ; and on the N. by Zebulun. It was a 
most fruitful and luxurious soil, includmg a large 
portion of the magnificent Valley of Jezreel; 
and, as might have been expected from the 
blessings of Jacob and Moses, Gen. xlix. 15., 
Deut. xxxiii. 18., a country to which its in- 
habitants became so boimd as peacefully to 
enjoy its blessings; unambitious of political, 
warlike, or maritime and trading distinctions, 
but on the contrary ready to suffer much in 
behalf of their home. These habits of agri- 
cultural enjoyment and tranquil repose may 



have much conduced to that remarkable cha- 
racter given of them in 1 Chron. xii. 32., as " men 
that had understanding of the times to know 
what Israel ought to do ; " and may also account 
for the little that is otherwise recorded of them. 

There were four Levitical cities in their in- 
heritance, which J oshua assigned for a possessi(m 
to the children of Gershon, viz. Kishou (or 
Kedesh), Dabareh, Jarmuth (or Eamoth), and 
Engannim (or Anem), Josh. xxi. 6. 28.; 1 
Chron. vi. 62. 72. The tribe of Issachar dis- 
tinguished themselves in the war against Jabin 
and Sisera, Judg. v. 15., under Deborah and 
Barak ; and at a later period in the history, one 
of the judges, named Tola, sprang from amongst 
them, and delivered them from their enemies, 
Judg. X. 1., marg. They joined the rest of the 
nation in crowning David at Hebron, and other- 
wise supporting his cause, 1 Chron. xii. 4.0. , 
xxvii. 18. ; and one of their princes was made 
by him ruler over the whole tribe, probably in 
all civil matters, 1 Chron. xxvii. 18. In the 
time of Solomon, their territory alone formed one 
of the twelve purveyorships into which he di- 
vided the land for providing his household with 
victuals, 1 Kgs. iv. 17. Baasha, who slew Nadab, 
the son of Jeroboam, and became afterwards lung 
of Israel for twenty-four years, was of this tribe, 
1 Kgs. XV. 27. Their countiy was no doubt 
often overran and pillaged, and they themselves 
made tributary, during the many struggles with 
the Syrians and other enemies; and it is not 
unlikely that some of them were led captive by 
Tiglath-Pileser, b. c. 740, together with their N. 
neighbours in Galilee, 2 Kgs. xv. 29., before the 
final captivity of the kingdom of Israel by Shal- 
maneser, nineteen years afterwards, 2 Kgs. xvii. 
6. 23. Between these two periods, many of them 
are represented as having humbled themselves 
before God, on account of their sins, and going 
up to keep the Passover at Jerusalem at the 
invitation of the good King Hezekiah, 2 Chron. 
XXX. 10, 11. 18. — In the prophetical division of 
the Holy Land by Ezekiel, the tribe of Issachar 
is placed the tenth in order from the N., being 
on the S. side of the Oblation below Simeon, and 
immediately to the N. of Zebulun, Ezek. xlviii. 
25, 26. ; and one of the gates of the New City, 
on the S. side, is to be called the Gate of Issachar, 
xlviii. 33. St. John in his vision saw twelve 
thousand sealed of this tribe, Rev. vii. 7. 

ISSACHAR, GATE OF, one of the three gates 
which are to be in the S. side of the New City 
in the latter days, the other two being Simeon 
and Zebulun, Ezek. xlviii. 33. 



ITALY. 



JAAKAN, CHILDREN' OF. 199 



ITALY, one of the most beautiful and impor- 
tant countries of Europe, bounded on tlie N. by 
the mountainous range of the Alps, and on all 
other sides by the Mediterranean Sea, that por- 
tion which washes its E. shores being called the 
Adriatic. It contained originally many very 
different nations and tribes, at one time inde- 
pendent of each other, though mutual feuds and 
ambitious invasions often made some dominant. 
In its S. part there were many important and 
flourishing colonies established by the Greeks at 
a very early period, and hence this portion of 
the peninsula became known by the name of 
Magna Grsecia. But after many changes, the 
whole of Italy became subject to the city of 
Eome ; and hence this country is celebrated in 
history as the seat and centre of the greatest and 
most powerful empire of ancient times, whose 
cai'eer was foretold by the prophet Daniel, ii. 
40 — 44., vii. 7, 8. 23 — 27., though its name does 
not seem to be given in the Old Testament. 
There is likewise' veiy little said of it in the 
New Testament, though Christianity was planted 
there at an early period, and soon made great 
progi*ess. Aquila is mentioned as having come 
from Italy to Corinth, where he met Pavd, Acts 
xviii. 2. ; and Paul speaks of his sailing to Italy 
when he was on his way as a prisoner to Rome, 
xxvii. 1. 6., whence he sent to the Hebrews 
salutations from the Christians of Italy, Heb. xiii. 
24. The Italian band, of v/hich Cornelius was a 
centurion, is also spoken of, Acts ^x. 1. ; it is 
thought to have been a cohort formed chiefly of 
Italians, as a body guard to the Roman go- 
vernor, generally stationed at Cassarea ; most of 
the Roman corps in Syria and Palestine being 
composed of provincials. But as Italy was once 
the uncontrolled mistress of the political world, 
so now she has long been the queen of corrupt 
doctrine and ecclesiastical tyranny among the 
nations, Rev. xvii. 4 — 6., xviii. 7. 24. ; and it 
would appear from the language of prophecy, 
that the vengeance which will in due season be 
taken upon the apostate body that has so long- 
defiled it, shall not be less ruinous and awful 
than that which was taken upon its prototype 
Babylon, or even upon the Cities of the Plain, 
Rev. xviii. 4, 5. 10. 19—21. >S'ee Latin and 
Rome. 



ITHNAN, a city in the S. part of tlie tribe of 
Judah, towards the coast ofEdom, Josli. xv. 23. 

ITIIRITE, a patronymic of two of David's 
mighty men, whence derived does iiol ;![)].( .'ir, 
2 Sam. xxiii. 38. ; 1 Chron. xi. 40. ; tliey sprang 
from Kirjath-jearim, 1 Chron. ii. 53. 

ITTAH-KAZm, a place within the tribe of 
Zebulun, upon its borders, Josh, xix, 13. 

ITURiEA, a small district of Syria, on the 
borders of Arabia, and adjacent to Batanaia or 
Bashan, in the neighbourhood of tlic region of 
Auranitis or Hauran, with which it is often 
identified. It formed, together with the region 
of Trachonitis, a tetrarchy, which was governed 
by Philip at the time when John tlie Baptist 
entered upon the public work of his ministry, 
Lu. iii. 1. It is thought to have derived its 
name from Jetur, a son of Ishmael, Gen. xxv. 
15. ; 1 Chi'on. i. 31. ; as his descendants are 
known to have settled somewhat further to the 
S., on the borders of Reuben, Gad, and Manasseh ; 
whose possessions they invaded, but were even- 
tually driven ofi" with great loss, 1 Chron, v. 19. 
They appear to have lived a wandering and 
predatory life, and to have been expert archers, 
like all their brethren. Gen. xvi. 12. About 100 
years B.C., they were conquered by Aristobulus, 
and compelled either to leave the neighbourhood, 
or to submit to circumcision ; whereupon, most 
of them chose the latter alternative. When 
Pompey entered the country, they siibmitted to 
the Romans, though they were allowed to be 
governed for a time by their own princes under 
tribute, until eventually Itursea was annexed to 
the Roman province of Syria. 

I VAH, 2 Kgs. xviii. 34., xix. 13. ; Isa. xxxvii. 
13. See AvA. 

IZEHARITES, Num. iii. 27., or Izharites, 
1 Chron. xxiv. 22., xxvi. 23. 29., a family of 
the Kohathites, so named after Izehar, Num. iii. 
19., or Izhar, 1 Chron. vi. 2., the second son of 
Kohath, who is called Amminadab in 1 Chron. 
vi. 22. See Kohath. 

IZRAHITE, the patronymic of one of David's 
chief captains, 1 Chron. xxvii. 8. ; Avlieuce de- 
rived does not appear. 



JAAKAN, CHILDREN OF, Deut. x. 6., a neighbouriiood of Ut. Ilor; they are called 
tribe that dwelt in the Wilderness round Beeroth, Bene-jaakan in Num. xxxiii. 31, 32., and seem 
one of the encampments of the Israelites, in the to have sprung from Akan, Gen. xxxvi, 27., or 

o 4 



200 JAALA, TPIE CHILDREN OF. 



JACHIN. 



Jakan, 1 Chron. i. 42., a descendant of Seir the 
Horite. 

JAALA, or JAALAH, THE CHILDREN 
OF, Ezra ii. 56.; Neh. vii. 58.; a family of 
Solomon's servants wlio retiirned with Zerub- 
babel after the seventy years' captivity. Cf. 

1 Kgs. ix. 21. 

JAAZER, a city and district of the Amorites 
in the country beyond Jordan, conquered by the 
Israelites under Moses, and afterwards assigned 
to the tribe of Gad, who rebuilt the city, Num. 
xxi. 32., xxxii. 85. See Jazer. 

JABBOK, a river in the trans-Jordanic part 
of Palestine, which rises in the mountains on the 
borders of Arabia, and flows W. into the Jordan, 
after a course of 40 miles, about midway between 
the Sea of Chinnereth and the Salt Sea; it is 
now called El Zerkah. There was a ford at it, 
which Jacob passed over previous to his wrest- 
ling with the angel at Peniel, Gen. xxxii. 22. 
The R. Jabbok formed part of the K boundary 
of Sihon, king of the Amorites; whom in the 
upper part of its course it appears to have 
parted from the Ammonites likewise, Num. xxi. 
24. ; Deut. ii. 37. ; Josh. xii. 2. ; Jvidg. xi. 13. 22. 
After the division of the land by Moses amongst 
the two tribes and a half, it became a portion of 
the frontier between the latter people and the 
tribe of Gad, Deut. iii. 16. From this last 
circumstance, and from its running through the 
midst of the inheritance of this tribe, it has 
been conjectured to be the same with the " R. 
OF Gad," which was visited by Joab when 
numbering Israel at the command of David, 

2 Sam. xxiv. 5. 

JABESH, a city of Israel beyond Jordan, 
more frequently called 

JABESH-GILEAD, from its situation in the 
region of Gilead. It does not appear to what 
tribe it belonged ; though it would seem by its 
situation to have fallen within the limits of Gad, 
not far from the borders of Manasseh. Accord- 
ing to Eusebius, it was 6 miles from Pella in the 
direction of Gerasa; and its name seems still 
preserved in that of the Wady Yahes, which 
enters the Jordan not far from Bethshan. It 
was invaded and sacked by the rest of Israel for 
not having joined in the national attack on the 
Benjamites in the matter of the Levite's con- 
cubine; when its inhabitants were put to the 
sword, and 400 young virgins were captured as 
wives for those Benjamites who had escaped 
the general vengeance of the nation, Judg. xxi. 
8, 9, 10. 12. 14. The city, however, recovered 



from this desolation, and was closely besieged 
by the Ammonites, soon after the accession of 
Saul to the crown, whose intrepid conduct 
speedily delivered them from the cruel and 
reproachful conditions of their enemies, 1 Sam. 
xi. 1. 3. 5. 9, 10. This kindness was remembered 
by the men of Jabesh-Gilead on the death of 
Saul in Mt. Gilboa, when, at considerable peril, 
they went by night, and took the bodies of Saul 
and his sons from Bethshan, where the Philistines 
had nailed them to the wall, and buried their 
ashes under a tree in Jabesh, 1 Sam. xxxi. 11, 
12, 13.; 1 Chron. x. 11, 12. For this good 
service they were greatly commended by David, 
who some years afterwards removed the remains 
to the sepulchre of Saul's family in Zelah of 
the Benjamites, 2 Sam. ii. 4, 5., xxi. 12. 

JABEZ, a place where certain families of the 
scribes dwelt, mentioned in 1 Chron. ii, 65. : 
it was probably somewhere in the inheritance 
of Judah towards Hebron. Cf. 1 Chron. iv. 9, 
10. 

JABNEEL, a town of the tribe of Naphtali, 
probably in the N. part towards the source of the 
R. J ordan, Josh. xix. 33. 

JABNEEL, a city of the tribe of Judah, 
towards the N.W. frontier, and not far from 
the Mediterranean Sea, Josh. xv. 11. It would 
appear to have fallen at a later period within 
the limits of Dan. It may have been the same 
with 

JABNEH, a city taken from the Philistines 
by Uzziah, king of Judah, 2 Chron, xxvi. 6. 
It is called Jamnia by Josephus (who says it 
was given to the tribe of Dan), and also in 
the apocrypha. Jamnia was well peopled both 
by Jews and Gentiles, and possessed a good 
harbour. During the Maccabaean wars it was 
the scene of many a struggle, 1 Mace. iv. 15., v. 
58., X. 69., XV. 40., xii. 8, 9. 40., but was finally 
taken from the Jews by Pompey, who annexed 
it to Syria. It appears to be the same with 
Jemnaan, Judith ii. 28., into which Holofernes 
struck terror by his victories. After the de- 
struction of Jerusalem by the Romans, the 
Sanhedrim sat at Jamnia for a long period. 
It likewise contained a celebrated school of 
learning for the Jews. The place is now called 
Yebna, about midway between Joppa and Ash- 
dod. 

JACHIN (i.e. He shall estahlisK), the name 
of the brazen pillar set up by Solomon in the 
porch of the Temple, on the right hand ; the 



JACHINITES. 



JAIRITE. 



201 



name of tlie otlier being Boaz, 1 Kgs. vii. 

21. ; 2 Chrou. iii. 17. See BoAZ. 

JACHINITES, a family of the tribe of 
Simeon, numbered by Moaes with the rest of 
Israel in tlie Plains of Moab, Xum. xxvi. 12. : 
they were so named from Jachin, a son of 
Simeon, Gen. xlvi. 10. 

JACOB, a name employed in many places 
of Holy Scripture to designate all the Jewish 
people, as descended from Jacob, Gen. xxv. 2G., 
the father of the twelve patriarchs, in the same 
way that the appellation Israel is used. Some- 
times it is found alone ; at others Ave meet with 
the House of Jacob, the Congregation of Jacob, 
the tribes of the Sons of Jacob ; but in all 
cases apparently referring to the Jews as the 
people of God, and in covenant with Him. 

In the following passages it is used generally, 
to describe th.e whole nation, Gen. xlix. 7. ; 
Num. xxiii. 7. ; Ps. xxii. 23., xxiv, 6., xliv. 4,, 
Ixxviii. 71., Ixxix. 7., Ixxxvii. 2., xcix. 4. ; Isa. 
xl. 27., xli. 21., xliii. 22., xliv. 1. : — as having 
the covenant made with them, Ex. xix. 3. ; 

1 Kgs. xviii. 31. ; 1 Chron. svi. 17. ; Ps. cv. 

10. ; Jer. xxxiii. 26. ; Mic. vii. 20. : — as having 
the law given to them, Deut. xxxiii. 4. 10.; 

2 Kgs. xvii. 34.; Ps. Ixxviii. 5., cxlvii. 19. : — 
as being the servants of God, 1 Chron. xvi. 13. ; 
Isa. xliv. 21., xlviii 12.: — as having blessings 
promised them, Xum. xxiv. 17. 19. ; Deut. 
xxxiii. 28. ; Isa. xxvii. 6. : — as in a happy 
condition, Num. xxiii. 10. 21. 23., xxiv. 5. ; 
Deut. xxxii. 9. ; Ps.xlvii.4.,lix.l3.,lxxxv. l.,cv. 
6., cxxxv. 4. ; Isa. xli. 14., xliii. 1., xliv. 2. 5., Ix. 
16. ; Jer. x. 16. : — as punished for sin, Ps, 
Ixxviii. 21. ; Isa. ix. 8., xvii. 4., xxvii., 9., xlii, 
24., xliii. 28., Iviii. 1.; Jer. x. 25.; Lam. i. 17., 

11. 2, 3. ; Hos. x. 11., xii. 2, ; Amos vi. 8., vii. 2. 
5., viii. 7. ; Mic. i. 5., iii. 1. 8. ; Nah. ii. 2. : — 
as promised restoration from their captivity, 
Ps. xiv. 7., liii. 6. ; Isa. x. 21., xiv. 1., xliv. 23., 
xlviii. 20., xlix. 5, 6. 26., lix. 20., Ixv. 9. ; Jer. 
XXX. 7. 10. 18., xxxi. 7. 11., xxxiii. 26., xlvi. 
27, 28. ; Obad. 17, 18. ; Mic. ii. 12., v. 8. ; Rom. 
xi. 26. 

JACOB'S WELL, a fountain near the city 
of Sychar or Sichem, in Samaria, reputed to 
have been dug by Jacob, who at all events 
dwelt near it prior to the slaughter of the She- 
chemites by his son, Gen. xxxiii. 18, 19., xlviii. 

22. ; Josh. xxiv. 32. It was here that our 
Blessed Saviour had his memorable conversation 
with the woman of Samaria, when he revealed 
Himself to her as the Messiah, Jo. iv. G. 12. 



A church is said to have been formerly erected 
over it, of which nothing now remains but the 
ruins : the well, however, still exists ; it is 
called Blr-Samarea, and is to this day an object 
of great veneration, being visited by numerous 
pilgrims. 

JEDAIAH, a family of the priests that re- 
turned home with Zerubbabel after the cap- 
tivity in Babylon, Ezra ii. 36. ; Xeh. vii. 39. 

JAGUR, a city of the tribe of Judah, in the 
southernmost part, towards the borders of Edom, 
Josh. XV. 21. 

JAHAZ, a city of the Amorites beyond 
Jordan, where their king Sihon came out to 
fight against Israel, and where he was smitten 
by Moses, Kura. xxi. 23. ; Deut. ii. 32. ; Judg. 
xi. 20. It is also called 

JAHAZA, or Jahazah, or Jahzah, and was 
given by Moses to the Reubenites, Josh. xiii. 
18., though afterwards assigned for a possession 
to the children of Merari, xxi. 36. ; 1 Chron. vi. 
78. After the captivity of the trans-Jordanic 
tribes by Tiglath-Pileser, it seems to have been 
seized upon by the Moabites ; whence it is 
included in the denunciations of wrath against 
the latter people by the prophets Isaiah, xv. 4., 
and Jeremiah, xlviii. 21. 34. It appears to 
have been in the Plain Country in the ^Vilder- 
ness, near the borders of Ai-abia, and towards 
the upper course of the R. Arnon. Its ruins 
are thought to be met with near a place now 
known as Pom-i-Rasass. It has been con- 
jectured by some that Jahaz and Jazer are 
the same ; but there seems no conclusive reason 
for it. 

JAHLEELITES, a family of the tribe of 
Zebulun, numbered by Moses in the Plains of 
Moab, together with the rest of Israel, Num. 
xx^i. 26. : they were so named after Jahleel, 
a son of Zebulun, Gen. xlvi. 14. 

JAHZAH, 1 Chron. vi. 78. See Jahaz. 

JAHZEELITES, a family of the tribe of 
Naphtali, numbered with the rest of Israel 
in the Plains of Moab by Moses, Num. xxAi. 
48. ; so called after Jahzeel, a son of Xaphtali, 
Gen. xlvi. 24. 

JAIR, TOWNS OF, Josh. xiii. 30.; 1 Kgs. 
iv. 13. ; 1 Chron. ii. 22, 23. See Hatoth-Jaik. 

JAIRITE a patronymic of Ira, one of 
David's chief rulers, 2 Sam. xx. 26., derived 
probably from Jair : he appears to be called an 
Ithrite in xxiii. 38. 

1 



202 JAMBRI, CHILDREN OF. 



JATTIR. 



JAMBEI, CHILDEEN OF, 1 Mace. ix. 36, 
37., apparently a tribe of Arabs, who in the 
days of the Maccabees had got possession of 
Medeba, a city near Heshbon, in the Eeubenite 
teiTitory. They cut off John, the brother of 
Jonathan, when sent on an embassy to the 
Nabathites, but were afterwards severely handled 
for their treachery. 

JAMINITES, a family of the tribe of Simeon, 
numbered by Moses in the Plains of Moab, to- 
gether with all Israel, Num. xxvi. 12. : they 
were so named after Jamin, the second son of 
Simeon, Gen. xlvi. 10. ; 1 Chron. iv. 24. 

JAMNIA, and 

JAMNITES. See Jabneh. 

JANOAH, a considerable city in the N". part 
of Israel, which was taken by Tiglath-Pileser, 
king of Assyria, when its inhabitants were 
carried away captive, 2 Kgs. xv. 29. Cf. Isa. 
ix. 1. It vfas probably on the borders of the 
land of Zebulun and Manasseh, where about 
3 miles to the S. of Legio, now called Lejjun, 
Eusebius places a town named Janua. It is con- 
jectured by some to have been the same with 



JANOHAH, mentioned by Joshua, xvi. 6, 7., 
as on the N. borders of Ephraim towards the 
R. Jordan ; but this city probably was a dif- 
ferent place, considerably farther to the S., and 
may have been that village of Jano which Eu- 
sebius puts 12 miles E. of Neapolis or Sichem. 

JANUM or Janus, a city of the tribe of 
Judah, in the mountains, Josh. xv. 53. 

JAPtlETH (the Persuader or Enlarger), the 
eldest son of Noah, Gea. ix. 24., x. 21., though 
generally named the last. Gen. v. 32., vi. 10., 
vii. 13., ix. 18. 27., x. 2. His descendants 
peopled and possessed all Europe, the islands of 
the Mediterranean, Asia Minor, and the N. 
portion of Asia. Noah, when blessing him said, 
" God shall enlarge Japheth, and he shall dwell 
in the tents of Shem ; and Canaan shall be his 
servant," Gen. ix. 27. This prediction is being 
now, perhaps, more than ever accomplished ; 
and thus the eldest son made to possess a double 
portion of his father's property. The heathen 
mj^thologists appear to have called him Japetus, 
representing him as a Titan, a son of Heaven and 
Earth. 

The following were the descendants of 



Japheth. 



GollER. M.aGOG. 

. I 



Madai, 



I Ashkenaz. | 
Riphath. 
ToRarmah. 



Javan. 
I 

I Ehshnh. 1 
Tarshiih. 
Kictini. 
Dodanim. 



Meshech. Tiil.^ 



JAPHETH, Judith ii. 25., a city or region 
between Cilicia and Arabia, said to have been 
visited, or wasted, by Holofernes. Some refer 
it to Japho or Joppa j but nothing seems known 
concerning it. 

JAPHIA, a city in the inheritance of Ze- 
bulun, Josh. xix. 12., now called Yafa, about 3 
miles S.W. of Nazareth. 

JAPHLETI, Josh. xvi. 3., a town of the tribe 
of Ephraim, probably on the S. borders, towards 
the lot of Benjamin. 

JAPHO, Josh. xix. 46., 2 Chron. ii. 16., marg., 
another form of the name Joppa ; which see. 

JAEEB, apparently a prophetical name for the 
Assyrian power, used by Hosea, v. 13., x. 6., 
ndien predicting the judgments against Israel for 
confederating with Assyria. Cf. 2 Kgs. xv. 19. ; 
lios. vii. 11., xii. 1. The name is said to signify 
the great revenge" or great mighty king." Cf. 
2 Kgs. xviii. 19. ; Isa. xxxvi. 4. 

JAEMUTH, an ancient royal city of Canaan, 
whose king joined the four others against Gibeon, 



after it had made peace with Joshua, which 
brought on his own ruin, and the destruction of 
his city by the Israelites, Josh. x. 3. 5. 23., xii. 
11. It was afterwards allotted to the tribe of 
J udah, XV. 35., being mentioned as one of their 
cities in the valley. It was re-inhabited after 
the Babylonian captivity, Neh. xi. 29. Jerome 
calls it Jermus and Jermochus, and states it to 
have been 4 miles from Eleutheropolis, though 
in another place he makes it 10 miles. It has 
been identified with Yarmuk (about 7 English 
miles from the site of Eleutheropolis.) 

JAEMUTH, Josh. xxi. 29., a city of the tribe 
of Issachar, assigned for a possession to the 
Levites of the family of Gershom ; in the parallel 
passage of 1 Chron. vi. 73., it is caUed Eamoth. 

JASHUBITES, a family of the tribe of Issa- 
char, so named after Jashub (or Job, Gen. xlvi. 
13.), whom Moses numbered in the Plains of 
Moab, Num. xxvi. 24. 

JATTIE, a city of the tribe of Judah in the 
mountains. Josh. xv. 48., assigned afterwards to 



JAVAN. 



JEEZERITES. 



203 



the children of Aaron for a possession, xxi. 14. ; 
1 Chron. vi. 57. David had friends here, to 
whom he sent a present of the spoils he had 
taken from the Amalekites after their burning 
Ziklag, 1 Sam. xxx. 27. 

J A VAN. See Greece. 

JAZAK, 1 Mace. v. 8., or 

I 

JAZER or JAAZER, a city and district of 
the Amorites beyond Jordan, which Moses took 
from them, and allotted to the tribe of Gad, Avho 
rebuilt and enlarged it, Num. xxi. 32., xxxii. 
1. 3. 35. ; Josh. xiii. 25. Jazer was afterwards 
made a Levitical city, and assigned to the family 
of the Merarites, Josh. xxi. 39. ; 1 Chron, vi. 81. 
It was visited by Joab when taking the sura of 
all Israel at the command of David, 2 Sam. 
xxiv. 5. It appears to be called Jazer of Gilead 
in 1 Chron. xxvi. 31. ; probably from its lying 
at the foot of this well-known mountain. After 
the captivity of the trans-Jordanic tribes by 
Tiglath-Pileser, king of Assyria, 1 Chron, v. 26., 
it seems to have been seized by the Moabites, 
whose doom is connected with its desolation by 
the prophets Isaiah, xvi. 8, 9., and Jeremiah, 
xlviii. 32. It existed in the days of the Mac- 
cabees, and was taken by Judas in his campaign 
against the Ammonites, 1 Mace. v. 8. There is 
a small river running into the E. bank of the R. 
Jordan, from the declivity of Mt. Gilead, called 
TV. Shaib, arou.nd and upon which Jazer may 
perhaps have been. 

JAZER, SEA OF, mentioned by the prophet 
Jeremiah, xlviii. 32., in his denunciations against 
Moab. It was probably a small lake connected 
with a snaall river which flowed into the Jordan, 
and was noted for the fertility of the fields and 
vines in its neighbourhood. 

JEARIM, MT., a hill on the N.W. border of 
the tribe of Judah, separating it apparently from 
the inheritance of Dan and Benjamin. It seems 
to have been also called Chesalon, Josh. xv. 10. 
At its foot lay the city of Kirjath-jearim. 

JEBUS, or Jebusi, or the Jebusite, the 
ancient name of the city of Jerusalem, derived 
from the third son of Canaan, Gen. x. 16. It is 
mentioned as Ipng on the N. side of the borders 
of Judah, but within the limits of Benjamin, 
Josh. XV. 8., xviii. 16. 28.; and the old name 
seems to have been maintained through the 
period of the judges, Judg. xix. 10, 11., even to 
the days of David, who took the citadel, and 
himself dwelt there, 1 Chron. xi. 4, 5. See City 
OF David and Jerusalem. 



JEBUSITES, one of the nations of the land 
of Canaan, descended from the third son of 
Canaan, Gen. x. 16. ; 1 Chron. i. 14. ; who 
dwelt in Jebus or Jerusalem, and the surround- 
ing country. They were promised by God to be 
given into the hands of Abraham and his seed. 
Gen. XV. 21. ; Neh. ix. 8. : a promise which 
afterwards was often repeated to Moses and the 
people when they were enjoined to destroy 
them utterly, and not to walk in their ways, 
Ex. iii. 8. 17., xiii. 5., xxiii. 23., xxxiii. 2., 
xxxiv. 11. ; Deut. vii. 1., xx. 17. ; Josh. iii. 10. 
Their country Avas visited by the spies whom 
Moses sent out from Kadesh-barnea, Num. xiii. 
29. ; but it Avas not until after Joshua had sot 
up the laAv in Mt. Ebal, that he attacked them, 
when they had formed a league Avith other tribes 
of the Amorites against him aud the inhabitants 
of Gibeon, on Avhich occasion their king Avas 
conquered and slain. Josh. ix. 1., x. 3, 5. 23. 
They seem, however, to have rallied again, and 
to have joined the confederacy of Jabin, king of 
Hazor; Avheu they Avere again \-anquished at 
the Waters of Merora by Joshua, and finally 
mastered, Josh. xi. 3., xii. 8. 10., xxiA^ 11.; 
Judith V. 16. But they still continued to dAvell 
in J ebus their chief city, AA^hich skirted the N. 
border of the tribe of Judah, but lay Avithin the 
inheritance of Benjamin, Josh. xv. 8., xviii. 16. 
28.; the children of Judah and Benjamin not 
being able to drive them out, but dwelling 
I there with them, Josh. XA^ 63. ; Judg, i. 21., iii. 
I 5., xix. 11. — even to the days of David, Avho took 
j from them the stronghold of Zion, and made his 
t OAvn residence there, 2 Sam. v. 6. 8. ; 1 Chron. 
j xi. 4. 6. Many of them, hoAA^ever, still remained, 
I becoming prosel3'tes and shai-ing in the bless- 
I ings of the JeAvish church; A\'hence the com- 
I parison in Zechariah, ix. 7. One of these A\-as 
' Araunah or Oman, of AA'hom David purchased 
I the threshing-floor, Avhere he built an altar and 
I oflfered sacrifice, to stay the plague Avliich had 
been sent upon Israel after his numbering the 
people, 2 Sam. xxiv, 16. 18.; 1 Chron. xxi. 15. 
28.; 2 Chron. iii. 1. When Solomon came to 
i the throne, he levied upon such of them as were 
I left a tribute of bond-service, 1 Kgs, ix. 20. ; 
I 2 Chron. viii. 7. ; and though perhaps some of 
them were carried into captivity to Babylon 
(cf. Ezra ii. 55. ; Neh. vii. 57.), yet others seem 
to have been left behind, Avith whom many of 
the Jews who returned home intermarried, and 
copied their evil ways, Ezra ix. 1. 

JEEZERITES, a family of Manasseh, num- 
bered by Moses, together with the rest of Israel, in 



204 JEGAR-SAHADUTHA. 



JERAHINIEELITES. 



the Plains of Moab, Num. sxvi. 30., they were 
descended from a son of Gilead named Jeezer or 
Abiezer, Josh. xrii. 2. ; 1 Chron. vii. 18. ; and 
were probably the same, or connected with the 
Abiezrites. See Abiezer. 

JEGAR-SAHADUTHA (i. e. in Chaldee, the 
Heap of Witness), the name given by Labau to the 
heap of stones which Jacob set tip on Mt. Gilead, 
as a witness and border between him and Laban, 
and which in Hebrew he called Galeed, Gen. 
xxxi. 47. See Gilead. 

JEHOSHAPHAT, THE PURYEYORSHIP 
OF, 1 Kgs. iv. 17., was in Issachar; it was one 
of the twelve districts into which Solomon di- 
^■ided the whole land for the purpose of providing 
victuals for the king's household, iv. 7. 

JEHOSHAPHAT, VALLEY OF, where Joel 
predicts that in the last days God will gather and 
judge all nations, especially such as have ill-used 
His people, when He has brought again the 
Jews to their own laud, Joel iii. 2. 12. It is also 
called the Valley of Decision, from the mul- 
titudes which shall there be confounded, Joel iii, 
14., and the blessing which shall be pronounced 
on the people of God. Cf. Zech. xiv. 4, 5. It 
has been thought by some to be the same with 
the Valley of Berachah or Blessing, where Je- 
hoshaphat and the people blessed God after the 
signal overthrow of their confederate enemies, 
2 Chron. xx. 26. It is supposed to designate 
thatlong narrow valley lying between Jerusalem 
and the Mt. of Olives, through which runs the 
Brook Kidron; and to have been called the 
Valley of Jehoshaphat from its having been the 
burial-place of this king, whose reputed sepulchre 
is still show, though in fact he was buried in 
the City of David, 1 Kgs. xxii. 50. ; 2 Chron. 
xxi. 1. But the valley itself was made a place 
of burial for the inhabitants of Jerusalem from 
a very early period ; and it was here that the 
good King J osiah burnt the bones of the idola- 
trous priests of Baal, and the images and vessels 
belonging to them, and strewed them upon the 
graves of the people, 2 Kgs. xxiii. 4. 6. ; 2 Chron. 
xxxiv. 4. It is still a great burying-place for 
the Jews, many of whom undergo amazing 
sufferings merely for the sake of dying in the 
land of their fathers, and here finding a grave. 
See King's Dale. 

JEHOVAH-JIREH (i. e. the Lord will pro- 
vide), the typical name given by Abraham to the 
place on Mt. Moriah where he offered up Isaac, ' 
Gen. xxii. 14., in answer to the question of his 



son touching the lamb for the biuTit-ofPering. 
■ Cf. Jo. iii. 16. ; Heb. X. 5. 

JEHOVAH-NISSI (i. e. the Lord my banner), 
the name given by Moses to the altar he built 
in Horeb after the victory of Israel over Amalek 
in Rephidim, Ex. xxii. 15. 

JEHOVAH-SHALOM (i.e. the Lord send 
peace), Judg. vi. 24., the name given by Gideon 
to an altar which he built in Ophrah of the 
Abiezrites, when the angel of the Lord had 
wondrously appeared to him, and sent him to 
deliver Israel out of the hands of the Midianites, 
and the Lord had said " Peace be unto thee." 

JEHOVAH-SHAMMAH (i.e. the Lord is 
there), the prophetical name applied by Ezekiel 
to the holy city, with the description of which 
the book of his prophecy closes, Ezek, xlviii. 
35. Cf Jer. xxxiii. 16. 

JEHOVAH-TSIDKEXU, Jer. xxxiii. 16. 
marg. (i. e. the Lord our righteousness), a name 
by Avhich Jerusalem is hereafter to be called. 
But many learned men prefer a different render- 
ing of the words from that in our version, ren- 
dering the words " He who shall call her (to be 
His peculiar people) is the Lord our righteous- 
ness." 

JEHUD, a city belonging to the tribe of Dan, 
probably in the neighbourhood of Joppa, Josh, 
xix. 45. 

JEKABZEEL, a city of the tribe of Judah, 
which was re-peopled after the captivity in 
Babylon, Neh. xi. 25. It is conjectured to have 
been the same with Kabzeel, a frontier town of 
Judah, towards Edom, Josh. xv. 21., the birth- 
place of one of David's valiant men, 2 Sam. xxiii. 
20. ; 1 Chron. xi. 22. 

JEMNAAX, a place on the sea-coast of Pa- 
lestine, into which Holofernes the Assyrian 
general is said to have struck terror by his 
victories over the neighbouring countries, Judith 
ii. 28. It is thought to be the same with Jam- 
nia. See Jabxeh. 

JERAHMEELITES, a family of Judah, de- 
scended from Hezron, 1 Chron. ii. 9. 25., who 
settled in the S. part of the inheritance of Judah, 
against whose neighbourhood David told Achisli 
he had made a campaign, when he had attacked 
the Amalekites, Geshurites, and Gezrites, 1 Sam. 
xxvii. 10. To them, likewise, he sent a present 
of the spoils he took from the Amalekites after 
his revenging their burning of Ziklag, 1 Sam. 
XXX. 29. 



iii 



JERICHO. 



JERICHO, VALLEY OF. 205 



JERICHO, a large and ancient royal city of the 
Canaanites, in a district of the same name, about 
6 miles W. of the R. Jordan, on a small stream 
called the Water of Jericho (now called W. Kelt), 
which flowed thence through an open valley called 
the Plains of Jericho, into the main river. It 
was on the other side of Jordan, opposite to this 
city, in the Plains of Moab, that the Israelites en- 
camped for some time, when Moses numbered 
them, divided the trans- Jordanic territory among 
the two tribes and a half, and gave them his part- 
ing charge before he went up to Mt. Nebo to sur- 
vey the Promised Land, and to die ; Num. xxii. 1., 
xxvi. 3. 63., xxxi. 12., xxxiii. 48. 50., xxxiv. 15., 
XXXV. 1,, xxxvi. 13, ; Deixt. xxxii. 49., xxxiv. 13 ; 
Josh. xiii. 32., xx. 8. ; 1 Chron. vi. 78. After 
his death, Joshua sent the spies to search it; 
soon after which the Israelites crossed the J ordan 
to their encampment at Gilgal, Josh. iv. 19. ; and 
being miraculously helped, took Jericho without 
fighting, the walls falling down flat before them 
after they had been compassed seven days, to 
show that no defences could withstand the might 
of the God of Israel, Josh. ii. 1, 2, 6., iii. 16., iv. 
13., V. 10. 13., vi. 1, 2.; Heb. xi. 30.; 2 Mace, 
xii. 15, Upon that occasion they utterly de- 
stroyed all that were in the city, save Rahab and 
her household, and Joshua pronounced a curse 
upon whomsoever re-built it ; and that he should 
lay the foundation thereof in his first-born, and 
in his youngest son should set up the gates of 
it, Josh. vi. 25, 36., vii. 2., viii. 2., ix, 3., x. 1., 
xii. 9., xxiv. 11. 

It was the first Canaanite city taken by Israel ; 
and on the division of the land it fell within the 
limits of the tribe of Benjamin, bordering upon 
Ephraim, Josh. xvi. 1. 7., xviii. 12. 21. Jericho 
was likewise called the City of Palm-trees, 
from the number which grew in its neighbour- 
hood, Deut. xxxiv. 3. ; Judg. i. 16., iii. 13. ; 2 
Chron. xxviii. 15. ; which was otherwise a very 
fertile tract. Cf. Eccles. xxiv. 14. A new city 
of Jericho would appear to have been soon built 
near the old one, since it is mentioned after 
Joshua's death as the dwelling-place of the Ken- 
ites, and as having been smitten by the Moabites, 
Judg. i. 16,, iii. 13. ; and still later, as the place 
where David bade his ambassadors remain for a 
season, when they had been disgracefully treated 
by the Ammonites, 2 Sam, x. 5. ; 1 Chron. xix. 
5. But it was not until the reign of Ahab, king 
of Israel, that the curse pronounced by Joshua 
was fulfilled upon Hiel the Bethelite, who is 
thought to have rebuilt the old city in its former 
situation, 1 Kgs. xvi. 34. In the time of Elijah, 
there was a school of the prophets at Jericho, 



some of whom foretold his removal to Elisha, 
and afterwards obtained leave of the latter 
to seek him. Here also were those unwholesome 
waters which at their petition Elisha healed, 2 
Kgs. ii. 4, 5. 15. 18, 21., and which are still 
shown to pilgrims as the Fountain of Elisha, 
Hither also were sent, at the counsel of Oded 
the prophet, the captives taken by Pekah, king 
of Israel, from Ahaz, king of Judah, 2 Chron. 
xxviii. 15. ; and near it Zedekiah, king'of Judah, 
was taken by the Chaldeans, when he fled from 
Jerusalem shortly before its destruction by Ne- 
buchadnezzar, 2 Kgs. XXV. 5. ; Jer. xxxix. 5., 
Iii. 8. 

Jericho was re-inhabited after the seventy 
years' captivity, Ezraii. 34. ; Neh. iii. 2., vii. 36., 
and appears to have been fortified during the 
Maccabsean wars, v/hen it was occasionally the 
scene of conflict, 1 Mace. ix. 50., xvi. 11. 14. 
It appears to have gradually increased in pros- 
perity and importance ; and in the New Testa- 
ment times, it was one of the largest and most 
populous cities of Judaea, the residence of one of 
the chief revenue-ofiicers amongst the Romans, 
Lu. xix. 1, 2., and adorned with many splendid 
edifices, amongst others the palace of Herod. 
It was visited by our Blessed Redeemer in His 
ministerial journeys ; in one of which He gave 
sight to the two blind men. Matt. xx. 29. ; Mk. x. 
46. ; Lu. xviii. 35. ; and in another, converted 
Zaccheus, Lu. xix, 1,9. J ericho is about 17 miles 
N.E. from Jerusalem ; and the road between the 
two being rocky and desert, it was anciently, as 
now, much infested by robbers, a circum- stance 
which appears to be alluded to in the parable of 
the good Samaritan, Lu, x. 30. It was sacked 
by Yespasian, but afterwards restored by Hadrian, 
and then passed through many vicissitudes until 
it fell into the hands of the Turks. It is now a 
poor wretched village, called er Riha, without 
a single palm-tree, or almost any verdure or 
bushes to break the desolation. 

JERICHO, VALLEY or PLAINS OF, the 
low valley between the R. Jordan and the hill 
country of Benjamin, in which the city of Jericho 
stood, and which seems to have extended a con- 
siderable distance up and down the valley of the 
river. It was very prolific, and beautifully 
adorned with palms and balsams ; and was one 
of the spots gazed on by Moses from Mt. Nebo 
before his death, Deut. xxxiv. 3. The road 
leading to the great passage over the R. Jordan 
passed through it; and on it, at Gilgal, the 
Israelites under Joshua lay encamped for a con- 
siderable time. Josh. iv. 13., v. 10. In it the 



206 JERICHO, THE WATEE OF. 



JERUSALEM. 



Chaldeans captured Zedekiah, king of Judah, 
when escaping from Jerusalem, shortly before the 
destruction of the city by Nebuchadnezzar, 2 
Kgs. XXV. 5. ; Jer. xxxix. 5. ; lii. 8. It is men- 
tioned in the Maccabtean wars, 1 Mace. xvi. 11,, 
during and after which many forts were there 
built, the names of which are given in Josephus. 

JERICHO, THE WATER OF, a rivulet flow- 
ing down from the mountains of Benjamin, past 
the city of Jericho into the Jordan. 

JERUEL, WILDERNESS OF, a place on 
the W. shores of the Dead Sea, near the Cliff of 
Ziz, in the inheritance of Judah. Here Jeho- 
shaphat, king of Judah, obtained his miraculous 
victory over the forces of the Ammonites, Moab- 
ites, and Edomites, 2 Chron. xx. 16. It was 
probably to the E. of Hebron and Tecoa, and 
may have been a portion of the Great Wilder- 
ness of Judah. It is identified likewise by many 
with the Valley of Berachah, 2 Chron. xx. 26. : 
but this conclusion is doubtful. 

JERUSALEM (i.e. the Habitation of Peace), 
the metropolis of the Promised Land, and the most 
interesting city in the world to the Christian. 
It was situated in the S. part of the country, 
nearly midway between the Mediterranean Sea 
and the Sea of the Plain, about 25 miles from 
each ; and likewise about midway between Da- 
mascus and Ezion-geber, at the head of the Red 
Sea, or 170 miles from each. Nothing whatever 
is known with any certainty about its original 
foundation, which Josephus settles to have been 
about 2107 years B.C. ; though many conjecture 
that it was the same place with that Salem 
mentioned Gen. xiv. 18. ; Heb. vii. 1, 2., to 
whose king Melchisedek, the priest of the Most 
High God, Abraham gave the tenth of the spoils 
he had taken from Chedorlaomer and the con- 
federate kings; a conjecture which is strength- 
ened from its being called Salem in Ps. Ixxvi. 2. 
It was probably built by the Jebusites, the de- 
scendants of the third son of Canaan, Gen. x. 16., 
on part of that land of IMoriah, where Abraham 
offered up Isaac, Gen. xxii. 2. ; as its earliest 
name in the Bible appears to have been Jebus 
or Jebusi, a name which continued to be "used 
until the time of David, when the ancient inha- 
bitants were mastered or driven out, Josh. xv. 8., 
xviii. 16. 28.; Judg. xix. 10, 11. ; 1 Chron. xi. 
4, 5. 

When the Israelites entered Canaan, Jerusalem 
was governed by a king named Adoni-zedec, 
who, with four others, formed a league against 
Gibeon, but was conquered and put to death by 



Joshua, Josh. x. 1. 3. 5. 23., xii. 10. Soon after 
this, J erusalem appears to have been taken and 
burnt by the children of Judah, although they 
could not utterly drive out the Jebusites, but 
dwelt with them ; as did also, afterwards, the 
Benjamites, to whom the city was eventually 
allotted, though it was also close to the K fron- 
tier of Judah, Josh. xv. 8. 63., xviii. 28. ; Judg. 

1. 7, 8. 21., xix. 10. ; 1 Chron. viii. 28. 32. No 
further mention is made of Jerusalem until the 
time of David, who, for a reason not recorded, 
brought the head of Goliath there, 1 Sam. xvii. 
54. Fifteen years afterwards, when he had 
reigned seven years in Hebron, he attacked 
Jebus, overpowered the Jebusites, and got pos- 
session of the citadel of Zion. This he made his 
own dwelling-place, calling it the City of David, 
and it became thenceforward the residence of all 
the future monarchs of Judah, 2 Sam. v. 5, 6. 9. 
13, 14., viii. 7., xi. 1., xii. 31. ; 1 Chron. iii. 4, 5., 
xi. 4, 5., xiv. 3, 4. Here David built himself a 
palace of cedar. Hither, too, he brought the Ark 
of God from Kirjath-jearim, and set it in the 
midst of the Tabernacle he had prepared for it; 
and he otherwise greatly beautified and enriched 
the city with the spoils and trophies taken from 
his enemies on every side, 2 Sam. v. 11., vi. 16. ; 

1 Chron. xv. 3., xviii. 7., xix. 15., xx. 1. 3. ; 

2 Chron. i. 4. He was, however, driven from 
Jerusalem for a time by the rebellion of Absa- 
lom, and the defection of a large part of his 
subjects; but on the death of his son, he again 
returned, 2 Sam. xiv. 23., xv. 8. 11. 14. 29. 37., 
xvi. 3. 15., xvii. 20., xix. 19. 25. 33, 34. Here 
he remained till the day of his death, having 
collected abundance of materials for the building 
of the Temple. He also purchased the site of it on 
Mt. Moriah of Araunah the Jebusite (who was 
perhaps the king or chief of the remaining Jebus- 
ites) for 600 shekels of gold, and there built an 
altar to stay the plague which he had provoked 
by his numbering the people, whereon God 
answered him by fire, 2 Sam. xx. 2, 3. 7. 22., 
xxiv. 8. 16. ; 1 Kgs. ii. 11. ; 1 Chron. xxi. 4, 15., 
xxiii. 25., xxAiii. 1., xxix. 27. ; 2 Chron. iii. 1. 

Jerusalem was also the continual dwelling- 
place of Solomon, who there built his magnifi- 
cent Temple, as v»'ell as other splendid edifices, 
and strengthened the city with walls and forts, 
so that it rose to its highest pitch of prosperity, 
and in many ways surpassed every city in the 
worid; 1 Kgs. ii. 36. 41., iii. 1. 15., ix. 15. 19., x. 

2. 26, 27., xi. 7. 13. 29. 36. 42., xii. 27, 28.; 
1 Chron. vi. 32. ; 2 Chron. i. 13, 14, 15., ii. 7. 16., 
iii. 1., v. 2., vi. 6., ix. 1. 25. 27. 30. ; .Eccl. i. 1. 
12. 16., ii. 7. 9. ; So. of Sol. i. 5., ii. 7., iii. 5. 10., 



JERUS 

V. 8. 16. Though the kingdom was divided at 
his death, hecause of his idolatroits practices, his 
successors still continued to dwell and hold their 
court at Jerusalem, and the services of the 
Temple were still kept up ; but henceforward, 
both it and the city began to experience every 
vicissitude, to decline in goodness and greatness, 
though with "partial reformations and 'repairs, 
until their destruction by Nebuch adnczzar. Here 
Eehoboam reigned ; but in his days Jerusalem 
Avas taken and pillaged by Shishak, king of 
Egypt, 1 Kgs. xiv. 21. 25. ; 2 Chron. x. 18., xi. 
1. 5. 14. 16., xii. 2. 5. 7. 9. 13. Here also leigned 
Abijam, Asa, Jehoshaphat, Jehoram, Ahaziah, 
Jehoash, and iVmaziah, 1 Kgs. xv. 2. 4. 10.,xxii. 
42. ; 2 Kgs. viii. 17. 26., ix. 28., xii. 1. 17, 18., 
xiv. 2. 13. 19, 20. ; 2 Chron. xiii. 2., xiv. 15., xv. 
10., xvii. 13., xix. 4. 8., xx. 5. 15. 17, 18. 20. 27, 
28. 31., xxi. 5. 11., xxii. 1, 2., xxiii. 2., xxiv. 9. 
18. 23., XXV. 1. 23. 27. In the days of the last 
two monarchs, Jerusalem was stripped of much 
of its treasures ; first by Jehoash, king of Judah, 
to turn away the invasion of Hazael, king of 
Syria ; and then by Jehoash, king of Israel, when 
he took Amaziah prisoner, and broke down part 
of the walls of the city. With the increasing 
iniquities of the people, its troubles increased also, 
and though beautified and strengthened by its 
rulers, it suffered in many ways during the 
reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, 
all of whom dwelt in it, 2 Kgs. xv. 2. 33., xvi. 2. 
5., x\dii. 2. 17. 22. 35., xix. 10, 21. 31. ; 2 Chron. 
xxvi. 3.'9. 15., xxvii. 1., xxviii. 1. 10. 24. 27., 
xxix. 1. 8., XXX. 1. 3. 5. 11. 13, 14. 21. 26., xxxi. 
4., xxxii. 2. 9. 19. 22. 33. ; Isa. vii. 1., x. 10, 11, 
12. 32,, xxxi. 5. 9., xxxvi. 2. 7. 20., xxxvii. 10. 
32. (c/. Tobit i. 6, 7., xiii. 9. 16, 17., xiv. 4, 5.) ; 
having been closely besieged by the kings of 
Syria and Israel whilst Ahaz was on the throne, 
and by Sennacherib in the days of Hezekiah. 
But still, notwithstanding the denunciations of 
the prophets against the sins of the inhabitants, 
and the promises of God's protection on their 
repentance or otherwise, their warnings that 
wrath should come, that they should go into 
captivity, and their city should be destroyed, 
Isa. i. 1., iii. 1. 8., iv. 4., v. 3., viii. 14., xxii. 10. 
21., xxviii. 14., li. 17., Ixiv. 10. ; Amos i. 2., ii. 
5. ; Micah i. 1. 5. 9. 12., iii. 10. 12. ; the reign of 
IManasseli in Jerusalem ^was vrorse than that of 
his predecessors, and brought down upon him the 
invasion of the city by the Assyrians, and his 
o^vn captivity in Babylon for many years, 2 Kgs. 
xxi. 1. 4. 7. 12, 13. 16.; 2 Chron. xxxiii. 1. 7. 
15. He was followed by Amou and Josiah, the 
latter of whom, provoking riiaraoh-Nechoh, 



lALEM. 207 

was slain by him in battle ; when the Egyptian 
monarch appears to have entered Jerusalem, and 
put it to a heavy tribute, removing Jehoahaz 
from the throne, and setting up Jehoiakim in his 
place, 2 Kgs. xxi. 19., xxii. 1. 14., xxiii. 1, 2. 4, 
5, 6. 9. 13. 20. 23, 24. 27. 30, 31. 33.; 2 Chron. 
xxxiii. 21., xxxiv. 1. 3. 5. 7. 29. 32., xxxv. 1. 
24. ; xxxvi. 1, 2, 3, 4. ; 1 Esd. i. 1. 21. 31. 35. 37. 
39. (Cf. Judith i. 9., iv. 2. 0., x. 8., xiii. 4. 11., 
XV. 8, 9.) 

But the idolatrous apostasy of the city, and 
the other sinful enormities of its inhabitants, 
seem only to have increased as its warnings 
were multiplied ; both priests and people copied 
the abominations of the heathen, defiled the 
Temple, as well as mocked and misused the 
many prophets whom God in His long-suffering 
goodness sent in increased numbers to turn 
them from their evil ways; until His wrath 
came upon them, and there was no remedy, 
2 Chron. xxxvi. 14. ; Jer. sxv. 2. ; xxxv. 13. 
17., xxxviii. 28., xliv. 2. 6. Jerusalem was to 
the very last convicted of sin, invited to repent- 
ance, promised pardon and restoration, or threat- 
ened with destruction, according to its doings, 
by the prophets Jeremiah, i. 3. 15., ii. 2., iv. 3, 4, 
5. 11. 14. 16., V. 1., vi. 1. 6. 8., ^-ii. 17. 29., viii. ]. 
5., ix. 11., xi. 2. 6. 9. 13 , xiii. 9. 13. 27., xiv. 2., 
XV. 4, 5., xvii. 19, 20. 25, 26, 27., XA-iii. 11., xix. 

3. 7. 13,, xxii. 19., xxiii. 14, 15., xxiv. 1. 8., 
XXV. 18., xxvi. 18., xxvii. 3. 18. 20, 21., xxix. 1. 

4. 20. 25., xxxii. 2. 32., xxxiv. 1. 6, 7, 8. 19., 
xxxv. 11., xxxvi. 9. 31., xxxvii. 5. 11., xliv. 

9. 17. ; Ezekiel, iv. 1. 7. 16., v. 5., viii. 3., ix. 4., 
xi. 15., xii. 10. 19., xiii. 16., xiv. 21, 22., xv. 6., 
xvi. 2, 3., x^ii. 12., xxi. 2. 20. 22., xxii. 19., 
xxiii. 4., xxiv. 2. ; Zephaniah, i. 12. ; and many 
others ; but matters grew worse and worse with 
them through the remaining reigns of Jehoi- 
akim, Jehoiachin, and Zedekiah; the last of 
whom was taken by Nebuchadnezzar, king of 
Babylon, who after having often plundered 
Jerusalem, at last besieged it for two years, at 
the end of which he burnt the Temple, destroyed 
the city, and carried away its treasures and its 
inhabitants to Babylon, 2 Kgs. xxiii. SC., xxiv. 
4. 8. 10. 14, 15. 18. 20., xxv. 1. 8, 9, 10.; 
1 Chron. vi. 15.; 2 Chron. xxxvi. 5. 11. 19.; 
Esth. ii. 6. ; Jer. xxxix. 1. 8., xl. 1., xiii. 18., 
li. 50., Iii. 1. 3, 4. 12, 13, 14. 29. ; Lam. i. 7, 
8. 17., ii. 10. 13. 15., iv. 12. ; Ezek. xxvi. 2., 
xxxiii. 21. ; Dan. i. 1., v. 2., vi. 10., ix. 2. 7. 12. 

10. : Chad. 11.; 1 Esd. i. 44. 40. 49. 55;; Esth. 
xi. 1. 4. ; Baruch ii. 23., iv. 8. 30. 36., v. 1. 5. 

This took place 588 j-ears before the Christian 
era ; from which time till the edict of Cyrus 



208 



JEEUSALEM. 



for the retm-n of the Jews, and the rebuilding of 
the Temple, b.c. 536, it lay in ruins, 2 Chron. 
xxxvi. 23. ; Ezra i. 2, B, 4. Then the gracious 
promises of God to the nation began to be 
fulfilled, -which He had made for the restoration 
of the city and Temple by the prophet Isaiah, 
ii. 1. 3., iv. 3., xxiv. 23., xxvii. 13., xxx. 19., 
xxxiii. 20., xl. 2. 9., xli. 27., xliv. 26. 28., lii. 1, 
2, 9., Ixii. 1. 6, 7„ Ixv. 18, 19., Ixvi. 10. 13. 20. ; 
by Jeremiah, iii. 17., xxxii. 44., xxxui. 10. 13. 
16. ; Ezekiel, xxxvi. 38. ; Daniel, ix. 25. ; Joel, 
ii. 32., iii. 1. 6. 16, 17. 20. ; Obadiah, 20. ; Micah, 
iv. 2. 8. ; and Zephaniah, iii. 14. 16. ; although 
most of these promises had also a secondary re- 
ference to the final restoration of Jerusalem in 
the latter days, and many of them seem ex- 
clusively to point at it. It was then that, under 
Zerubbabel, the foundations of the Temple -vvei'e 
laid, and amid much opposition on the part of 
the enemies of the Jews were at length com- 
pleted, Ezra i. 5. 11., ii. 68., iii. 1. 8., iv. 6, 8. 12, 
20. 23. 24., V. 1, 2. 14, 15, 16, 17., ri. 3. 5. 9. 12. 
18. ; Keh. vii. 6. ; 1 Esd. ii. 4, 5. 7. 10, 15. 18. 27. 
30. To this work they were specially stirred up 
by the prophets Haggai and Zeehariah ; though 
many of the predictions of the latter appear, 
likewise, to look to the future restoration of 
Jerusalem in the latter days, and not a few of 
them exclusively so, Zech. i. 12. 14. 16, 17. 19,, 

ii. 2. 4. 12., iii. 2., vii. 7., viii. 3, 4. 8. 15. 22., ix. 
9, 10., xii. 2, 3. 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11., xiii. 1., xiv. 
2. 4. 8. 10, 11, 12. 14. 16, 17. 21. But though 
many dwellings were then erected in Jerusalem, 
1 Chron. ix. 3. 34. 38., and probably still more, 
when, about eighty years afterwards, Ezra went 
up with another company of Jews, to complete 
the arrangements of the Temple, to restore its 
service,- and reform the manners of the people, 
Ezra vii. 7, 8, 9. 13, 14, 15, 16, 17. 19. 27., viii. 
29, 30, 31, 32., ix. 9., x. 7. 9. (c/. 1 Esd. iv. 43, 
44. 47, 48, 55. 57, 58. 63., v. 2. 8. 44. 46. 56, 57., 
vi. 1, 2. 8. 18, 19, 20. 22. 24. 26. 30. 33., viii. 5, 
6. 10. 12, 13, 14, 15. 17. 59, 60, 61. 81. 91., ix. 3. 
37. ; 2 Esd. ii. 10., x. 20.) ; yet the city itself 
was not rebuilt, nor were its walls restored, 
until the time of iSTehemiah, who, together 
with Eliashib the high-nriest, restored them 
about B.C. 445, Xeh. i. 2, 3., ii. 11, 12, 13, 17. 20,, 

iii, 8, 9. 12,, iv. 7, 8, 22., \i. 7., vii. 2., xi. 1, 2, 4, 
6. 22,, xii. 27, 28, 29., xiii. 6, 7. 15, 16. 19, 20. 

The city now again became a flourishing and 
populous place under the mild sway of the 
Persians; although before the closing of the 
Canon of the Old Testament, we find a renewal 
of the same threatenings against the wickedness 
of its inhabitants, mingled with the same 



gracious promises of future glory, Mai. ii, 11,, 
iii. 4. It was spared by Alexander the Great, 
when he overran the Hither Asia, out of re- 
verence to the God of the Jews ; but after his 
death, it was stormed by Ptolemy the satrap of 
Egypt, when he is said to have earned away 
100,000 captives, who were settled at Alexandria 
and Cyrene, whence they spread over the whole 
X, part of Africa and Ethiopia. It fell after- 
wards into the hands of Antigonus ; but on his 
death, in the fatal battle of Tpsus, it reverted 
once more to the Egyptians, who maintained 
their hold of it for 100 years, when it was taken 
by Antiochus the Great. During the greater 
part of this agitated period, the Jews enjoyed a 
kind of moderate independence under the rule of 
their high-priests ; but the attempts of Antiochus 
Epiphanes to introduce idolatry, and the horrible 
cruelties v, hich he committed, led to a war, b. c. 
170. In the course of this fierce struggle, Jeru- 
salem was often the grand stake of the belli- 
gerent parties, and the scene of their operations ; 
it was twice sacked by the Syrians, though after 
thirty years' hard fighting, the Maccabees at 
length succeeded in establishing its independ- 
ence, Cf. 1 Mace, i, 20, 29. 35. 38. 44., ii. 1, 6. 
18. 31., iii. 34, 35. 45, 46., vi. 7. 12. 26. 48., vii. 
17. 19. 27. 39. 47., viii. 22., ix. 3. 53., x. 7. 31, 
32. 39. 43. 45. 66. 74. 87., xi. 7. 20. 34. 41. 51. 
74., xii. 25. 36., xiii. 2, 10, 49., xiv. 19. 36, 37., 
XV. 7. 28. 32., xvi. 20, ; 2 Mace, i, 1, 10., iii, 9. 
37., iv. 9. 19. 21., V. 22. 25,, vi, 2., viii, 31. 36., 
ix. 4,, X. 15,, xi. 5. 8., xii. 9. 29. 31., xiv, 23, 37,, 
XV. 30. On the decline of their power, when 
contending factions distracted Jerusalem, the 
Roman general Pompey was appealed to by one 
party as arbiter, a step which ended in his 
storming the city, and plundering the Temple, 
B, c. 63. Nine years afterwards, the Temple was 
again pillaged by Crassus, and the city again 
captured, fourteen years later, by the Parthians. 
It was next besieged by the Romans to put 
Herod the Idumaean, on the throne, when he 
had been appointed to the crown of Judaea by 
Antony and Augustus ; and after a siege of six 
months, it was taken b. c. 33, and only spared 
from spoliation at the urgent request of the 
new king. 

Thus by a long train of events, the holy city 
was gradually falling into the possession of 
the Romans, and though they did not complete 
their conquest until after Herod's death, yet the 
sceptre was departing from Judah, and the time 
arriving for the first advent of the Messiah, 
according to the dying prediction of Jacob : 
and in the interval between His birth and 



JERUSALEM. 



200 



ministry, it became formally and substantially 
subject to them, being, with the rest of the 
proAdnce, committed to the care of a procurator 
sent from Rome, who usually resided at Caesarea, 
After the birth of the Divine Redeemer, He was 
brought to Jerusalem to be presented in the Tem- 
ple, and hither the Wise Men from the East came 
to inquire after Him wliosc star they had seen; 
and here He again came with His pai-ents, 
when twelve years of age. Matt. ii. 1. 3. ; Lu, ii. 
22. 25. 3S. 41, 42, 43. 45. Many of its inha- 
bitants repented at the preaching of the Baptist, 
and inquired after the Messiah, Matt. iii. 5. ; 
Mk. i. 5. ; Jo. i. 19. ; who at His temptation was 
taken to Jerusalen^i by the devil, and set upon 
a pinnacle of the Temple, Matt. iv. 5. ; Lu. iv. 9. : 
and at the commencement of His ministry, as 
well as at a later period, many more of them 
followed Him when preaching, j\iatt. iv. 25., xv. 
1. ; Mk. iii. 8. 22., vii. 1.; Lu. v. 17., ri. 17. 
He frequently visited it and preached to the 
people, Mk. xi. 15. 27. ; Lu. ix. 51. 53., x. 30., 
xiii. 4. 22 , x™. 11., xix. 11. ; Jo. ii. 13. 23., iv. 
20, 21,, vii- 25., x. 22., xi. 18. 55. ; working 
many miracles in the midst of them, Jo. iv. 45,, 
V. 1, 2. ; Acts X. 39. ; but being generally re- 
jected by all He foretold His own sufferings 
and death there. Matt. xvL 21. xx. 17, 18.-, Mk. 
X. 32, 33. ; Lu. xiii. 33., xviii. 31. ; as well as 
its final destruction by the Romans, Matt, xxiii. 
37. ; Lu. xiii. 34., xxi. 20. 24. ; and after having 
made a triumphant entry into the city. Matt, 
xxi. 1. 10.; Mk. xi. i. 11.; Lu. xix. 28.; Jo. 

xii. 12.; He was crucified outside its walls 
at the demand of the people. Matt. xxvi. 53. ; 
Mk. XV. 41.; Lu. ix. 31., xxiii. 7. 28.; Acts 

xiii. 27. He appeared there after His resurrec- 
tion, commanding the Apostles not to depart 
fiom it until they were endued with power 
from on high, and in their preaching the 
Gospel to begin at Jerusalem, Lu. xxiv. 13. 18. 
o3. 47, 49. 52. ; Acts i. 4. 8. Here, therefore, 
they remained after His ascension, until the 
day of Pentecost, w^hen they began to preach, 
and to work miracles, draT\ang down upon 
themselves a fierce persecution for a time, in 
which Stephen suffered martyrdom ; but here 
they still continued for many years, and held 
the first general council in the matter of the 
conversion of the Gentiles, Acts i. 12. 19., ii. 5. 
14., iv. 6. IG., V, 16. 28., vi. 7., viii. 1. 14. 25, 26, 
27., ix. 2. 21., xi. 2. 22. 27., xiii. 13. 31., 
xvi. 4., xxii. 5., xxvi. 4. 10. ; Gal. i. 17, Jem- 
salem was repeatedly visited by the Apostle 
Paul after his conversion, and here he joined 
the other Apostles, and boldly preached the 



gospel ; until after many per.secutions, he was 
attacked by the Jews, but being rescued from 
them by the Roman guard.s, was ultimately 
sent to Rome, on his appealing to Ca;sar, Acts 
ix, 26. 28., xii. 25., xv. 2. 4., xviii. 21., xix. 21., 
XX. 16. 22., xxi. 4. 11, 12, 13. 15. 17. 31,, xxii. 
17, 18., xxiii. 11., xxiv. 11., XXV. 1. 3. 7. 9. 15. 
20. 24., xxvi, 20., xxviiL 17. ; Rom. xv. 19. 25, 
26. 31. ; 1 Cor. xvi, 3. ; GaL i, 18., ii, 1. 

Soon after the death of the Apostle, Jerusalem 
had filled up the measure of its iniquities, and 
after a hard siege of five months by the Romans 
under Titus, in which all the Redeemer's predic- 
tions against it were fulfilled to the very letter, it 
was burnt to ashes, together with its magnifi- 
cent Temple, a.d, 70; the very ruins of the 
latter being ploughed up, in token that it 
should not be rebuilt; for the Roman laws 
prohibited the rebuilding of places where this 
ceremony had been performed, without per- 
mission from the Senatus. It is said, that dur- 
ing this dreadful siege and capture of the city, 
1,100,000 persons perished ; and that 97,000 more 
were made prisoners, most of whom Vvcre after- 
wards sold as slaves, or exposed to the fury of 
wild beasts. Jerusalem was thus left utterly 
desolate; all its buildings were levelled so 
evenly with the ground as to leave no traces 
of its former glory; three great towers alone 
(viz. Phasaelus, Hippicus, and ^Mariamne) being 
allowed to stand as a monument of the xictory, 
together with part of the W. wall as a rampart 
for the tenth legion, Avhich was left in garrison 
there. After the Romans had cpiitted the place, 
the Jews again collected near their ruined 
metropolis ; but their buildings w^ere destroyed, 
and themselves dispersed by the Emperor 
Hadrian, who rebuilt the city on other ground, 
making it a Roman colony and calling it iElia 
Capitolina. He also erected a temple to Jupi- 
ter near or upon the site of the ancient holy 
Temple; which so enraged the Jews (who had 
been forbidden to enter the city on pain of 
death) as to provoke them to a long and fierce, 
but fruitless, contest with their new oppressors. 
So it remained, profaned by the heathen, until 
the time of the Christian emperors, when 
the Empress Helena caused the Church of 
the Holy Sepulchre to be erected over the 
reputed tomb of our Sa\nour, a.d. 326 : but 
all the efforts made by the Jews to rebuild 
their Temple during the reign of Constantino 
the Great, as well as the attempt of the apostate 
emperor Julian, were always frustrated. Jeru- 
salem was conquered by the Persians A.r>. 614, 
since which time, with the exception of a few 
P 



210 



JERUSALEM. 



years, it has been devastated or oppressed by 
tbem, by the Saracens, the Mamelukes, the 
Turks, and the Arabs; and notwithstandhig 
the combined chivalry of all Europe during the 
Crusades, has been trodden down of the Gentiles 
ever since, and doubtless will so continue until 
the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled, Lu. xxi. 
24., and the city is rebuilt in the latter days, 
according to the wondrous prophecy of Ezekiel, 
xlviii. 35. 

Jerusalem is probably the most ancient ex- 
isting city in the whole world, having stood, 
with short intervals of desolation, for 3958 
years, though burnt to ashes three times, viz, 
by Joshua, by Nebuchadnezzar, and by Titus. 
No city ever knew such vicissitudes, or was 
assaulted by so many and such implacable 
enemies, or had such huge hosts moving against 
it. But it was not only naturally strong, and 
peopled by a race who, amidst their vices and 
sins, have perhaps in their day excelled all 
others in wisdom, valour, and virtue, but it was 
" the city of the Great King," who was known 
in its palaces as a sure Refuge, and who stood 
around it to defend it, as the hills that enriched 
it on every side. But though beautiful for 
situation, compact together, strengthened by 
bulwarks, and adorned by palaces, it was alone 
His presence in it that made it the joy of the 
whole earth. There He fixed His dwelling-place, 
clothing her priests with salvation, making her 
saints to sing, and satisfying her poor with 
bread ; there He summoned His tribes to meet 
Him three times every year; there He anointed 
His prophets, to teach and to warn His wan- 
dering people ; and there, when the fulness of 
the time was come, the Pivine Redeemer suffered 
on the cross to take aAvay the sins of the world. 
There, too, He poured out His Spirit in the Pen- 
tecostal effusion upon the Apostles, fitting them 
for His heralds to proclaim His gospel of peace. 
There repentance and remission of sins to all who 
believe in a crucified Saviour, began to be 
preached; and there at length, the vials of 
Almighty vengeance were poured out to 
make her what she will continue to be until 
His returning favour, a monument of His 
righteous displeasure, and a Avarning to the 
nations. Cf. Ps. li. 18., Ixviii. 29., Ixxix. 1. 3., 
cii. 21., cxvi. 19., cxxii. 2, 3. 6., cxxv. 2., cxxviii. 
5., cxxxv. 21., cxxxvii. 5, 6, 7., cxivii. 2. 
12. ; Lam. ii. 13—17. ; Matt. v. 35. ; Lu. xix. 
41. 44. 

Jerusalem appears to have stood at first 
only upon two hills ; viz. Zion on the S., where 
were the citadel and royal palace, Avith other 



state buildings; and a lower eminence on the 
K, called Acra in later times. To these was 
added Mt. Moriah on the E., which was en- 
tirely occupied by the Temple ; and at a much 
later date, a fourth hill, still further to the ISF., 
was taken in, where was built that part of the 
metropolis called Bezetha, or the jSTew City. 
The whole was surrounded Avith strong walls, 
which were increased in extent from time to 
time ; and was defended by strong castles, such 
as Millo, Ophel, the Towers of the Furnaces, of 
Hananeel, of Meah, of Siloam, and several others 
which are mentioned by Josephus. There were 
many gates to Jerusalem, both in the ancient 
city and in that which was rebuilt by Nehe- 
miah. Some of these seem to have borne two 
names, but their situation cannot be at all 
settled. Isehemiah mentions twelve in his 
time, and it is probable there were at least 
twelve in all ; viz. the Water Gate, Horse Gate, 
Sheep Gate, Fish Gate, Old Gate (supposed by 
some to be the same Avith the First Gate), Gate 
of Ephraim, Valley Gate, Dung Gate, Fountain 
Gate, East Gate (or Sun Gate), Gate Miphkad, 
Prison Gate, and the Gate of Benjamin (or the 
High Gate) : the last may have been another 
name for one of the preceding. Mention is also 
made of a Gate of Joshua. The prophet Ezekiel, 
likewise, xlviii. 31., mentions twelve gates in 
the future city, which are to be called after the 
twelve tribes of Israel ; as does also the apostle 
John, in his account of that " holy Jerusalem " 
whicb he saAv descending out of heaA'-en from 
God, Eev. xxi. 10. 13. 21. ; so that it seems 
most probable there were always twelve gates, 
and no more, in Jerusalem, when it was in the 
hands of the Jews. 

Jerusalem is likewise in the Bible frequently 
called the Holy City, the City of God, the City 
of the Lord, the City of the Lord of Hosts, and 
the City of the Great King, and Zion. Its present 
name amongst the Orientals, is El-Khoddes, i. e. 
The Holy, Avhence it is thought to haA^e been 
the same Avith the city Cadytis, described by 
Herodotus in these regions. It is usually called 
BLierosolyma in the classical authors. 

The name of Jerusalem is likewise applied in 
the New Testament in an exalted and spiritual 
sense, the precise definition of which has long 
been a subject of discussion. St. Paul in his 
Epistle to the Galatians, iv. 25, 26., describes the 
Jerusalem of his days as in bondage wiih. 
her children, but the Jerusalem which is above, 
as free, and as the mother of us all. And in his 
Epistle to the Hebrews, xii. 22., he adopts a 
similar term, the Heavenly J erusal em. St. J ohn 



JERUSALEM, THE NEW. 



JEWS, THE. 



211 



uses the same appellation Avlien he writes of the 
New and Holy Jerusalem. 

JERUSALEM, THE NEW, Rev. iii. 12., xxi. 
2. 10., xxii. 19., described by the Apostle John 
in his mystical language as the Holy Jerusalem, 
and as the Holy City, coming down from 
heaven like a bride adorned for her husband. 
The several meanings of all these terms must be 
distinguished from the Jewish Jerusalem in its 
restored state; as they appear in some way or 
other (which, as the day approaches, may pos- 
sibly be more agreed upon by good and learned 
men than is the case now) to be applied to a 
gathering of the wdiole Cliristian body to 
the Zion of the Millennial Church, and to the 
universal assembly of the saved in the heavenly 
glory at the consummation of all things. 

JESHANAH, a city of Ephraim, which was 
taken by Abijah, king of Judah, from Jero- 
boam, king of Israel, 2 Chron. xiii. 19., together 
with other cities. Eusebius and Jerome place 
it 7 miles N. from Jericho, 

JESHIMON (Le. the Desert or Wilderness^, a 
name which appears to be applied to two places 
in the S. part of ^Palestine. One lay beyond 
Jordan, on the borders of Moab and Arabia, 
opposite the two mountains Pisgali and Peor, 
near which the Israelites were encamped when 
Balak sent for Balaam to curse them. Num. xxi. 
11. 20., xxiii. 28. The other was on the W. 
coast of the Salt Sea, to the E. of Tecoa, Ziph, 
and Maon, and was for a time the retreat of 
David from the fury of Saul, 1 Sam. xxiii. 19. 
24., xxvi. 1. 3. 

JESHUA, a city of Judah, re-peopled after 
the seventy years' captivity, Neh. xi. 26. 

JESPIUA, three families so called, all of 
whom returned from Babylon with Zerubbabel : 
one from among the people, Ezraii. G. ; one from 
among the priests, Ezra ii. 36 ; Neh. vii. 39. ; 
and one from among the Levites, Ezra ii. 40. ; 
Neh. vii. 43. 

JESHURUN or Jesurun (i.e. the Upright,) a 
prophetical nam-B for Israel, as by profession and 
comparatively they for some time were such, and 
indeed the true Israelites always were. They 
w^ere under the greatest obligations to be up- 
right ; but instead of that, in their prosperity 
they rebelled, and kicked, like cattle, Deut. 
xxxii. 15., both against Moses, who was king in 
Jeshurun, xxxiii. 5., and against the God of Je- 
shurun, to whom none was like, xxxiii. 20., and 
who had chosen them to be His peculiar people, 
Isa. xliv. 2. Cf. Isa. xlv. 25. 



JESUTTES, a family of the tribe of Asher, so 
called after Jesui, a son of Ashci", Gen. xlvi. 

17. ; 1 Chron. vii. 30. They were numbered by 
Moses in the Plains of Moab, together with all 
Israel, Num. xxvi. 44. 

JETHLA, a town of the tribe of Dan, Josh, 
xix. 42. 

JETUR, a tribe of the Ishmaclites, so called 
after Jetur, a son of Islimael, Gen. xxv. 15. ; 1 
Chron. i. 31. They appear to have settled in the 
N.W. part of Arabia Petrjca, together with other 
Hagarites, on the borders of the Amorites, near 
the regions wliere the Ammonites afterwardi? 
dwelt ; for here they were met with by the three 
trans-Jordanic tribes, whom they attacked, but 
by whom they were conquered and dispossessed 
of their cities, 1 Chron. v. 19. They continued 
however, in the same neighbourhood, moving 
somewhat further N., where they gave name to 
the district of Iturasa, Lu. iii. 1. 

JEWS, THE, the name by'which the descend- 
ants of Jacob are commonly distinguished in 
the Bible after their captivity in Babylon. It 
was derived from the patriarch Judah, and was 
probably applied to them from the circumstanc'e 
of the greater part of those who returned from 
the seventy years' captivitj^, having belonged to 
the kingdom of Judah, and from the leading part 
taken by the tribe of Jjndah in the alfairs of the 
nation, both then and at a much earlier period. 
The appellation is first used in the reign of Ahaz, 
2 Kgs. xvi. 6., where it is said that Rezin, king 
of Syria, drove the JeAvs (i.e. the subjects of the 
king of Judah) from Elath ; and afterwards in 
the reign of Hezekiah, their language is de- 
scribed as the Jews' language, in distinction from 
the Syriac, 2 Kgs. xviii. 26. 28. ; 2 Chron. xxxii. 

18. ; Isa. xxx\d. 11. 13. It is frequently em- 
ployed by the prophet Jeremiah, xxxii. 12., 
xxxiv. 9., xxxviii. 19., xl. 11, 12. 15., xli. 3., 
xliv. 1., Iii. 28. 30., to designate all the people of 
the kingdom of Judah immediately before the 
Babylonian captivity ; and also such of them as 
had been left behind, or had escaped into Egypt. 
It is likeTiase found in the book of Daniel, iii. 8. 
12., as the name b}^ which he and the three 
holy children are called {c f. v. 13.) ; and the 
prophet Zechariah, viii. 23., adopts it to describe 
that chosen nation which, in the latter days of 
their glory, shall bring a blessing upon all who are 
joined to them. We meet with it also in the 
l ooks of Ezra, Esther, and Nehemiah, as well as 
in the apocryphal writings. In these, and in the 
New Testament, it is the general term by which 
sometimes all the Hebrew nation, though, ge- 

r 2 



212 JEWS, 

nerally that portion of it existing in those times, 
is nsually distinguished. 

After the destruction of Jenisalem by Nebu- 
chadnezzar, the captives whom he took with 
him were, with their bretliren who had preceded 
them in the former captivities, dispersed over 
various parts of his dominions ; one large colony 
of them having been settled on the banks of the 
E. Chebar, where Ezekiel prophesied in the midst 
of them, Ezek. i. 1. The miserable remnant left 
in Jud£ea had a governor, named Gedaliah, set 
over them by their conqueror, who was slain by 
Ishmael, one of the seed royal; but the latter 
being rejected by his countrymen, Johanan be- 
came their leader, and from fear of the ven- 
geance of the Chaldeans, he removed with his 
followers into Egypt, forcibly taking with him 
the prophet Jeremiah, who Avas there put to 
death, but whether by his own countrymen or 
the Egyptians is not known, 2 Kgs. xxv. 25. ; Jer. 
xL 11, 12. 15., xli. 3.,xliv. 1. The Jews protected 
by the influence of Daniel, Dan. iii. 8. 12., v. 13., 
Sus. 4., suffered much less from their haughty 
foes than might have been expected ; and on the 
fall of Babylon and the accession of Cyrus to the 
throne of Persia, when the predicted seventy 
years' captivity was expired, he issued an edict, 
B.C. 536, permitting all the Jews to retui-n to 
their own land, and rebuild their Temple, But 
though many facilities were offered, less than 
50,000 of them, and only four out of the twenty- 
four courses of the priests, returned ; the rest pre- 
ferring to remain in their new settlements in 
Chaldasa. They were conducted home by their 
governor, Zerubbabel, who was of the royal race 
of David, and they belonged mostly to the two 
tribes of Judah and Benjamin. They rebuilt their 
Temple, after much opposition from the Sama- 
ritan nations settled in the N. provinces, whose 
assistance being rejected, led to the feud which 
existed between the two nations, Jo. iv. 9., till 
the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans, 
Ezra iv. 12. 23., v. 1. 5., vi. 7, 8. 14. ; 1 Chron. 
ix. 2, 3. The Jews appear to have been greatly 
assisted in the successful struggle by the won- 
derful combination of events brought about in 
their favour through a change of dynasty in the 
national priests, and also by the exaltation of 
Esther, one of their countrywomen, to be the queen 
of Ahasuerus, B.C. 518, as recorded in the book 
of Esther, ii. 5., iii. 4. 6. 10. 13., iv. 3. 7. 13, 14. 
16., vi. 10. 13., viii. 1. 5. 7, 8. 16, 17., ix. 3. 24. 
28., X. 3. Cf. X. 8., xi. 3., xvi. 15. 19. 

About sixty years afterwards, Artaxerxes, the 
king of Persia, issued a proclamation to all the 
people of Israel, as well as to the priests and 



THE. 

Levites, permitting them to return to their 
own land, under the conduct of Ezra the priest ; 
at the same time sending large offerings from 
himself and his counsellors to the Temple, and 
commanding all his governors and treasurers 
beyond the Euphrates to assist in the restoration 
of Jerusalem. On this occasion, Ezra led home 
a second detachment of the Jews, b.c. 457 ; 
when he was accompanied by many out of the 
two tribes, as well as by some more of the 
priests, Levites, &c., and a few belonging to the 
other tribes of Israel, the great body of the 
nation still remaining behind, Ezra vii. 1. 13.. ; 
1 Esd. i. 21,, ii. 18. 23., iv. 49, 50., vi. 1. 8. 27., 
vii. 2., viii. 10. But notwithstanding this, both the 
city and walls of Jerusalem continuing still in a 
ruined or else unfinished state, Xehemiah ob- 
tained leave from Artaxerxes to go up and 
restore them, b.c. 445 ; and after having done 
so, and administered the govei'nment in Judasa 
for eleven years, he returned to Persia, but was 
recalled to his own country again to correct the 
abuses and confusion which had sprung up, Neh. 
i. 2., ii. 16., iv. 1. 2. 12., v. 1. 8. 17., vi. 6., xiii. 
23, 24. With the death of Nehemiah, the 
Canon of the Old Testament closes, and until the 
commencement of the Evangelical history, we 
are thrown for information upon the profane 
authors, the Jewish historians, and the apocry- 
phal books. 

Though the Jews returned from their Babylo- 
nian captivity an altered, and in many respects 
a better people (for they never again fell into 
actual idolatry), yet they gradually indulged a 
zealous observance of baneful traditions and su- 
perstitious observances, which ended in their 
ruin. The mild rule of the Persian monarchs 
was succeeded by that of Alexander the Great, 
who treated the Jews with respect. At his death, 
when his dominions were partitioned amongst 
his four generals, Palestine being regai'ded as a 
valuable frontier province, became subjected al- 
ternately to the kings of Syria and Egypt, 
each of whom grievously oppressed it. The Jews 
at this period were more or less governed by their 
own high priests under their conquerors, and 
bore their insults and persecutions far more pa- 
tiently than might have been expected; until 
they were roused by the abominable cruelties 
and wanton wickedness of Antiochus Epiphanes. 
This monster of impiety profaned their Temple 
by the sacrifice of a sow on the altar ; and after- 
wards dedicating it to Jupiter Olympius, per- 
secuted in a way too horrible to relate all who 
would not apostatise from their faith, and sacri- 
fice to his idol. This brought on a general 



JEWS, THE. 



213 



revolt under the Maccabsean princes, b.c. 168, 
which terminated, after a war of twenty-sis 
years, in the triumph of the Jews, who cleansed 
their Temple from its profanations by their ene- 
mies, rebuilt and beautified their city, and settled 
the dynasty of the Maccabsean or Asmonaean 
princes on the throne of Judsea, 1 Mace. ii. 23., 
iv. 2., vi. 6., viii. 25. 27. 29. 31., x. 23, 25. 29. 33, 
34. 36., xi. 30. 33. 47. 49, 50, 51., xii. 3. 6. 21., 
xiii. 36. 42., xiv. 22. 33, 34. 37. 40, 41. 47., xv. 1, 
2. 17, ; 2 Mace. i. 1. 7. 10., iii. 32., iv. 11. 35, 36., 
V. 23. 25., vi. 1. 6, 7, 8., viii. 1. 9, 10, 11. 34. 36., 
ix. 4. 7. 15. 17, 18, 19., X. 8. 12. 15. 24. 29., xi. 2. 
16. 24. 27. 31. 34., xii. 1. 3. 8. 17, 24. 30. 34. 40., 
xiii. 9. 18, 19. 21. 23., xiv. 5, 6. 14, 15. 37, 38, 
39, 40,, XV. 2. 12. These princes united in their 
own persons the regal and sacerdotal offices, and 
governed the Jews for 126 years ; when the dis- 
putes between Hyrcanus and Aristobulus gave a 
pretext for the interference of the Romans 
under Pompey, whereupon Judtea was bestowed 
first on Antipater, and then on Herod. In the 
reign of the latter, the sceptre departed from 
Judah, after the birth of our Lord and Saviour 
Jesus Christ, the King of the Jews, Matt. ii. 2., 
xxvii. 11. 29. 37. ; Mk. xv. 2. 9. 12. 18. 26. ; Lu. 
xxiii. 3. 37, 38. ; Jo. xviii. 33. 39,, xix. 3. 14. 
19. 21. 

After the death of Herod, his dominions were 
divided among his children, though none of 
them received the title of king; but before 
the Divine Redeemer entered on His ministry, 
Judaea had become formally a mere province of 
the Roman empire, committed to the care of a 
procurator sent from Rome. This ofiicer gene- 
rally resided at Caesarea to avoid giving ofience 
to the Jews, who were mostly left in the enjoy- 
ment of their own rites, privileges, and customs, 
being governed in all ecclesiastical matters 
by their own rulers, except in cases of capital 
punishment, Mk. vii. 3. ; Lu. xxiii, 51. ; Jo. ii. 
6., iii. 1. 25., V. 1. 10., vii. 2., xi. 55., xviii, 31,35,, 
xix. 31. 40. 42, The Blessed Redeemer (Himself, 
according to the flesh, a Jew, Jo. iv. 22., xviii. 
35.) came to them, as from generations had been 
predicted by all the prophets, preaching to them 
the glad tidings of salvation, working miracles 
in the midst of them, and going about doing 
good, Lu. vii. 3. ; Jo. iv. 22., v. 15., vi. 41. 52,, 
vii, 15. 35., viu. 22. 31., ix, 18, 22,, x. 19. 24., xi. 
19. 31. 33. 36. 45. 54,, xii. 9. 11., xviii. 20, ; but 
they rejected, reviled, and crucified Him, Matt, 
xxviii. 15. ; Jo, v. 18,, vii. 1. 11. 13., viii. 48. 52. 
67., X. 31. 33., xi. 8., xviii. 12. 14. 36. 38., xix. 
12. 20. 38., XX. 19. The Apostles, who were 
themselves Jews (a descent which Paul had oc- 



casion to plead. Acts xxi. 39., xxii. 3. ; 1 Cor. 
ix. 20. ; Gal. i. 13, 14.), preached the Gospel first' 
as they had been commanded to do, to their own 
countrymen, many of whom believed. Acts ix, 
22., xi. 19., xiii. 5. 42, 43., xiv. 1., xvi. 1. 20., 

xvii. 10. 17., xviii. 4, 5. 19. 28., xix. 10. 17., 
XX. 21., xxi. 20, 21., xxviii, 17. 29. ; Rom. i. 16. ; 
bat far greater numbers of them rejected it, and 
persecuted its ministers, not only in Palestine 
(the land of the Jews, Acts x. 39,), but 
wherever they were found. Acts xii. 3. 11., xiii. 
60., xiv. 2. 4, 5. 19., xvii. 5. 13., xviii. 12., xix. 
13, 14., XX. 3. 19., xxi. 11. 27., xxii. 30., xxiii. 
12. 20. 27, 30., xxiv. 5. 9. 18. 27., xxv, 2. 7, 8, 9, 
10. 24., xxvi. 2, 3, 4, 7. 21., xxviii. 19. ; 2 Cor. 
xi. 24. ; 1 Thess. ii. 14. Ever since the return 
from the captivity in Babylon, the Jews had 
been migrating to other lands, joining such 
of their brethren as had escaped from the 
Assyrians and Chaldeans, or else seeking a new 
home in foreign countries ; so that in the Apos- 
tles' days there was hardly a nation of the then 
known world with whom they were not dAvelling, 
Acts ii. 5. 10., X. 22., xiii. 6., xvi. 3,, xvii. 1., 

xviii. 2. 14., xix. 33, 34., xxii, 12., xxiv. 24. 
But they still were a separate people, dwelling 
alone, ISTum. xxiii. 9., proudly distinguishing 
themselves from the Gentiles, the heathen of 
whom again, in their turn, appear to have looked 
upon them with contempt. Acts x. 28,, xvi. 20. ; 
Rom. ii. 9, 10. 17., iii. 1. 9. 29., ix. 24., x. 12. ; 1 
Cor. i. 22, 23, 24., x. 32., xii. 13. ; Gal. ii. 13, 14, 
15., iii. 28. ; Col. iii. 11. ; Tit. i. 14. ; though they 
often appropriated to themselves the honourable 
name of Jew, when in a more exalted and spi- 
ritual sense it did not belong to them, Rom. ii. 28, 
29.; Rev. ii. 9,, iii. 9. 

The monstrous cruelties of the Roman go- 
vernors that succeeded Pilate in the government 
of Judaea, especially of Gessius Floras, and his 
wicked ally Cestius Gallus, the ruler of Syria, 
provoked the Jews to defend themselves against 
their remorseless oppressors, and having suc- 
ceeded in driving Floras fi-om Jerusalem, and in 
crushing the forces which Cestius brought 
against them, they madly resolved to brave 
j the strength of the whole Roman empire. This 
' brought about the rain of their nation and the 
j destruction of their city and Temple. For first 
I Vespasian, and then Titus attacking them, the}'- 
i were completely subdued, Jerusalem was burnt 
I to ashes, and about 1,250,000 of the people 
' perished there and in other parts of Judasa. 

Vast numbers more were taken captive to fight 
i with wild beasts in the theatres, or to be sold as 
I slaves ; though, as Moses had predicted, no man 
P 3 



214 



JEWRY. 



JEZREEL, 



would buy them, and they were often massacred, 
or famished by their relentless enemies. An- 
other outbreak in the reign of Hadrian is said to 
have been attended with a still greater loss of 
life, and greater miseries. The prophecies 
against them and their city were fulfilled to the 
letter; they have ever since been a nation 
scattered and peeled, meted out and trodden 
under foot. History pi esents no parallel to the 
scorn and sufferings, the cruelty and injustice, 
the hatred and persecution, they have suffered 
at the hands of almost every nation, whether 
Pagan, Mahometan, or Christian, and the only 
cause which can be assigned for all this accu- 
mulated misery is the very one against which 
their prophets warned them, and Avhich was 
finished in that fearful sentence they called down 
upon themselves, "His blood be upon us and 
upon our children." But brighter days are in 
store for them, if we rightly understand the 
promises in the prophets. Ezekiel, especially, 
describes the bounds of their land and its divi- 
sion among the tribes, the restoration of their 
city, and the rebuilding of their Temple ; whilst 
Isaiah, Zechariah, and many others, ;_tell of the 
wondrous ways in which, they shall be again 
gathered to the Pleasant Land, and of the 
glorious days which shall follow. 

JEWEY, Dan. v. 13. ; Lu. xxiii. 5. ; Jo. vii. 
1. ; 1 Esd. i. 32., ii. 4., iv. 49., v. 8. 57., vi. 1,, viii. 
81., ix. 3. ; Bel, 33. ; 2 -Mace. x. 24. ; another 
form of the name Judsea ; which see. 

JEZEKITES, a family of the tribe of Naph- 
tali, so called after Jezer, a son of Naphtali, 
Gen. xlvi. 24. ; 1 Chron. vii. 13. They were 
numbered by Moses in the Plains of Moab, to- 
gether with all Israel. 

JEZEEEL, a city of the tribe of Judah, in 
the hill country, probably near the Wilderness 
of Judah, Josh. xv. 56. 

JEZEEEL (i.e. Seed of God), a city of the 
tribe of Issachar, Josh. xix. 18,, on the borders 
of Manasseh on this side Jordan, Josh. xvii. 16., 
in a district of the same name, 2 Sam. ii. 9. It 
lay in the midst of a Very fertile valley, called 
THE Valley of Jezreel, which extended from 
Mt. Carmel and Mt, Gilboa on the W., to the 
E. Jordan on the E., being about 20 miles long 
by 10 broad, w^atered by the upper course of 
the E. Kishon, This valley was long held by 
the Canaanites, Josh. xvii. 16,, and seems 
always to have been a favourite encamping 
ground and battle field for contending armies. 
It was here, that in the time of the judges the 



vast hosts of the Midianites and Amalekites 
pitched their tents prior to their utter defeat by 
Gideon, whose forces encamped beside the neigh- 
bouring Well of Harod, Judg. vi. 33., vii. 1. 12. 
This well is supposed to have been the same 
with the Fountain in Jezreel, 1 Sam. xxix. 1., 
where the Philistines encamped before the battle 
with Saul in Mt, Gilboa, 1 Sam. xxxi, 1., part of 
which was probably fought out in the plain 
itself, 1 Sam. xxix. 11. ; 2 Sam. iv. 4. After the 
death of Saul, Jezreel was one of the places which 
sided for a time with Abner and Ishbosheth, 
2 Sam. ii. 9. David's wife, Ahinoam the 
Jezreelitess, the mother of Amnon, was of this 
city or district, 1 Sam. xxv. 43., xxvii. 3., xxx. 
5. ; 2 Sam. ii. 2., iii. 2, ; 1 Chron, iii. 1. 

Jezreel is mentioned in the account of the 
twelve purveyorships of Solomon, owing pro- 
bably to its fruitfulness and general importance, 
1 Kgs. iv. 12,, which, together with its great 
beauty, caused it to be chosen for a residence by 
the kings of Israel. Ahab had a palace here, 
where he dwelt, when Elijah slew the prophets 
of Baal at the Brook Kishon, 1 Kgs. xviii, 45, 
46. Hard by it was the vineyard of Naboth the 
Jezreelite, 1 Kgs. xxi. 1. 4. 6, 7. 15. ; 2 Kgs. ix. 
21, 25, ; of which, by the murderous cunning of 
Jezebel, he took possession ; and where, accord- 
ing to the prediction of the prophet Elijah, the 
dogs licked the blood both of Ahab and Jezebel, 

1 Kgs, xxi. 1. 23, ; 2 Kgs. ix. 10. 30. 36, 37. 
Here also Jehu slew their son Joram, who had 
come hither to be healed of the wounds he had 
received in his war with Hazael and the Syrians, 

2 Kgs, viii, 29,, ix, 15, 16. ; 2 Chron, xxii, 6. ; 
and here, at the gates of the city, the elders of 
Jezreel piled up the heads of Ahab's seventy 
sons, whom, at the command of J ehu, they had 
caused to be slain in Samaria, 2 Kgs. x, 1, 6, 7. 
11. It would seem from the predictions of 
Hosea, i. 4, 5,, as if some decisive engagement 
had been fought in the Plain of J ezreel, possibly 
between the more northern tribes of the king- 
dom of Israel, and Tiglath-Pileser, king of 
Assyria, when he carried them away captive, 
B. c. 740, 2 Kgs, XV. 29. ; bxit the same prophet 
foretells that in the latter days of Israel's glory, 
it shall be a principal scene in their returning 
prosperity, Hos. i. 11., ii, 22. 

Jezreel is called Esdraelon or Esdrelom, and 
its plain the Great Plain, in the apocryphal 
writings and by the profane authors. Its in- 
habitants, together with many neighbouring 
people, were summoned by Nabuchodonosor to 
assist him in his war with Arphaxad ; but not 
obeying, his general Holofernes marched against 



JIMNITES, 



JOPPA. 



215 



them, and pitched his tents near Esdraelon, 
previous to his attacking Bethulia, where he 
perished by the hands of Judith, Judith i. 8., iii. 
9., iv. 6., yii. 3. It was also the scene of some 
of the doings of Judas Maccab£eus, when resist- 
ing the cruel persecutions of Antiochus, 1 Mace. 
V. 52. 

JIMXITES, a family of the tribe of Asher, so 
called after his eldest son Jimnah, Gen. xlvi. 
17., who were numbered by Moses in the Plains 
of Moab, Xum. xxvi. 44, 

JIPHTAH, a city of the tribe of Judah, in 
the Valley, Josh. xv. 43. 

JIPKTHAH-EL, a valley which formed part 
of the border between the tribes of Zebulun and | 
Asher, Josh. xix. 14. 27. 

JOGBEHAH, a fenced city beyond Jordan, 
in the inheritance of the tribe of Gad, by vrhom 
it was either built or repaired, after it had been 
assigned to them for a possession, Xum. xxxii. 
35. It was in the country to the E," of it that 
Gideon overtook the IMidianites and smote them, 
Judg. viii. 11. 

JOKDEAM, a town of the tribe of Judah, in 
the hill country, Josh. xv. 56. 

JOKMEAM, 1 Chron. vi. 68., a city in the 
tribe of Ephraim, eventually assigned to the 
Lsvites of the family of Kohath. In the parallel 
passage of Josh. xxi. 22., it appears to be called 
Eibzaim. 

JOKXEAM, an ancient royal city of Canaan, 
whose king was smitten by Joshua; it lay at 
the foot of Mt. Carmel, and is hence called 
Jokneam of Carmel, probably to distinguish it 
from the Jokmeam of Ephraim, Josh. xii. 22. 
On the division of the land it fell within the 
limits of the inheritance of Zebulun, probably 
near the E. Kishon, Josh. xix. 11, ; but it was 
afterwards given for a possession to the Levites 
of the family of Merari, xxi, 34. It Avould seem 
to have been a place of some importance, from 
its being mentioned in the accovmt of Solomon's 
twelve purvey orships, 1 Kgs. iv. 12. 

JOKSHAX, the second son of Abraham by 
Keturah, Gen. xxv. 2, 3. ; 1 Chron. i. 32. ; who, 
vnth his sons Sheba and Dedan, is conjectured 
to have at first settled in the X. part of Arabia, 
xxv. 6. ; whence they are thought to have 
spread over other portions of the peninsula, and 
at length to have united with the Ishmaelites 
in peopling the whole country. Jokshan is 
identified by many with Kahtan, whom the 
Arabians constantly represent as their great 



ancestor, and whose only son, according to their 
tradition, was Jaarab. Others, however, are of 
opinion, from its being said in Gen. xxv. 6,, that 
Abraham sent away all his sons by his con- 
cubines eastward into the East country, that 
they must have settled eventually in some 
country beyond the R. Euphrates, possibly 
Persia or India. 

JOKTAX, the second son of Eber, and the 
brother of that Peleg in whose days the earth 
was divided, Gen. x. 25, 26. 29. ; 1 Chron. i. 19, 
20. He had thirteen sons, who are stated in 
verse 30, to have had their dwelling "from 
Mesha towards Sephar, a mount of the East." 
According to the conjecture of some, they 
peopled Persia and India; Mesha being iden- 
tified with Mt. Masius, in the X. of Mesopotamia, 
and Mt. Sephar with the Sariphi Montes, 
towards the K. Indus, now known as the Hindoo 
Koosh. Others, however, place them in Arabia, 
where they think traces of some of their names 
may be found ; as that of Hazarmaveth in the 
Adramitje, or modern Hadramaut. The tra- 
ditionary founder of the Arabian nation, whom 
they call Kahtan, is supposed by some to have 
reference to Joktan. 

JOKTHEEL, a city of the tribe of Judah, 
apparently in the Valley tOAvards the Mediter- 
ranean Sea, Josh. xv. 38. 

JOKTHEEL, a city of the Edomites, near 
the Valley of Salt, which received this name 
from Amaziah, king of Judah, when he stormed 
it, after slaying 10,000 near it, and taking 
captive 10,000 more, whom they cast down from 
the top of the rock and killed, 2 Kgs. xiv, 7, ; 
2 Chron. xxv. 11, 12. Its former name was 
Selah, i.e. The Rock; whence it has been identi- 
fied with the famous Edomite city, called Petra 
by the profane authors, about midway between 
the Dead Sea, and the head of the ^lanitic Gulf 
of the Red Sea, the magnificent ruins of which 
are still- found in Wady Mousa. Cf. Isa. xvi. 1., 
and marg. Others, however, place it at the 
modern town of Kerek, on the E. of the Bead 
Sea, in the land of Moab ; but this seems out of 
place. It is conjectured by some to have been 
the same with Gur-Baal, 2 Chron. xxvi. 7.; 
which see. 

JOPPA or Japiio, an ancient Canaanite 
city on the shore of the Mediterranean Sea, to 
the X.W. of Jerusalem. It was on the borr^ers 
of the tribe of Dan ; but they do not appear, in 
Joshua's days, to have been able to gain complete 
p 4 



216 



JOPPA. 



JORDAlSr. 



possession of it, Josh, xix, 46.; though it is 
probable they at length did, as it became the 
chief harbour in S. Palestine, and the great 
port of Jerusalem. It was hither that Hiram 
sent down in floats the timber which he had cut 
for Solomon in Lebanon; whence it was con- 
veyed by the king of Israel to the site of the 
Temple, 1 Kgs. v. 9. ; 2 Chron. ii. 16. Here 
also the prophet Jonah, i. 3., took ship to flee to 
Tarshish, when sent to preach against Nineveh. 
When the second Temple was built by Zerub- 
babel, the people of Zidon and Tyre brought 
down cedar trees from Lebanon to the Sea (or 
Haven) of Joppa, according to the grant of 
Cyms, king of Persia, for that purpose, Ezra iii. 
7. ; 1 Esd. v., 35. 

Joppa was frequently the scene of action 
during the Maccabsean wars. It was captured 
from the Syrians by Jonathan, who afterwards 
here met the king of Egypt with great pomp, 
1 Mace. X. 75, 76., xi. 6. ; but it seems to have 
rebelled, and to have been recovered by Simon, 
xii. 33., who improved the harbour, and fortified 
the town, xiii. IL, xiv. 5. 34., xv. 28. 35. The 
men of Joppa conamitted an atrocious act of 
cruelty upon the Jews who were here, by de- 
coying 200 of them in boats and then drowning 
them; for which Judas Maccabasus burnt the 
haven and the boats, and put to death all Avhom 
he could seize, 2 Mace. xii. 3. 7. Joppa was 
for a long time a frontier city of Judsea towards 
Samaria j it was annexed to Syria by Pompey, 
when it fell into his hands, but was afterwards 
restored to Jud^a by Csesar. But Joppa is 
rendered more interesting from the Apostle Peter 
having there restored Tabitha to life. Acts ix. 36. 
38. 42, 43. ; and there had his vision touching 
the receiving the Gentiles into the Christian 
church, x. 5. 8. 23. 32., xi. 5. 13. It was de- 
stroyed by the Roman general Cestius, but again 
rebuilt ; and having become a lurking place of 
pirates, it was again desolated by Vespasian, 
who there built a fort, which was soon sur- 
rounded with houses. It is now a poor town 
with a miserable harbour, and is still called 
Yaffa. 

The inhabitants have an absurd tradition, that 
Noah built the ark here, and that the city de- 
rived its name from Japheth its founder. Pliny 
assigns it a date anterior to the Deluge. In 
Jerome's time, the people pretended to show the 
mai-ks of the chains by which Andromeda was 
fastened to the rock to be devoured by a sea- 
monster, from which she was freed by Perseus ; 
and Pliny mentions the skeleton of this huge 
monster having been sent to Home. Whether 



this fable has any bearing upon the history ©f 
Jonah is doubtful; but the concurrent testimony 
of many profane authors proves the great anti- 
quity of the city^ whose haven is probably one of 
the oldest in the world. 

JORAH, CHILDREN OF, who returned home 
with Zerubbabel after the Babylonian captivity, 
Ezra ii. 18. ; they are called the Children of Ha- 
riph in Neh. vii. 24. 

JORDAN, the principal river of Canaan, stiU 
distinguished by the same name, though its 
main stream between the L. of Tiberias and the 
Dead Sea, is now commonly called Sheriat-el- 
Ktbir by the Arabs. It rises from two sources^ 
both of which are in portions of the Anti-Leba- 
non; or rather, from a lower declivity of the 
same main range, near its principal summit, 
Mt. Hermon, which is designated Mt. „Pa- 
neum by Josephus and the profane historians, 
now Jehel esh Sheikh. The further and more N. 
source is that near which was the ancient city of 
Laish or Dan, adjacent to the modern town of 
Husbeiya, whence the stream, described by Jose- 
phus as the Little Jordan, is called the Hasbeiya. 
The other source lies to the S.E. of the pre- 
ceding, and is probably in a small lake near Mt, 
Paneum, called from its round shape L. Phiala by 
the ancients, from which the waters are said to pass 
under ground, till they emerge near the town of 
Paneas or Cassarea-Philippi, the modern jSa/tias ; 
this is called the Banias River. The two streams 
meet in one about 3 miles N. of L. Huleh, the 
ancient Waters of Merom, Josh, xi. 5. 7., through 
which the united water flows ; then, running S. 
for 12 miles, it enters the L. of Gennesareth, now 
the L. of Tabariyah, Avhich it traverses ; and then 
after a course of about 60 miles it enters the 
Dead Sea or Bahr Lut, called in Holy Writ the 
Salt Sea or Sea of the Plain. The whole course 
of the river, including its innumerable windings, 
is estimated at 200 miles. 

The Jordan runs through an extensive valley 
varying from 4 to 12 miles in width, now called 
El Ghor, which presents itself again to the S. of 
the Dead Sea, under the same name, or that of 
El Arabah, till it reaches the head of the yElani- 
tic Gulf or G. ofAkabah, which is the more E. 
of the two horns of the Red Sea. It has been 
conjectured, from the appearance of the ground 
and other circumstances (though some deny the 
possibility), that before the destruction of the 
Cities of the Plain, the Jordan flowed through the 
lower or more S. part of this valley into the Red 
Sea; a course which, judging from, the obscure 
language of prophecy, it may yet again pursue, 



JORDAK 



217 



Ezek. xlvii. 8—12. ; Joel iii. 15—18. ; Zech. xiv. 

4 — 8. The N". portion of this valley seems to be 
designated in the Bible as the Valley of Jordan, 
or the Plain of Jordan, or the Plain of the Valley 
of Jordan, and though now a desolate wil- 
derness, was once , no doubt, a most fertile place. 
In its S. part, Lot settled when he parted from 
Abraham, Gen. xiii. 10, 11.; and in another 
portion of it, Hiram cast the brazen pillars and 
vessels for the Temple of Solomon, 1 Kgs. vii. 
4G. ; 2 Chron. iv. 17. In the midst of this valley, 
through another lower depression, the river runs, 
varj-ing in depth from 3 to 15 feet, and in 
breadth from 60 to 250 yards, according to the 
season and the nature of the ground through 
which it flows. Owing to the melting of the 
snow on the hills at the beginning of summer, 
the Jordan overflows its banks all the time of 
harvest. Josh. iii. 15., iv. 8. ; 1 Chron. xii. 15. ; 
Jer, xii. 5. ; Ecclus. xxiv. 26. ; 1 Mace, ix, 42. 
45. ; by which the wild beasts, such as the lions 
and bears, were driven from their covert in the 
adjacent thickets (the "pride of Jordan"), Jer. 
xlix. 19., 1. 44. ; Zech. xi. 3. Cf. 2 Kgs. ii. 24. 
See Flood. 

This beautiful and fertilising river. Job xl. 23., 
running through the Land of Promise from N. to 
S., divided it into two unequal portions ; about 
two- thirds of the country being on the Y'^. and 
one-third on the E. of it. The W. portion is 
commonly spoken of as This side Jordan ; and 
the E. side, as The other side Jordan, or Beyond 
Jordan, or Yonder side Jordan, or The Further 
side of Jordan : though these terms are sometimes 
used in exactly the opposite way, and must be 
considered with respect to the situation of the 
writer. See Beyond Jordan. It was crossed 
with his staff by Jacob, when he fled to Meso- 
potamia, Gen. xxxii. 10.; and visited by the 
spies whom Moses sent to search the land, and 
who found the tribe of the Canaanites dwelling 
on its banks. Num. xiii. 29. Soon after the 
arrival of the Israelites in their Promised Land, 
they pitched by the Jordan opposite Jericho, 
where they remained some time. Num. xxii. 1., 
xxvi. 3. 63., xxxi. 12., sxxiii. 48, 49, 50, 51., 
XXXV. 1. ; Deut. ii. 29., ix. 1., xii. 10., xxxi. 
13.; and here Moses assigned to the tribes of 
Reuben, Gad, and half-Manasseh, at their 
request, their inheritance to the E. of the 
ri ver, on the condition of their crossing it armed 
with their brethren to help them win the 
country. Num. xxxii. 5. 19. 21. 29. 32., xxxiv, 
15. ; Deut. iii. 17., xxx. 18. ; Josh. 1. 14, 15. ; 
xiii. 8. 23. 27. 32., xiv. 3., xvii. 5., xviii. 7., xxii. 
4. 7.; Judg. xi. 13. 22.; 1 Scim. xiii. 7.; 2 Kgs. 



X. 33. ; 1 Chron. vi. 78., xii. 37. ; which service 
when they had completed, and again crossed 
the river, they erected on its banks the huge 
altar of Ed, in token that they had a claim in 
the services of the sanctuary, as well as their 
brethren, Josh. xxii. 10, 11. 25. 

The Jordan thus formed the E. frontier of the 
other nine and a half tribes, as indeed it did of 
Canaan itself. Num. xxxiv. 12., xxxv. 10.; 
Deut. iv. 26., xi. 31., xxvii. 2. 4. 12., xxxii. 47. ; 
Josh. xxii. 25., xxiii. 4. ; all of which touched 
on it except Simeon, Dan, and Asher, Josh. xv. 
5., xvi. 1. 7., xviii. 12. 19, 20., xix. 22. 33, 34.; 
Judg. X. 9. ; 2 Sam. xx. 2., xxiv. 5. Moses 
also appointed three Cities of Eefuge on each 
side the river, Num. xxxv. 14. ; Deut. iv. 41. ; 
Josh. XX. 7, 8. ; but was not permitted himself 
to cross it, Deut. iii. 25. 27., iv. 21, 22., xxxi. 2. 
The Israelites remained encamped on its E. 
banks until after the death of Moses, when 
Joshua was commanded to lead the people over 
the river, which after the return of the spies, 
and his own charge to the tribes, he did. Josh, 
i. 2. 11., ii. 7., iii. 1. 8. 11. 13. Upon this 
occasion, though in the season when the Jordan 
overflowed its banks, its waters were miracu- 
lously divided to make a passage for the Israel- 
ites; standing up on a heap on the one side, 
and cut off on the other, until all the people 
had passed over: in memorial of which they 
set up on the other side, in Gil gal, twelve stones 
taken out of the midst of the river, from the 
place where the priests had stood who bore the 
ark. Josh. iii. 14, 15. 17., iv. 1, 3. 5. 7, 8, 9, 10. 
17. 18, 19, 20. 22, 23., v. 1., xxiv. 11. Cf. Ps. 
Ixxviii. 13., cxiv. 3. 5.; Judith v. 15. Here 
they now remained on the W. banks, encamped 
in Gilgal, whilst they stormed Jericho, Ai, and 
other cities in the S. of Canaan, until they set 
up the altar in Mt. Ebal, and the Tabernacle 
in Shiloh ; at which latter place Joshua divided 
the land by lot amongst the nine and a half 
tribes. Josh. vii. 7., ix. 1. 

There seem to have been two or three well- 
known crossing places over the river, especially 
in the dry season: one in the S., leading 
into the country of Moab, called the Fords 
OF Jordan, Josh. ii. 7., where Ehud and the 
Israelites posted themselves to cut off the 
Moabites, after the slaughter of their king 
Eglon, Judg. iii. 28. ; another, near Bethbarah, 
where Gideon fell on the Midianites, Judg. vii. 
24., viii. 4. ; and another, called the Passages 
OF Jordan, Judg. xii. 5, 6., where Jephthah 
laid wait for the Ephraimites. It was, probably, 
by the first of these that Abner escaped from 



218 



JORDAN. 



JOSEPH, THE TRIBE OF. 



Joab, when fighting for Ishbosheth ; and also 
that David crossed into the Land of Jordan 
when flying from Absalom, returning thence at 
his death, 2 Sam. ii. 29., xvii. 22, 24., xix. 15,, 
18. 31. 36. 39. 41. ; 1 Kgs. ii, 8. ; Ps. xlii. 6. 
And perhaps by the second, the Syrians escaped 
when they were frightened away from be- 
sieging Samaria in the time of EHsha, 2 Kgs. 
vii. 15. At one of these also David appears to 
have crossed with his army when going to 
attack the Syrians and Ammonites, 1 Chron. 
xix. 17. 

It was hard by the Jordan, on the banks of 
its little tributary the Brook Cherith, that the 
prophet Elijah for a time hid himself from 
Ahab during the famine, 1 Kgs. xvii. 3,5.; 
and afterwards miraculously divided its waters 
hy smiting them with his mantle, to make a 
passage for himself and Elisha before he was 
carried up into heaven, 2 Kgs. ii. 6, 7, 8. Elisha 
likewise smote its waters, and passed over in 
the same miraculous way, in proof that the 
spirit of Elijah rested on him ; and in its waters 
when the sons of the prophets were cutting 
wood on its banks to enlarge their dwellings, he 
made the axe-head to swim, 2 Kgs. ii. 13, 14., 
vi. 2. It was in the Jordan also that, at 
Elisha's promise, Naaman the Syrian washed, 
and was cleansed from his leprosy, 2 Kgs. v. 10. 
14. During the Maccabsean wars, the Jordan 
Avas frequently crossed by the contending 
parties, and on one occasion Jonathan and his 
forces swam over the river to escape from their 
enemies, 1 Mace, v. 24. 52., ix. 34. 42, 43. 45. 
48. 

John the Baptist began his ministry on the 
Jordan, near Bethabara, Enon, and Salem; 
■wlien the stones and trees on the banks of the 
river served him as emblems in his discourses ; 
and here he baptized the multitudes that came 
to him. Matt. iii. 5, 6. ; Mk. i. 5. ; Lu. iii. 3. 8, 
9.; Jo. i. 28., iii. 23. 26., x. 40. At length 
likewise, he here baptized the adorable Re- 
deemer of the world, before He began His 
public ministrations. Matt, iii, 13. ; Mk. i. 9. ; 
Lu. iii. 21., iv. 1. ; Jo. i. 29. ; during which 
He visited both sides of the river, and preached 
the glad tidings to multitudes who came thence 
to him, Matt. iv. 15. 25., xix. 1. ; Mk. iii. 8., 
X. 1. ; Jo. X. 40. 

There are several small tributaries which 
flow down into the Jordan, chiefly mountain 
torrents, which are usually nearly dry in the 
summer season; but only a few of them are 
mentioned by name in the Bible. On the W. are 
the Brook Cherith, the Water of Jericho, the 



Waters of Enshemesh, and the Brook Kidron, 
the last now flowing into the Bead Sea : on 
the E. are the Brook Jabbok, the Brook Jazer, 
the Waters of Nimrim, the R. Arnon, and the 
Waters of Dimon, the last two now entering 
the Dead Sea. In the latter days of Israel's 
restoration to their own land, the Jordan is again 
to be included in its limits, and apparently to 
run through the inheritance of every tribe, Ezek. 
xlvii. 18. 

JORDAN, LAND OF, a name given by 
David in Ps. xlii. 6., to the country beyond 
Jordan, or at any rate to that part of it whither 
he fled for refuge from his son Absalom, 2 Sam. 
xvii. 22. 24. 26. In Ps. Ixi. 2., he seems to 
call it, or compare it with, "the end of the 
earth." See Jordan. 

JORDAN, PASSAGES or FORDS OF. See 
Jordan. 

JORDAN, PLAIN OF, Gen. xiii. 10, 11., the 
fertility of which, and its being well watered 
everywhere, tempted Lot to go and dwell in 
it when he left Abraham. It is here, possibly, 
only another name for the Vale of Siddim; 
which see. The appellation is commonly given 
in Holy Writ to the whole depressed valley 
through v/hich the Jordan runs. See Jordan. 

JOSEPH (i.e. Adding), THE TRIBE, or 
HOUSE, or TABERNACLE OF, a name which 
is used in Holy Writ in a very varying way, to de- 
signate parts or the whole of the nation of Israel. 
It was derived from Joseph, the eleventh son 
of Jacob, but the flrst-born of Rachel, Gen. xxx. 
24. ; who was especially blessed by his father 
on his death-bed with a double portion, xlviii. 
15. 22., xlix. 22. 26., and obtained the birth- 
right because of Reuben's transgression, 1 Chron. 
V. 1, 2. This portion above his brethren which 
was given to Joseph by his father on his 
death-bed, is stated by Jacob to have been 
taken by him out of the hand of the Amorite 
with his sword and his bow. Gen. xlviii. 22. ; 
whence it has been conjectured that reference is 
made to some encounter with the Amorites not 
recorded in Holy Writ. The expression cannot, 
as it appears, have any allusion to the slaughter 
of the Shechemites, and the spoiling of their 
city, by Simeon and Levi; as the aged patri 
arch disowns and punishes the sanguinary and 
cruel deed. Gen. xlix. 6, 7. It is, therefore, sup- 
posed to relate to the parcel of ground bought by 
Jacob of Shechem's father. Gen. xxxiii. 19., and 
upon which, probably, after Jacob's removal 
from the neighbourhood, the Amorites seized 
by way of retaliation for the above massacre, 



JOSEPH. 



JUDAH. 



219 



but Avhich Jacob eventually recovered, apparently 
with advantage. This portion the dying patriarch 
bequeathed to Joseph, and we know from the 
record that it did fall within the lot of his in- 
heritance ; so that both by conquest and birth- 
right, Joseph would have a double claim to 
a portion above his brethren, and there does 
not appear amongst the tribes a murmur at 
the arrangement at any period of their history. 
The tribe of Joseph was also blessed in a marked 
manner by Moses before his death, Deut. xxxiii. 
13. 16. Hence, the leading part which they 
took in the affairs of the nation, and the ex- 
tended use in which their name was employed. 

It designates I. The tribe of Manasseh, the 
eldest son of Joseph, Num. xiii. 11., xxvii. 7., 
xxxiv. 23., xxxvi. 5., though St. John, in 
his sealing vision, applies it to Ephraim, Rev, 
vii. 8, 11. The double tribe of Ephraim and 
Manasseh, who, on the division of the land by 
Joshua, appear to have had their inheritance 
at first in one, Num. i. 10. 32., xxvi. 28. ; Deut. 
xxvii. 12.; Josh. xiv. 4., xvi. 1. 4., xvii. 14. 16, 
17., xviii. 5. 11,, xxiv. 32. ; Jadg. i. 22, 23. 35. ; 1 
Kgs. xi. 28. ; 1 Chron. vii. 29. ; Ps. Ixxviii. 67. ; 
Ezek. xlvii. 13. III. The kingdom of the Ten 
Tribes, or Israel, in which Ephraim, the son 
of Joseph, took so conspicuous a part, 2 Sam. 
xix. 20. ; Ezek. xxxvii. 16. 19. ; Amos v. 6. 15., 
vi. 6.; Obad. 18.; Zech. x. 6. And, IV. The 
entire kingdom of the whole twelve tribes, Ps. 
Ixxvii. 15., Ixxx. 1., Ixxxi. 5. It is worthy 
of remark that one of the twelve gates in the 
new city of Jerusalem is to be named the Gate 
of Joseph, Ezek. xlviii. 32., and that no gate 
in it is to be called either after Ephraim or 
Manasseh ; though each of these latter tribes is 
to have a distinct portion in the land, Ezek. 
xlviii. 4, 5. 

JOSEPH, one of the three gates in the E. 
side of the new city of Jerusalem, the two 
others being those of Benjamin and Dan, Ezek. 
xlviii. 32. 

JOSHUA, THE GATE OF, one of the gates 
of Jerusalem, where a high place had been 
erected, on which the idolatrous priests burnt 
incense to some of their false gods to which the 
wicked kings of Judah had committed the 
protection of the city : they were destroyed by 
Josiah, 2 Kgs. xxiii. 8. It does not appear 
what gate was so called, or whether it was a 
different one from those usually specified. 

JOTBAH, the native place of the mother 
of Anion, king of Israel, 2 Kgs. xxi. 19. Its 
situation appears to be unknown. 



JOTBATH, Deut. x. 7., or Jotbathah, Num. 
xxxiii. 33, 34., a station of the Israelites in the 
Wilderness, a little to the N. of Ezion-geber, and 
described as a land of rivers of waters. 

JUDAH (i. e. Praise), the name of the most 
numerous and important of the twelve tribes of 
Israel, derived from Judah, the fourth son of 
Jacob, by Leah, Gen. xxix. 35., xxxv. 23.; 1 
Chron. ii. 1. ; Matt. i. 2. It was he who advised 
his brethren not to stain themselves with the 
blood of Joseph, bu.t to sell him to the Ishmael- 
ites ; who afterwards undertook to be surety for 
Benjamin, or to bear the blame of his loss for 
ever; and who at length pleaded for Benjamin's 
release, offering himself as a bondman in his 
stead to Joseph, Gen. xxxvii. 26., xliii. 8, 9., 
xliv. 18. In Jacob's prophetical blessing of his 
children at his death, Judah is especially dis- 
tinguished as he whom his brethren should 
praise ; the kingly power being promised to his 
descendants, with the assurance that it should 
not depart until Shiloh came, Gen. xlix. 8, 9, 10. 
Judah had five sons, two of whom died in the 
land of Canaan before Jacob went down into 
Egypt ; but at the Exodus, only 258 years after 
the birth of Judah, the tribe of Judah amounted 
to 74,600 fighting men. Num. i. 7. 26, 27., ii. 3, 
4. ; and when they were numbered in the Plains 
of Moab thirty -eight years afterwards, they had 
further increased to 76,500, xxvi. 20. 22. They 
marched under their own standard, being the 
first and foremost of all the tribes, and followed 
immediately by those of Issachar and Zebulun ; 
these three forming the camp of Judah, the 
total number of which was 186,400 men, Num. 
11. o — y.j X. 14., who, when encamped, pitched 
on the E. side of the Tabernacle, toward the 
rising of the sun. The offerings of the tribe of 
Judah for the service of the Tabernacle on the 
occasion of its dedication in the Wilderness, 
were made on the first day, Num. vii. 12. They 
were a loyal, wise, and brave people, zealous for 
the honour of their nation and the interests of 
their religion, as indeed might be expected from 
the blessings pronounced on them by Jacob and 
Moses, Gen. xlix. 8—12. ; Deut. xxxiii. 7., and 
notwithstanding their grievous falls into sin, 
they appear in the main to have been far less 
corrupt than any of the other tribes. One of 
their number named Bezaleel, was chosen by 
God to superintend and devise the building and 
works of the Tabernacle; and for this purpose 
was specially inspired with the Spirit of God, Ex. 
xxxi. 2., xxxv. 30., xxxviii. 22. Caleb, one 
of the twelve spies sent by Moses from Kadesh- 



220 



JUDAH. 



barnea to search the land, and who with Joshua, 
an Ephraimite, were the only two to bring up a 
good report, was of this tribe, Num. xiii. 6. 8. ; 
hence they two alone of all the mighty host 
entered Canaan, and on the division of the nation 
at the death of Solomon, their two tribes took 
the lead in the two kingdoms. The tribe of 
Judah was appointed by Moses to be one of the 
six which should stand upon Mt. Gerizim, after 
the Israelites had crossed the Jordan, to bless 
the people, Deut. xxvii. 12. ; Josh. viii. 33. 
Achan, who offended in the accursed thing, and 
after the defeat at Ai was discovered and stoned, 
belonged to this tribe, Josh. vii. 1. 16 — 18. 

The remarkable langaiage in which Jacob pro- 
nounced his dying blessing upon Judah' — fore- 
telling that his hand should be in the neck of 
his enemies, that his brethren should not only 
praise him, but bow down before him, that he 
should be as a lion couching down or going up 
from the prey, that his descendants should pos- 
sess kingly power until the coming of Messiah, 
and that to him should the gathering of the 
people be — proves, on comparing it with the 
events of the last 3500 years, that the good 
patriarch did indeed speak by the Almighty 
Spirit of prophecy. If Jacob had been moved by 
human passions, he would probably have set 
Judah aside, as he had done his elder brethren, 
and would have conferred the privileges of pri- 
mogeniture exclusively on his beloved Joseph, 
the son of his beloved Rachel; and this the 
rather, seeing that there was little in Judah's 
former life to demand praise from his other sons. 
But though one portion was given to Joseph 
above his brethren, and special blessings were 
afterwards bestowed both upon Benjamin and 
Levi, yet under the guidance of God the descend- 
ants of Judah were promised the pre-eminence. 
And whoever rightly considers the history of this 
tribe cannot but see that they were victorious 
over their enemies, and did rule over their 
brethren of the other tribes as lA-illing svibjects; 
that their character was courageous, though not 
ferocious; victorious, but not tyrannical; that 
they were willing to live in peace, yet were 
terrible to such as provoked them, and this 
amidst many changes of the most wonderful 
kind even down to the present day. It is there- 
fore undeniable that the events which have fallen 
out in connection with the tribe of Judah alone (to 
say nothing of the others), have with astonishing 
exactness corresponded to this ancient prediction 
of the dying patriarch, in a manner which no 
human sagacity could have foreseen or conjec- 
tured. On the division of Canaan by lot amongst 



the Israelites, Caleb was appointed on behalf of 
the tribe of Judah, together with a man out of 
each of the other tribes whom it concerned, to 
assist Eleazar and Joshua in the matter. Num. 
xxxiv. 19. He was likewise the first to be put 
into possession of his inheritance at Hebron, Josh, 
xiv. 6—15., XV. 13. ; and all the rest of his 
brethren of the tribe of Judah received their lot 
round him in the S. part of the country. Their 
borders were the Great Sea on the W., Edom on 
the S. ; the Salt Sea on the E., and an irregular 
line on the N. running from the end of Jordan 
through the Valley of Hinnom, over Mts. Ephron, 
Jearim, and Baalah, to the Mediterranean, Josh. 
XV. 1 — 12. 20. Jerusalem itself, too, seems at the 
first to have been assigned to them, xv. 63. But 
eventually this large extent of country proved 
too much for the children of Judah, and there- 
fore the tribe of Simeon received its allotment 
within it on the W. side, Josh. xix. 1 — 9. Dan 
obtained another portion in the N.W., xv. 33., 
xix. 41. ; and Jerusalem was assigned to Ben- 
jamin, xviii. 28. Judah was thus bounded on 
the S. by Edom ; on the E. it was separated from 
Moab and Eeuben by the Salt Sea ; on the N. it 
touched upon Benjamin and Dan; on the W. 
upon Dan and Simeon, Josh, xviii. 5. 11. Out 
of the thirteen Levitical cities allotted for a 
possession to the children of Aaron, eight fell 
within the limits of Judah, viz. Hebi'on which, 
was also a City of Refuge), Libnah, Jattir, 
Eshtemoa, Holon, Debir, Juttah, and Beth- 
shemesh. Josh. xxi. 4. 9. 13 — 16. ; 1 Chron. vi. 
55 — 59. 65. After the death of Joshua, the 
tribe of Judah at the command of God took the 
lead in attacking and subduing the Canaanites 
that remained in the land, an exploit in which 
they were strenuously joined by the Simeonites. 
They took many cities, including J erusalem, which 
they burnt with fire, and conquered the Canaan- 
ites, Perizites, and Philistines, Judg. i. 2, 3, 4. 8, 9, 
10. 16, 17, 18, 19. At the command of God they 
again took the lead in the terrible war with the 
Benjamites, in the matter of the Levite's concu- 
bine, XX. 18. But their territory was invaded at 
a later period by the Ammonites, x. 9., until 
these were beaten off by Jephthah; and after- 
wards by the Philistines, xv. 9, 10., who were 
for a time kept in check by Samson, though 
subsequent to his death, they again returned. 

After this the tribe of Judah began more fully 
to occupy that important position in the nation 
which it afterwards so wonderfully maintained to 
the end. Its increasing numbers, the energy of 
its people, their important situation, the varied 
fertility and resources of the soil, and the pro- 



JUDAH. 



221 



phecy concerning its kingly power, Gen. xlix, 
10. ; 1 Chron. v. 2. ; all combined to raise it to 
that pre-eminence to wtich it at length attained. 
It is frequently mentioned separately from the 
rest of Israel during the reign of Saul, 1 Sam, 
xi. 8., xviii. 16. ; 2 Sam. iii. 10., sxi. 2. ; but it 
was not xmtil the time of David, who sprang 
from it, and often concealed himself from the 
rage of Saul among " the thousands of Judah," 
1 Sam. xxiii. 3. 23., that it actually became 
the royal tribe, a dignity -which it maintained to 
the end, 1 Chron. xxviii. 4. ; Ps. Ix. 7., Ixxviii. 
68. On the death of Saul, David went up, by 
God's direction, into Hebron, where he was 
made king over Judah, maintaining his crown 
against the eleven other tribes of Israel in open 
war. Here he reigned seven years and a half un- 
til the remaining tribes came and made him king 
over all Israel, whereupon hfr^removed to Jeru- 
salem, 2 Sam. ii. 1. 4. 7. 10, 11., iii. 8. 10., v. 1. 5. 

After this, the distinction between the house 
of Judah and the remaining tribes seems to have 
gradually increased, especially on the occasion of 
David's return to Jerusalem after the death of 
Absalom, when it broke out for a time in open 
war, 2 Sam. xi. 11., xii. 8., xix. 11. 14, 15. 40, 
41, 42, 43., XX. 2. 4, 5., xxi. 2. ; and though 
this feud was soon quenched, yet their armies 
had distinct commanders, the account of their 
numbers was separately rendered, and the fame of 
Judah continually celebrated, 2 Sam. xxiv. 1. 9. ; 
1 Kgs. ii. 32. ; Ps. xlviii. ll.,lxviii. 27.,lxix. 35., 
Ixxvi. 1., xcvii. 8., cviii. 8., cxiv. 2. Even in 
the peaceful days of Solomon the distinction was 
kept up, 1 Kgs. iv. 10. 25. ; and when he fell 
into idolatry, he was forewarned by God, that 
his son should reign over only two ti'ibes, but 
that the others should be rent from him. This 
sentence was soon carried out after the death of 
Solomon, when through the rashness of Eeho- 
boam, ten out of the twelve tribes formed them- 
selves into a separate kingdom, governed by 
distinct sovereigns, Avhilst Judah and Benjamin 
became henceforth known as the Kingdom of Ju- 
dah, 1 Kgs. xi. 13. 31. 35, 36., xii. 17. 20, 21. 23. 
27. 32. The two tribes, however, were not fused 
into one, but retained their old arrangements, 
and they were from time to time joined by the re- 
ligious party out of all the other tribes, especially 
when stirred up by the prophets or some of the 
good kings, and after the captivity of the 
kingdom of Israel, when for a short period 
Judah ruled the remnant that had escaped, 
2 Chron. xi. 3. 16., xv. 9., xxiii. 2., xxiv. 5., 
XXX. 11. 18. 21. 25., xxxiv. 6, 7. 33„ xxxv. 18., 
Jerusalem continued to be the metropolis of the 



kingdom of Judah, as it had hitherto been of all 
Israel, and thither at the three great feast?, the 
people still resorted out of Israel, until the in- 
creasing idolatry of the Ten Tribes, which had been 
fostered by Jeroboam and Ahab, increased more 
and more as the days of vengeance drew on. 
Hence, Jerusalem is all along continually styled 
"the Daughter of Zion," "the Daughter of 
Jerusalem," and "the Daughter of Judah," 
2 Kgs. xix. 21. ; Ps. ix. 14. ; Isa. i. 8., xxxvii. 
22.; Lam. i. 15.; Zech. ix. 9.; Matt. xxi. 5. 
The kingdom of Judah, therefore, is often spoken 
of as Judah and Benjamin, or Judah and Jeru- 
salem, 1 Kgs. xii. 23. ; 1 Chron. vi. 15. ; 2 Chron. 
XV. 2. 8, 9., XX. 15. 17. 27., xxv. 5. ; sometimes 
as Judah in Jerusalem, Ezek. xxi. 20. ; and 
sometimes as Israel, 2 Chron. xxi. 2. 

This kingdom of Judah extended from Geba 
to Beei-sheba, 2 Kgs. xxiii, 8., or according to 
2 Chron. xix, 4., from Mt, Ephraim to Beer- 
sheba. It was ruled by twenty successive de- 
scendants of David (including Kehoboam) dur- 
ing an interval of 387 years, at the end of which 
its people were for their sins carried captive to 
BabA'lon by Nebuchadnezzar, b. c. 588, 2 Kgs. 
xvii. 18., xxi. 12., xxiii. 26, 27., xxiv. 1. 3., 
xxv. ; 2 Chron. xxxvi. 19, 20. ; Jer. xxxix., Iii. 
It survived the kingdom of Israel, 133 years, 
though the latter was governed by nineteen 
sovereigns out of many dynasties, with two 
long periods of anarchj^ (For the history 
of the kingdom of Judah, see Israel.) The 
seventy years' captivity of the kingdom of 
Juclah, foretold by the prophet Jeremiah, 2 
Chron. xxxvi. 21. ; Jer. xxv. 11, 12., xxix. 10., 
commenced about 606 years b.{\, when Nebu- 
chadnezzar first despoiled Jerusalem in the days 
of Jehoialdm, and carried away many captives, 
amongst whom were Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, 
and Abednego, Dan. i. 6., ii. 25., v.l3., vi. 13. But 
it was not until eighteen years afterwards, b.c. 
588, that Zedekiah, the last king, was conquered, 
and Jerusalem after a siege of two years, was 
burnt to the ground, 2 Kgs. xxiv. 1. 3., xxv. 9. 21.; 
2 Chron. xxxvi. 6, 7. 17, 18, 19. The captivity 
ended b.c, 536, when Cyrus, king of Persia, pub- 
lished his edict for all the people of God in his 
dominions to return to their own land, and to 
build the Temple of Jerusalem in Judah, 2 Chron. 
xxxvi, 22, 23. ; Ezra, i, 1 — 4, But as very few 
returned home then, save the two tribes of Judah 
and Benjamin, and indeed only a small remnant 
of these under the command of Sheshbazzar or 
Zerubbabel, the prince of Judah, 2 Chron, ix, 3, ; 
Ezra i, 5. 8., ii. 1., iii. 9 , iv. 1. 4. 6., vii. 14., 
x. 9. ; Neh. vii. 6., xi. 36. ; and as at the I'e- 



222 JUDAH, CHILDREN OF. 



JUDAH, WILDERNESS OF. 



mewed permission to all the people of Israel 
given by Artaxerxes, king of Persia, to return to 
their own land under the guidance of Ezra, B.C. 
457, still only a very few of the same tribe 
came back with him, Ezravii. 13., the new king- 
dom was still called Judah, Ezra ix. 9., x. 7. ; 
Neh. i. 2., ii. 5. 7., iv. 10. 16., v. 14., vi. 7. 17, 18., 
vii. 6., xii. 31, 32., xiii. 15, 16, 17. ; and all who 
belonged to itwxre henceforward distinguished by 
the name of Jews after the chief tribe. (For 
their subsequent history see Jews.) It lasted 
until A.D. 70, when after Jerusalem had been 
closely besieged for five mouths b}'- the Romans, 
it was burnt to the ground for the third time. 
See Jerusalem. But what has ennobled the 
tribe of Judah more than all the glories connected 
with its name is the fact of the adorable Re- 
deemer, the Lord Jesus Christ, " the Lion of the 
tribe of Judah," having sprung from it, as had 
been continually predicted for generations before, 
Gen. xlix. 9, 10. ; Isa. xi. 1. ; Mic. v. 2. ; Matt, 
i. 3., ii. 5. ; Lu. iii. 33, ; Jo. vii. 42. ; Rom. i. 3. ; 
Heb. vii. 14. ; Rev. v. 5. And though it is now 
scattered over the earth, yet the day is drawing 
nigh when God will restore " the dispersed of Ju- 
dah " again to their inheritance. They shall be 
the first to be saved, and shall fight for the good 
cause at Jerusalem, and God will there pour 
out His Spirit upon them, and make a new cove- 
nant with them, Isa. xi. 12, 13. ; Jer. xxxi. 31. ; 
Zech. xii. 7. 10., xiv. 14.; Heb. viii. 8. St. 
John in his vision saw twelve thousand sealed 
of the tribe of Judah, Rev. vii. 5., and the pro- 
phet Ezekiel places their lot on their future re- 
storation immediately above the tloly Oblation, 
being the seventh tribe in order from the IsT., and 
names one of the gates of the new city on the 
N. side, the Gate of Judah, Ezek. xlviii. 7, 8. 31. 

JUDAH, CHILDREN OF, or Men of, a 
name used with varied extent, either to the 
people of the tribe of Judah, as in Josh. xv. 1. ; 
2 Sam. ii. 4. ; or to the subjects of the kingdom 
of Judah, 2 Chron. xiii. 18. ; Isa. v. 7. ; or to the 
remnant of all Israel that returned home from 
Babylon with Zerubbabel and Ezra, Ezra iv. 
4. ; Nell. xiii. 12. The last were more fre- 
quently styled Jews. See Jews. 

JUDAH, CITY OF, where Amaziah was 
buried, 2 Chron. xxv. 28., the same with the 
city of David, 2 Kgs. xiv. 20. ; which see. 

JUDAH, GATE OF, one of the three gates of 
the new city of Jerusalem, on the N. side, 
Ezek. xlviii. 31. 

JUDAH, LAND OF, an appellation often 



given to the territory of the tribe of Judah, 
Deut. xxxiv. 2. ; Ruth i. 7. ; 1 Sara. xxii. 5. ; 
and in a more extended sense to the kingdom 
of Judah, 2 Kgs. xxv. 22.; Isa. xix. 17.; Jer. 
xl. 12. ; and in a still wider extent to all the 
Land of Promise, 2 Chron. ix. 1 1. It is likewise 
applied, after the Babylonian captivity, to that 
portion of the country S. of Samaria, which was 
occupied by the remnant that returned with 
Zerubbabel and Ezra, Ezra v. 1. ; Neh. ii. 5. 7. ; 
Hagg. i. 1. ; Lu. i. 39. Hence, also, the whole 
of Palestine, including Samaria, Galilee, and the 
provinces beyond Jordan, are frequently called 
Jud£ea or Jewry, Lu. i. 5., especially in eccle- 
siastical history and by the profane authors. 
See J UD^A. 

JUDAH, MOUNTAINS OF, or the Hill 
Country of, the name applied to that range of 
mountains which runs from the Maaleh-Acrab- 
bim and Mt. Seir, on the borders of Canaan and 
Edom, right through the territory of the tribe 
of Judah, and past Jerusalem, eventually joining 
Mt. Ephraim and the mountains of Israel. It 
was a strong and important region, well culti- 
vated and populous, and had been a stronghold 
of the Anakims. Hebron, a Levitical city of 
the priests, and one of the six Cities of Refuge, 
was in the heart of it. Josh. xi. 21., xx. 7., 
xxi. 11. Here Jehoram, king of Judah, built 
high places of idolatry, compelling his people to 
join in the false worship, for which, and for his 
other sins, he was threatened with a mortal 
disease, by a writing from Elijah the prophet, 
2 Chron. xxi. 11. Here also at a later period, 
Jotham built cities and castles to strengthen 
his kingdom, 2 Chron. xxvii. 4. And here 
dwelt Zacharias and Elisabeth, the parents of 
John the Baptist, where they were visited by 
the Virgin Mar}', Lu. i. 39. 

JUDAH, WILDERNESS OF, or Jeshimon, 
a tract of country on the W. side of the S. 
extremity of the R. Jordan and of the Bead Sea, 
lying in a general way between the S. border 
of Benjamin and that range of Mt. Seir which 
separates Judah from Edom. Though in most 
parts very sparely peopled, it contained six 
cities in the daj's of Joshua, xv. 61, 62. Some 
portions of it were fertile spots, abounding in 
pastures, but others were rugged and dreary, 
and haunted by wild beasts, Mk. i. 13. After 
the death of Joshua, the children of the Kenite, 
Moses' father-in-law, came from the City of 
Palm-trees to dwell here, Judg. i. 16.; and in 
some of its fastnesses, at Ziph, Engedi, Hachilah, 
Hareth, Maon, and Carmel, 360 years afterwards, 



JUDAH UPON" JORDAN". 



JUTTAH. 223 



David repeatedly concealed himself from the 
rage of Saul, 1 Sara. xxii. 5., xxiii. 3. 14. 19. 
24, 25, 29., XXV. 2. 21. ; Ps. Ixiii., title. See 
Jeshimon". This vrilderness is likewise cele- 
brated as the place where John the Baptist 
abode, until the day of his showing unto Israel, 
Lu. i. 80,, preaching there, and baptizing the 
people, Isa. xl. 3. ; Matt. iii. 1.3.; Mk. i. 3, 4. ; 
Lu. iii, 2. 4. Hither, also, it is probable the 
Blessed Saviour was led up by the Spirit to be 
tempted of the devil, Matt. iv. 1. ; Mk. i. 12, 
13. ; Lu. iv. 1. ; though many place the scene of 
the Temptation in the Wilderness by Jeiicho. 
See Wilderness. 

JUDAH UPON JORDAN, a town in the 
E. part of the inheritance of Naphtali, upon the 
banks of the R. Jordan, between the two lakes 
of Merom and Chinnereth, Josh. xix. 34. 

JUD^A, or Jeavky, or the Land of the 
Je'ws, an appellation which was given after the 
Babylonian captivity to the province in Avhich 
those Israelites dwelt who had returned home 
from the seventy years' captivity. Amongst 
these, the tribe of Judah being by far the 
most numerous and influential, their name was 
adopted to distinguish the whole nation, hence- 
forward called Jews, as well as to designate 
that province of their own land which the}" were 
allowed again to inhabit, Ezra v, 8. ; Dan. v. 
13. It was in later years applied to the King- 
dom OF JuD.EA, or that portion of Palestine 
inhabited by Jews alone ; the limits of which 
varied at different times during their struggles 
with the Syrians, Egyptians, and other enemies, 
especially in the time of the Maccabees, accord- 
ing to the successes or reverses of the Hebrew 
nation (see Aphere:ma) ; but these limits were 
generally Samaria on the N"., the Dead Sea on 
the E., Idumaja on the S., and the Mediterranean 
on the W. Cf. Judith iii. 9., iv. 1. 3. 7., viii. 21., 
xi. 19., xiv. 7. ; 1 Mace. ii. 6., vi. 5. 48., vii. 22. 
50., ix. 1,, X. 30,, xi. 28., xii. 35., xiii. 1. 12, 33., 
xiv, 33., XV. 30. 40, 41., xvi. 10. ; 2 Mace. v. 11., 
xi. 5., xiii, 1. In consequence of Herod the 
Great taking part in the civil war which fol- 
lowed the death of Julius Cassar, the victorious 
party eventually made him the governor of all 
Palestine, under the name of the king of Judsea ; 
a position which he maintained until one year 
after the birth of the Blessed Redeemer, Lu, i, 5, 
This appears to have occasioned the whole land 
to have been again occasionally termed Judsea 
during the time of our Lord Jesus Christ and 
His Apostles ; though Samaria and Galilee are 
sometimes excluded from the term. Matt, xix. 



1.; Mk. i. 5., x. 1.; Lu. i. 5,, vi. 17., vii, 17,, 

xxiii, 5, ; Acts ii, 9. 14., x, 37,, xi, 1. 29., xv. 1,, 
xxi. 10., xxvi. 20., xxviii. 21. ; Rom. xv. 31, ; 
2 Cor, i, IG, ; Gal. i. 22. ; 1 Thess. ii, 14. 

After the death of Herod, his dominions were 
divided into four parts ; viz. the tetrarchy of 
Judfea, which included Samaria ; the tetrarchy 
of Galilee and Perasa ; the tetrarchy of Itura^a 
and Trachonitis, which included Batanaea or 
Bashan ; and the tetrarchy of Abilene, Lu. iii. 1. 
The first of these was ruled by Archelaus, son of 
Herod the Great, Matt. ii. 22.; but he was 
deposed by Augustus at the end of ten years, 
when his territory was made a Roman province, 
ruled by a Roman officer, who, during the 
ministry of our Redeemer, was Pontius Pilate. 
This governor usually resided at Cjesarea, that 
the idolatrous ways of a heathen army and of a 
foreign yoke might not so much offend the 
Jewish people. His province was then more 
especially distinguished by the name of Judjea ; 
and it is this region which is so often thus 
designated in the Gospel narrative, from its 
having been continually visited by our Lord and 
His Apostles, Matt. ii. 1. 22,, iii. 5., iv. 25,, 

xxiv. IG, ; Mk. iii. 7., xiii. 14. ; Lu. i. 65., ii. 4., 
iii. 1,, V, 17., xxi. 21.; Jo. iii. 22., iv. 3. 47. 54,, 
vii. 1. 3., xi. 7. ; Acts i. 8., viii. 1., ix. 31., xii. 19. 
On the accession of Caligula to the Roman 
empire, Herod Agrippa, a grandson of Herod 
the Great, was appointed by him king of Ba- 
tansea and Trachonitis, to which Abilene, 
Samaria, and Judaea, were likewise added. His 
government seems to have been acceptable to 
the Jews, though he was a great persecutor of 
the Christians, and at length perished in a 
miserable manner. Acts xii. 1 — 23. At his death 
his dominions were once more placed under a 
Roman governor, such as were Felix and Festus, 
before whom Paul pleaded his cause. Acts xxiii. 
26., xxiv. 27., XXV. 1. 4. 23. ; and these were 
succeeded by others, until the final destruction 
of Jerusalem by the Romans under Titus, a.d. 70. 
See Jews and JeruSxVlem. 

JUD/EA, THE GREAT STRAIT OF, a strong 
position near which Holofernes is stated to have 
encamped when advancing against the Jews, 
Judith iii. 9. It appears to have been near 
Jezreel or Esdraelon ; and was probably a large 
defile through the mountains, leading from the 
Great Plain of Jezreel southwards into Judeea. 

JUTTAH, a city belonging to the tribe of 
Judah, situated in the hill country, eventually 
numbered with the Levitical cities, and given for 



224 KABZEEL. 



KADESH. 



a possession to the priests, the children of Aaron, 
Josh. XV. 55., xxi. 16. It is placed by Euse- 
bius 18 miles S. of Eleutheropolis, in the 



district Daromas ; and traces of its name are 
said to be found in that of Jitta, a village S.E. 
of Hebron. 



IvABZEEL, a city in the inheritance of Judah, 
Josh. XV. 21 ; 2 Sam. xxiii. 20. ; 1 Chron. xi. 
22. See Jekabzeel. 

KADES, one of the places summoned by Xabu- 
chodonosor to help him against A-phaxad, 
Judith i. 9. It is probably the same with 
Kadesh, 

KADESH or the Wilderness of Kadesh, 
an extensive desert lying to the S. of Canaan, 
and to the W. of Edom, Num. xx. 14., Judg. 
xi. 16., connected with that vast arid tract 
of country between the Red Sea, Egypt, and 
Canaan, which is usually designated in Holy 
Scriptures The Desert, or The Wilderness, and 
of which indeed it seems to have formed the 
N.E.' portion. It is first spoken of in the time 
of Abraham, when Chedorlaomer, king of Elam, 
with his three confederates, invaded En-mishpat, 
which was either a place in it, or another name 
for the desert itself. Gen. xiv. 7. It was adja- 
cent to the country of the Amalekites and 
to the AVilderness of Paran, Gen. xiv. 6, 7. ; 
Num. xii. 16., xiii. 26. ; and was either a part of 
or the same with the Desert of Zin, Num. xx. 
1., xxvii. 14., xxxiii. 36. ; Deut. xxxii. 51. 
In its northernmost extremity was the city 
of Kadesh -barne A, sometimes simply called 
Kadesh ; near which Abraham dwelt for some 
years, when Hagar was driven from his house to 
the well Beer-lahai-roi, between it and Shur, 
Gen. xvi. 7. 14., xx. 1. Near it, and in the 
district to which it gave name, and which was 
eleven days' journey from Horeb, Deut. i, 2., the 
Israelites encamped in the first year after the 
Exodus ; hence Moses sent the twelve spies, one 
out of every tribe, to search the land of Canaan, 
whose evil report, excepting that of Caleb and 
Joshua, caused the people to murmur. For 
which they were sentenced to wander forty 
years in the Wilderness, a year for every day the 
spies had been absent ; until the whole of that 
adult generation died. Here therefore, after 
making a vain attempt to enter the land without 
the help of God, they remained many days, re- 
ceiving from Moses some of those statutes and 
laws by which as a nation they were to be go- 
verned, Num. xii. 16., xiii. 26., xxxii. 8. ; Deut. 
i. 1, 2. 19. 46., ii. 14., ix. 23. ; Josh. xiv. 6, 7. ; 
Judith V. 14. 



Hence they turned S. towards the Red Sea ; 
and after Avandering in the desert about thirty- 
seven years, they came again to another par^ 
of Kadesh, apparently many days' journey to 
the S.E. of Kadesh-barnea, between Ezion- 
geber and Mt. Hor, Num. xxxiii. 36, 37. Here 
Miriam died and was buried. Num. xx. 1. 
Here also the people again miirmuring for want 
of water, Moses was commanded to speak to 
the rock, and it should bring forth to them 
water to drink ; upon which occasion his 
speaking unadvisedly with his lips, and smiting 
the rock twice instead of speaking to it, led to 
the exclusion of himself and Aaron from the 
Promised Land; whence the place was called 
Meribah (i. e. Strife, or Meribah-Kadesh), to dis- 
tinguish it from the Meribah by Mt, Horeb, 
where the people had murmured for water 
thirty-eight years before, Num. xx. 10, 11. 13. 
24., xxvii. 14.; Deut. i. 37., iii. 26., xxxii. 51.; 
Ps. cvi. 33. ; Ezek. xlvii. 19., xlviii. 28. It was 
likewise from this place, which was in the 
borders of Edom, that Moses sent messengers 
to the king of Edom, asking free passage 
through his country; Avhich being refused, the 
Israelites were compelled to turn to the S. E. 
round Mt. Hor, and so to enter Canaan by 
another way. Num. xx. 14. 16. 22., xxxiii. 37. ; 
Judg. xi. 16, 17, 18. Kadesh-barnea was ap- 
pointed by Moses one of the border towns of the 
land of Israel, Num. xxxiv. 4. ; and as such 
after it capture by Joshua, was fixed by him 
to be the S. limits of the tribe of Judah, Josh. 
X. 41., XV. 3. But David, Solomon, and some 
of the kings of Judah, pushed their frontier 
much further S., as indeed the bounds of the 
Land of Promise justified, Ex. xxiii. 31.; and 
the prophet Ezekiel, xlvii. 19., xlviii. 28., ex- 
pressly mentions the Waters of Strife in Kadesh, 
as one of the S. bounds of the tribe of Gad and 
of the whole nation, at their future restoration 
to their own land. 

The Wilderness of Kadesh or Zin has been 
identified by many with the great vallej' of 
the Lower Ghor, which extends from the Dead 
Sea to the ^Elanitic Gulf, now called the Gulf 
of Akahah, and which no doubt formed at least 
a part of it. Through this Ghor the E. Jordan 
is conjectured to have found its way into the 
Red Sea, before the destruction of the Cities of 



KADMTEL, CHILDREX OF. 



KEDEIMOTH. 



225 



the Plain, though the possibility of this is 
denied by others, owing to the present difference 
of level. There are many volcanic remains 
about it, and the "whole valley of the Lower 
Ghor bears traces of such convulsions as are 
signified in Ps. xxis, 8. 

KADillEL, CHILDREX OF, a family of the 
Levites, who returned home with Zerubbabel 
after the seventy years' captivity in Babylon, 
Ezra ii. 40. ; Xeh. vii. 43 

KADMOXITES, Gen. xv. 19., a tribe of the 
old Canaanites, who inhabited the country 
beyond Jordan in the Promised Land. Their 
name occurs oidy once, and is supposed to have 
been derived from the word Kedem, signifpng 
East; so that it may have designated many 
smaller families mentioned in Scripture, who 
were all embraced in this one general term. 
Others have conjectured that they were a 
shepherd colony from Egypt, who eventually 
pushed their way into the country between 
Mt. Hermon and the R. Amon, and thence into 
Phoenicia, perhaps on their being driven out of 
Palestine ; and that Cadmus with his wife 
Hermione, so celebrated in the mythology of 
the Greeks, derived their origin from this people 
and from Mt. Hermon. 

KANAH, a town of the tribe of Asher, Josh, 
xix. 28., probably in the neighbourhood of 
Zidon. The Canaanite woman mentioned in 
Matt. XV. 22., came probably from this neigh- 
bourhood. There was another town of the 
same name further E. in Galilee, which, to 
distinguish it from this, was called Cana of 
Galilee, See Caka, 

KAXAH, THE R. (or Brooh of Reeds, as 
it is written in the margin), a small summer 
river running down from the mountains of 
Israel near Gilboa, into the Mediterranean Sea, 
a few miles S. of Csesarea. It formed part of 
the line of demarcation between the two tribes 
of Ephraim and Manasseh, southward being 
Ephraim's, and northward Manasseh's, Josh, 
xvi. 8., xvii. 9. It is now called Xuhr el Kasah. 

KARKAA, a place on the S. border of the 
tribe of Judah, towards the River of Egypt, 
Josh. XV. 3. 

KARKOR, a fortified place, whither Zebah 
and Zalmunna fled with the hosts of the Mi- 
dianites and Children of the East that escaped 
after the great battle with Gideon, Judg. vii. 
24, 25., viii. iO — 12. ; but they were soon driven 
hence and put to t\\9 sword. Karkor is con- 
jectured to have been the same with a strong 



and lofty position in Moab, called anciently 
Characmoba, and now Kereh, a few miles E. of 
the S. extremity of the Dead Sea. 

KARTAH, a city of the tribe of Zebulun, 
assigned to the Levites of the family of Merari, 
Josh. xxi. 34. It was perhaps the same place 
which is called Kattath, xix. 15., and Kitrou, 
Judg. i. 30., whence the Zebulonites did not 
drive out the old inhabitants. 

KARTAX, a city of the tribe of Xaphtali 
which was eventually constituted Levitical, and 
given to the children of Gershon, Josh. xxi. 32. 
It is called Kiriatbaim in 1 Chron. vi. 76. 

KATTATH. See Kartah. 

KEDAR, a numerous and powerful race of 
roving nomades, Avho were descended from Ke- 
dar, the second son of Ishmael, Gen. xxv. 12.; 
1 Chron. i. 29. ; and appear to have settled in the 
X.W. part of Arabia, towards the frontiers of 
Edom, Midian, and Aloab, and the head of the 
Red Sea. They do not seem to have at any 
time approached very near to the land of Israel, 
Jer. ii. 10., though their black tents were doubt- 
less often pitched for a time near it, So. of Sol. i. 
5. David laments his dwelling among them for 
a season, Ps. cxx. 5., probably when he fled 
from the persecuting rage of Saiil, 1 Sam. xxv. 
1. They were a pastoral people, very rich in. 
flocks and herds, Isa. Ix. 7. ; Jer. xlix. 29. ; in 
which they traded largely with Tyre, Ezek. 
xxvii. 21. ; and like their great ancestor, they 
were very expert archers, Isa. xxi. 17. ; but 
their glory and riches Avere threatened by the 
prophets with desolation, which was brought to 
pass when they A^ere invaded and plundered, 
first by Sennacherib, and then by Xebuchad- 
nezzar, Isa. xxi. 16, 17. ; Jer. xlix. 28, 29. They 
are, however, promised to be sharers in the 
Gospel blessings ; and are to contribute of their 
wealth to the Jews on their restoration to their 
own land, Isa. xlii. 11., Ix. 7. The people of 
Kedar are called in the classical and later authors, 
Cedareni, Cedreni, Cedrei, and Cedranitse. They 
are represented as a pastoral people dwelling 
near the Xabatheans and Saracens, in Arabia, on. 
the X.E. shores of the Red Sea. 

KEDEMOTH, a city of the Amorites, probably 
no great way X. of the border-river Arnon, as 
it gave name to the Wilderness of Kedemotit, 
to the S. of it, whence Moses sent messengers 
to Sihon, to treat with him about a safe passage 
through his dominions, Deut. ii. 26. After his 
defeat by the Israelites, Moses gave the city 
of Kedemoth to the tribe of Reuben ; but it was 

Q 



226 KEDESH. 



KEOTTES. 



eventually assigned to the Levites of the family 
of Merari, Josh. xiii. 18., xxi. 37. ; 1 Chron. vi. 
79. 

KEDESH or Kedesh-Naphtali, a famous 
old royal city of the Canaanites, in the N. part 
of the land, near the exit of the Jordan from the 
Waters of Merom, the king of Avhich was one of 
the thirty -one kings conquered by the Israelites 
tmder Joshua, Josh. xii. 22. On the division of 
the country amongst the tribes, it fell to the lot 
of Naphtali, xix. 37. ; but was eventually as- 
signed to the Levites of the family of Gershon, 
and appointed a City of Refuge, Josh. xx. 7., 
xxi. 32. ; 1 Chron. vi. 76. The adjacent country 
recovered its independence for a time after the 
death of Joshua, when Jab in, king of Canaan, 
who reigned in the neighbouring city of Plazor, 
mightily oppressed the Israelites for twenty 
years; until Deborah the prophetess sent for 
Barak, out of Kedesh, and together with him, 
led on their countrymen against Jabin and Sisera, 
who were routed and slain, Judg. iv. 6. 9, 10, 11. 
From its situation in Galilee, it is called Kedesh 
IN Galilee, Josh. xx. 7., xxi. 32. ; 1 Chron. vi. 
76. ; and sometimes Kedesh-Naphtali, Judg.iv. 6., 
or merely Naphtali, Tobit i. 2., to distinguish it 
from other places of the same name. It was 
taken very many years afterwards, and its in- 
habitants were carried captive, together with 
those of many adjacent cities, and all the country 
beyond Jordan, by Tiglath-Pileser, 2 Kgs. xv. 29. ; 
1 Chron. v. 26.; Isa. ix. 1. But it would ap- 
pear to have been afterwards restored, as it Avas 
the scene of some of Jonathan's exploits in the 
time of the Maccabees, 1 Mace. xi. 63. 73. 

KEDESH, a town in the inheritance"of the 
tribe of Judah, towards the border of Edom, Josh. 
XV. 23. 

KEDESH, a Levitical city in Issachar, as- 
signed for a possession to the children of Gershon, 
1 Chron. vi. 72. It appears to be called Kishion 
or Kishon in Josh. xix. 20., xxi. 28. 

KEHELATHAH, a station of the Israelites in 
the Wilderness, between Kadesh-barnea and 
Mt. Hor, Num. xxxiii. 22. 23. From the signi- 
fication of its name, it has been conjectured to 
have been the scene of the rebellion of Korah. 

KEILAH, a city in the S. part of the inherit- 
ance of Judah, Josh. xv. 44. It was invaded 
and pillaged by the Philistines during the reign 
of Saul ; but they were attacked and driven off 
with great slaughter by David. Upon this oc- 
casion, the Keilites treacherously purposed to 
have delivered up David into the hands of Saul ; 



but he, warned by God of their plot, escaped with 
his men from the city, 1 Sam. xxiii. 1 — 13. It 
would appear to have been re-inhabited after 
the return of the Jews from their captivity in 
Babylon, Neh. iii. 17, 18. According to some 
of the early ecclesiastical writers, the tomb 
of the prophet Habakkuk was formerly shown 
here. Eusebius places Keilah 17 miles in an 
E. direction from Eleutheropolis. 

KENATH, an old city of Bashan, within the 
limits of the territory assigned by Moses to the 
half-tribe of Manasseh beyond Jordan: it was 
taken by Nobah, who called it Nobah, after his 
own name. Num. xxxii. 42. ; 1 Chron. ii. 23. It 
can hardly be identified with that Nobah which 
is mentioned in Judg, viii. 11. as having been 
passed by Gideon in his stealthy and rapid 
attack upon the Midianites and the Children of 
the East ; for it seems much too far to the N. 
Eusebius and Jerome call the former city Cana- 
tha, and place it in Trachonitis, near Bozra ; its 
ruins are probably those at Kanneytra, a place 
somewhat to the E. of Mt. Hermon. 

KENITES, one of the ancient tribes of Canaan 
delivered by God into the hands of Abraham 
and his posterity. Gen. xv. 19. They appear to 
have dwelt in the S. part of the country, and 
perhaps to have extended as far S. as the head 
of the Red Sea ; where it would seem as if they 
and the Midianites (who were descended from 
Abraham by Keturah) were known by the same 
name, and were perhaps united in some way 
that is not recorded, since Hobab or Jethro, the 
father-in-law of Moses, who lived in Midian, 
was a Kenite, Ex. ii. 16., iii. 1. ; Judg. i. 16., iv. 
11. Many of this tribe, probably, joined the 
Israelites in their journey through the Wilder- 
ness, in accordance with the invitation of Moses 
to Hobab, Num. x. 29—32. At the time of Ba- 
laam's prophecy, the tribe was strongly posted in 
some of the rocky fastnesses upon the S. borders 
of Canaan, and amongst the Amalekites. Such of 
them as submitted eventually to the Israelites 
under Joshua, were permitted to live in their 
old possessions about the City of Palm-trees, the 
Wilderness of Judah, and Arad, Judg. i. 16., 
1 Chron. ii. 55., until carried captive by Nebu- 
chadnezzar, Num. xxiv. 21, 22. Some of them 
seem to have migrated to the N. of Canaan, in 
the neighbourhood of Kedesh-Naphtali, under 
the guidance of Heber, whose wife Jael killed 
Sisera, Judg. iv. 11. 17., v. 24. When Saul was 
commissioned to go and destroy the Amalekites, 
he sent word to the Kenites to depart from 
amongst them, that they might not be destroyed, 



KEmZZITES. 



KIJsG'S DALE, THE= 227 



1 Sam. XV. 6. This perhaps led them to approach 
nearer to their old abodes in Judah, as there 
they were met -wirh by David, who when at the 
court of Gath, made a campaign to the S. of 
them, and seems to hare been assisted by them 
in some of his difficulties, as he numbered them 
among his friends, 1 Sam. xx^-ii. 10., xxx. 29. 

KEXIZZITES, one of the Canaanitish tribes, 
promised by God to be given to Abraham and 
his descendants, Gen. xv. 19. They are thought 
to have dwelt in the country midway between 
the Dead Sea and the Arabian Gulf, which was 
afterwards kno-mi as Edom or Idiimjea, 

KEEIOTH (le.the City), a city of the tribe of 
Judah, towards the frontiers of Edom, Josh, sv, 
25. Judas the traitor is supposed by some to 
have sprung from this city, whence his name 
Iscariot ; but this is very doubtful. 

KEPJOTH, a royal and fortified city of Moab, 
against which the prophets Jeremiah, xh-iii. 24. 
41., and Amos, ii. 2., denounce destruction : the 
latter calls it Kirioth. 

KEEOS, THE CHILDEEX OF, a family of 
the Xethinims, who returned home from Babylon 
with Zerubbabel after the edict of Cyras, Ezra 
ii. 44. ; Xeh. vii, 47. 

KEZIZ, YALLEY OF, a place within the 
limits of the Benjamites, who had also a city 
there of the same name, Josh, x^-iii. 21. 

KJBEOTH-HATTAAYAH (i.e. the Graves of 
Lust), an encampment of the Israelites in the 
Desert, two stations S. of that at Kadesh-baraea 
in the \Yilderness of Paran, Xum. xi. 35., xii. 16., 
xiii. 26. Here the people loathing the manna, 
lusted after flesh, and demanded that Moses 
would give it them to eat, whereupon God 
sent them quails, which covered the ground as it 
were two cubits high, for a day's journey all round 
the camp. But whilst the meat was in their 
mouths, the wi-ath of God came upon them, and 
they were smitten with a very great plague; 
whence the "place obtained its name, from the 
bixrial of those who lusted, Xum. xi. 34, 35., 
xxxiii. 16, 17. ; Dent. ix. 22. ; Ps. Ixxviii, 30, 
31. 

KIBZAIM, a city of the tribe of Ephraim, 
which was eventually assigned to the Levites of 
the family of Kohath, Josh. xxi. 22. It appears 
to be the same with the city called Jokmeam in 
1 Chron. vi. 68. 

KIDEOXor CEDEOX, THE BROOK, a smaU, 
narrow, and often deep stream, which rises in the 
high ground a little to the X. of Jerusalem, and 



flowing S. between it and the Mt. of Olives, 
through the Yalley of Jehoshaphat, turns S.E., 
and after a course of about 30 miles, enters the 
W. shore of the Dead Sea. In the winter and 
after storms, it is a strong and impetuous tor- 
rent, but in the summer it is often dried up. 
This was the brook which David crossed when 
he quitted Jerusalem to escape from Absalom, 
2 Sam. XV. 23. ; over which the ordinary road to 
the Jordan seems to have run, xviii. 20. After 
the death of David, Shimei was commanded by 
Solomon to remain in Jerusalem, and not to 
cross the Kedron upon pain of death, 1 Kgs. ii. 
37., an injunction which he violated, and pe- 
rished. Here also the three kings of Judah, Asa, 
Hezekiah, and Josiah, burnt and destroyed the 
images, altars, and other idolatrous abomina- 
tions, when they restored the pure worship of 
God, 1 Kgs. XV. 13. ; 2 Kgs. xviii. 4., xxiii. 4. 
6. 12. ; 2 Chron. xv. 16., xxix. 1 6., xxx. 14., 
xxxiv. 4, 5. 7. It is said that there was latterly 
a culvert from J erusalem by which the blood of 
the sacrifices and the impurities of the Temple 
were conveyed into the Kidron. It is sometimes 
merely called The Brook, as in Xeh. ii. 15. 
where Xehemiah mentions having gone along 
by it when surveying the ruins of Jerusalem. 
The Brook Kidron was repeatedly crossed by 
the Divine Eedeemer'on His way to Gethsemaue, 
the Mt. of Olives, Bethany, and the Jordan, Lu. 
xxi. 37., xxii. 39. ; Jo. xviii. 1, 2. The prophet 
J eremiah, xxxi. 40., foretells that in the latter 
days of Jerusalem's restoration, the whole valley 
and all the fields unto the Brook Kidron, shall 
be holy unto the Lord. 

KIXAH, a city belonging to the tribe of 
Judah, in the S. part of their territoiy, towards 
the coast of Edom, Josh. xv. 22. 

KIXG, THE CITY OF THE GREAT, Ps. 
xlviii. 2. ; Matt. v. 35. ; another name fur Jeru- 
salem ; which see. 

KIXG'S DALE, THE, a name given to 
the irregular and beautiful valley through which 
the Kidron flows between Jerusalem and the 
i\Iount of Olives. It was likewise called the 
Yalley of Shaveh ; and was the place where the 
king of Sodom went out to meet Abraham after 
his return from the slaughter of Chedorlaomer 
and his confederates, and where Melchizedek, 
king of Salem, brought forth bread and wine, 
and blessed him, Gen. xiv. 17, 18. Here also 
Absalom reared up for himself a pillar, to keep 
his name in remembrance; because he had no 
son ; a memorial which exists at the present 
Q 2 



228 KING'S GARDEN, THE. 



KIRIOTH. 



day. This dale was likewise denominated the 
Valley of Jehoshaphat; which see. 

KING'S GARDEN", THE, where Zedekiah, 
king of Judah, and all the men of war escaped 
out of Jerusalem, when the city had been long- 
besieged by the Chaldeans; but he was over- 
taken in the Plains of Jericho, and all his army 
was scattered from him, 2 Kgs. xxv. 4. ; Jer. 
xxxix. 4. It appears to have been on the 
S. side of Mt. Zion, near the Pool of Siloah, and 
the stairs that go down from the city of David ; 
and to have been restored after the Babylonian 
captivity, Neh. iii. 15. 

KING'S HIGH HOUSE, a residence of the 
kings of Judah in Jerusalem, adjacent to the 
wall, and near the court of the Prison, Neh. iii. 
25. 

KING'S POOL, a reservoir on the W. side of 
Jei'usalem, visited by Nehemiah when surveying 
the ruins of Jerusalem, Neh. ii. 14. It was pro- 
bably the one made by Hezekiah, by which 
he brought water into the city from the Gihon, 
2 Kgs. XX. 20. ; 2 Chron. xxxii. 30. ; a matter 
alluded to by the prophet Isaiah, xxii. 9. 11., 
when reproving their mere worldly wisdom. 

KING'S SEPULCHRES. See Field of the 
Burial. 

KING'S WINE-PRESSES, one of the limits 
of Jerusalem, mentioned by the pi-ophet Zecha- 
riah, xiv. 10., in his prediction concerning the 
future restoration of the city in the latter days. 
They appear to have been somewhere on the W. 
side of Jerusalem. 

KIR, a region of the Assyrian empire, whither 
Tiglath-Pileser took captive the people of Da- 
mascus, after he had slain their king Rezin, 
2 Kgs. xvi. 9., as had been foretold by the 
prophet Amos, i. 5. He was bribed to this by 
Ahaz, king of Judah, whom Rezin with Pekah, 
king of Israel, had attacked, and besieged in 
Jerusalem, but without success. Kir is men- 
tioned by Amos, ix. 7., as having been the origi- 
nal abode of the Syrians, whence they migrated 
to their new settlements. It is described by 
Isaiah, xxii. 6., as a warlike province, destined 
to unite with Elam in the coming attack upon 
Judah and Jerusalem ; a prophecy which was no 
doubt fulfilled when thej^both served in the armies 
of Sennacherib and Nebuchadnezzar. Nothing 
is certainly known about the situation of this 
Kir. It is generally conjectured to have been on 
the borders of Armenia and Media, near the 
river called Cyrus by the profane authors, 
and still known by the natives of the country 



under the name of Kur or Knra. Others how- 
ever place Kir in the E. part of the old province 
of Assyria; where in the region now called 
Kourdistan, dwelt formerly the Carduchi and Cor- 
dueni. And others, again, from a similarity of 
name, put it in the neighbourhood of a city 
called Kurena or Curna by Ptolemy, on the 
banks of the Mardus, now the R. Kizil- Ozen ; 
which some likewise consider to be the Go- 
zan of the Bible. The S. part of the province 
of Media is often called by the profane authors, 
Syro-Media, a name which it is thought to have 
derived from the removal thither of some 
of these Syrian captives. 

KIR OF MOAB, a strong and important city 
of the Moabites, whose desolation is foretold by 
the prophet Isaiah, xv. 1. It is thought to be 
the same with 

KIR-HARASETH, 2 Kgs. iii. 25., which 
was almost the only city not destroyed by 
Jehoram, king of Israel, when in confederacy 
with Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, and the king 
of Edom, assisted by the prophet Elisha, they 
invaded the country. Mesha, king of Moab, 
had rebelled against Jehoram, iii. 4., and after 
being hemmed in on eveiy side, appears to have 
made a sally from this place against the in- 
vaders ; in which failing, he took the king of 
Edom's son, and offered him for a burnt- otFering 
upon the wall, which led to the raising of the 
siege, iii. 27., but for which Moab is sorely 
threatened by Amos, ii. 1. It is called 

KIR-HARESETH by the prophet Isaiah, 
xvi. 7., who foretells its desolation, and is thought 
also to designate it 

KIR-HARESH, Isa. xvi. 11., a name not 
very dissimilar from that of 

KIR-HERES, under which its destruction 
is predicted by Jeremiah, xlviii. 31. 36. After 
it had been ravaged and reduced to ruins by the 
Assyrians and Chaldeans, it appears to have 
been restored, and to have been called Characa, 
2 Mace. xii. 17., or Characmoba and Characoma, 
as it is more commonly designated by the 
profane authors. It is still called Kerek, and is 
an important elevated place, about 20 miles 
to the E. of the S. extremity of the Dead 
Sea. 

KIR JATH (i. e. the City), sl city of the tribe of 
Benjamin, Josh, xviii. 28., the same with Kir- 
jath-jearim ; which see. 

KIRIOTH, Amos ii. 2., a city of Moab, the 
palaces of which are threatened to be destroyed 
with fire. See Kerioth. 



KIRJATHAIM. 



KISHOI^, THE RIVER. 229 



KIRJATHAIM (i. e. the Double City), a city of 
Palestine beyond Jordan, which in the time of 
Abraham belonged to the Emims, who were 
here smitten by Chedorlaomer and his allies, 
Gen. xiv. 5. It stood probably in a large plain, 
then called Shaveh-Kiriathaim, or the Plain of 
Kiriathaim, afterwards known as the Plain of 
Medeba, When the country was conquered by 
the Israelites und«r Moses, it was given to the 
tdbe of Reuben, who repaired and enlarged it, 
Num. xxxii. 37.; Josh, xiii, 19. After the 
captivity of the Ten Tribes by Tiglath-Pileser 
and Shalmaneser, it appears to have been pos- 
sessed by the Moabites ; as it is mentioned by 
the prophets Jeremiah, xlviii. 1. 23., and 
Ezekiel, xxv. 9., amongst their chief cities 
which were devoted to destruction. 

KIRJATHAIM, a city belonging to the tribe 
of Naphtali,^which was eventually assigned to 
the Levites of the family of Gershom, 1 Chron. 
vi. 76. It was probably the same place with 
Kartan, Josh. xxi. 32. 

KIRJATH-ARBA (i.e. the City ofArba), Gen. 
xxiii. 2. ; Josh. xiv. 15., xv. 13. 54,, xx. 7., xxi. 
11. ; Judg. i. 10. ; Neh. xi. 25. ; called other- 
wise Hebron ; which see. 

KIRJATH-ARIM, Ezra ii. 25., the same 
with Kirjath-jearim ; which see. 

KIR JATH-BAAL (i. e. the City of Baal), Josh. 
XV. 60., xviii. 14. See Kirjath -jeaki:\i. 

KIRJATH-HUZOTH (i.e. the City of Streets), 
a city of Balak, king of Moab, whither he 
brought Balaam on his first arrival in the 
country. Num. xxii. 39., and where he offered 
sacrifices. 

KIRIATHIARIUS, 1 Esd. v. 19. -See Kir- 
jath-jearim. 

KIRJATH-JEARIM (i.e. the City of Forests), 
an ancient city in the S. of Canaan, called 
formerly Baalah, Josh. xv. 9, 10. ; 1 Chron. xiii. 
6. ; or Baale of Judah, 2 Sam. vi. 2. ; or Kirjath- 
Baal, Josh. xv. 60., xviii. 14. ; or Kirjath, Josh, 
xviii. 28. It was situated on the declivity of 
Mt. Jearim, near the common borders of Judah, 
Dan, and Benjamin, close upon the Philistine 
territory, and is now called Kariyat el Enab. 
It was one of the four confederate cities of 
the Gibeonites, who, under false pretences, 
made the league with Joshua, and whose cause 
he afterwards defended, Josh. ix. 17. On 
the conquest of the country by the Israelites, it 
was assigned to the tribe of Judah, Josh. xv. 60. ; 
Judg. xviii. 12.; and, likewise, to the tribe of 
Benjamin, Josh, xviii. 28. ; being in fact on the 



common limits of both, Josh. xv. 9., xviii. 14. 
It would seem to have been a double city, the 
more ancient part called Kirjath-Baal, belonging 
perhaps to the former tribe. Behind3,this city 
the 600 Danites encamped at Mahaneh-dan, 
when setting out in quest of their new settle- 
ment, Judg, xviii. 12. It was to Kirjath- 
jearim that the ark of God was brought from 
Bethshemesh after the Philistines had sent_ it 
back to Israel. It was put into the house of 
Abinadab in the hill, whose son Eleazer was 
sanctified to keep it, 1 Sam. vi. 21., vii. 1, 2., 
where it remained about ninety-eight years, 
until soon after the conquest of Zion, David and 
all the chosen men of Israel went to bring it up 
thither where David had pitched a Tabernacle 
for it, 2 Sam. vi. 2. 12. 16, 17. ; 1 Chron. xiii. 5, 
6., XV. 1.; 2 Chron. i. 4. It was upon this 
occasion, that the law about the carriage of the 
ark being broken, by placing it upon a new 
cart instead of the Kohathites bearing it on 
their shoulders, Uzzah was smitten for touching 
it when it shook. It was then carried aside into 
the house of Obed-Edom, where it remained six 
months, until David came in due form, and 
fetched it to the city of David. Urijah the 
prophet, who foretold the destruction of Jeru- 
salem, was descended from this city, Jer. xxvi. 
20. It was restored and re-inhabited after the 
return from the Babylonian captivity, Ezra ii, 
25. (where it is called Kirjath-arim) ; Neh. vii. 
29. In the apocryphal book of 1 Esd. v. 19., it 
is written Kiriathiarius. 

KIRJATH-SANNAH (i.e. the City of the 
Law), Josh. XV. 49., another name for Debir; 
as was also 

KIRJATH-SEPHER (i,e, the City of Writivg), 
Josh. XV. 15, 16. ; Judg, i. 11, 12. See Debir, 

KISHION, a city of the tribe of Issachar, 
Josh. xix. 20., which was eventually given 
for a possession to the Levites of the family 
of Gershom, Josh. xxi. 28., where it is written 
Kishon, In the parallel passage of 1 Chron, vi. 
72., it is called Kedesh, 

KISHON or KISON, THE RIVER, a 
small river towards the N. of Canaan, which 
in a general way may be said to have formed 
the S. limit of Galilee, as also the border 
between the two tribes of Issachar and Ma- 
nasseh on this side Jordan^ It rises from two 
sources : one in the Lesser Hermon, the other in 
Mt. Tabor ; and after a winding course of about 
40 miles through the magnificent Plain of 
Jezreel and under Mt. Carmel, it enters the 
Q 3 



230 



KiTHLISI-L 



KOHATHITES, THE. 



Mediterranean Sea at the Bay of Acre. It 
is now called Blakattah, and though at times, 
in the heat of summer, an unimportant brook, 
3^et when svv^ollen by the melting of the snow 
from the neighbouring hills or by torrents, 
it becomes an impetuous stream which carries 
all before it. Such was the case, probably, 
when, after the decisive battle fought on its 
banks between the Israelites imder Deborah 
and Barak, and the Canaanites under Sisera, 
this " ancient river," swept away so many of 
the latter, Judg. iv. 7. 13., v. 21. ; Ps. Ixxxiii. 
9. Here also, after his controversy with the 
prophets of Baal at Mt. Carmel, Elijah brought 
them down, and put them to death, 1 Kgs. xviii. 
40. 

KITHLISH, a city of the tribe of Judah in 
the Valley, Josh. xv. 40. 

KITROJsT, a city of the tribe of Zebulun, from 
which they did not drive out the Canaanites 
who dwelt there, Judg. i. 30. It is supposed 
to have been the same with Kattath, J osh. xix. 
15., and Kartah, xxi. 34. 

KITTIM, Gen. x. 4. ; 1 Chron. i. 7. See Chit- 

TIM. 

KOA, a people whom God, by the prophet 
Ezekiel, xxiii. 23., threatens to bring against 
the idolatrous kingdom of Judah. They are 
conjectured to have dwelt somewhere in Media, 
or towards the S.W. shores of the Caspian Sea. 

KOHATHITES, THE, so named after Kohath, 
the second son of Levi, Gen. xlvi. 11. ; Ex. 
vi. 18. ; Num. iii. 17. ; 1 Chron. vi. 1. 16. 22. ; 
termed also the sons or children of Kohath. 
They must be distinguished from the priests, 
the sons of Aaron, who were likewise descended 
from Kohath, and are hence sometimes called 
Kohathites, Josh. xxi. 4, 5. 10. 20. 26. ; 1 Chron. 
vi. 2, 3. 54. 61. 66. They formed one of the three 
great divisions of the Levites, all of whom were | 
appointed to assist the priests in the service 
of the Tabernacle in place of the first-born, j 
Xum. iii. 9 — 12. 45 — 51. When the Kohathites 
were numbered by Moses, soon after the Exodus, 
they amounted to 8600 males from a month 
old and upwards, Num. iii. 17. 27. 30. : but out 
of these, the number of men who were appointed 
to do the work of the Tabernacle, was only 2750, j 
Num. iv. 2. 34. 37. They appear to have | 
somewhat increased, when thirty-eight years 
afterwards they were again numbered by Moses 
in the Plains of Moab, Num. xxvi. 57, 58. ; 
and to have nearly doubled in the time of 
David, 1 Chron. xxiii. 3. 6. 12. : though in 
in both the latter cases, only the sum of all the 



Levites together is given. They were to enter 
fully upon their office when thirty years old, 
and to continue in it until fifty; though it 
would appear that some of their duties, either 
in their service of ministry or of burdens, com- 
menced when they were twenty-five years, 
and in the days of David when they were 
twenty years old, Num. iv. 3. 23. 30. 47., viii. 
24, 25. ; 1 Chron. xxiii. 3. 24. 27. Their charge 
was not only to perform the service, and to 
do the work in the Tabernacle, but also, after 
the priests, the sons of Aaron, had taken it 
down, to bear the Sanctuary and all that ap- 
pertained to it, as well as all the instruments 
of ministry wherewith the priests ministered, 
during all the journeyings of the Israelites, Num. 
iii. 28. 31, 32., iv. 2. 4—15. 18—20.; 1 Chron. 
\i. 33. All these they were to bear on their 
shoulders, and not in wagons, vii. 9. \ whence the 
disobedience to this command led to the ca- 
lamity that befell Uzzah, 2 Sam. vi. 3. 7. 13. ; 
1 Chron. xv. 2. 5. Being the chief of the 
Levites, to whom the most holy things were 
entrusted, Eleazar, the son of Aaron (himself 
a Kohathite, as were all the priests), had the 
oversight of them, Num. iii. 32. When marching, 
they followed the standard of the camp of 
Reuben (which included the tribes of Reuben, 
Simeon, and Gad), immediately before the 
standard of the camp of Ephraim (including 
Ephraim, Manasseh, and Benjamin), Num. ii. 
17., X. 21. Hence David prays that God would 
stir up His strength before these last three tribes, 
which the ark, altars, table, candlestick, &c. 
immediately preceded, Ps. Ixxx. 2. When en- 
camped, they pitched on the S. side of the 
Tabernacle, southward, Num. iii. 29. 

After the division of the Land of Promise 
by Moses and Joshua, the Kohathites had ten 
cities, with their suburbs, assigned to them for 
their inheritance, out of the forty- eight cities 
which were set apart for the priests and Levites, 
in place of a separate lot in Israel ; viz. out of 
the tribe of 



Ephraim. 
Shechem 

(a City of Refuge). 
Gezei'. 
Kibzaim, 

or Jokmeam. 
Beth-horon. 



Dan. 

Eltekeh. 

Gibbethon. 
Aijalon. 

Gath-rimmon. 



Manasseh on This side 
Jordan. 
Tanach. 
Gath-rimmon. 



KORAHITES. 



LACEDEMONIANS. 231 



Josh. xxi. 5. 20. 26. ; 1 Chrou. vi. 61. 66. 70. 

Some of them were appointed by David over 
the service of song ia the house of the Lord, 
after the ark had rest, 1 Chron. vi. 31. 33. ; a 
service which they continued in the days of 
Jehoshaphat, 2 Chron. xx. 19. They are like- 
wise mentioned in 2 Chron. xxix. 12., as having, 
with the rest of the Levites, assisted Hezekiah 
to cleanse the house of God, and restore the 
true worship ; a good work in which they also 
engaged in the time of Josiah, 2 Chron. xxxiv. 
12. Some of them returned from Babylon with 
Zerubbabel at the end of the seventy years' 
captivity, and were appointed over their old 
duties, 1 Chron. ix. 32, 

KORAHITES, otherwise Korathites, or 
KoRHiTES, called also the Sons of Korah, from 
whom they were descended, Ex. vi. 18. 21. 24. ; 
Xum. xxvi. 58. ; 1 Chron. vi. 22. ; they were a 
branch of the great family of the Kohathites. 
When their father and his confederates perished 



on the occasion of their rebellion against Moses 
and Aaron, Num. xvi., the three sons of Korah 
were preserved, Num. xxvi. 11. They joined 
the side of David when he kept himself close 
at Ziklag to avoid the persecution of Saul ; and 
at a later period, some, if not all of them, were 
appointed by David singers and porters in the 
house of the Lord, 1 Chron. vi. 33., xii. 6., xxvi. 
1., which office they maintained in the days of 
Jehoshaphat, 2 Chron. xx. 19., and even after 
the return from the Babylonian captivity, 1 
Chron. ix. 19. 31. Eleven of the Psalms, xlii., 
xliv. — xlix., Ixxxiv., Ixxxv., Ixxxvii., Ixxxviii,, 
are inscribed " for the sons of Korah ; " and are 
conjectured to have been especially appointed 
for their company of the singers ; though others 
have attributed to them their composition. 

KOZ, CHILDREN OE, a family of the 
priests, who returned home with Zerubbabel 
after the Babylonian captivity, Ezra ii. 1. ; Neh. 
vii. 63. 



LABAN, a locality or station of the Israelites, 
in the Great Wilderness of Shur, where Moses 
delivered to them some of the statutes and laws 
by which they were to be governed, Deut. i. 1. 
It is perhaps the same place as Libnah, Num. 
xxxiii. 20, 21., which was their second station 
after turning southward from Rithmah near Ka- 
desh-bamea. 

LACED^MONIAJ^S, a people in the S. of 
Greece, with whom, according to the apocryphal 
books, the Jews were often mixed up in the 
Maccabaean wars. They are stated to have 
entered into treaties with the Jews, 1 Mace, 
xii. 2. 5, 6. 20, 21., xiv. 16. 20. 23. ; and to have 
been written to by the Romans in behalf of the 
Jews, XV. 23. Jason endeavoured to take re- 
fuge amongst them when he had been driven 
out of Jerusalem after his wicked and perfidious 
massacre of his countrymen, 2 Mace. v. 9. 
According to the statements in 1 Mace. xii. 6, 
7. 21., the Lacedtemonians and Jews were 
brethren, both being descended from the stock 
of Abraham, a tradition which is repeated by 
the Je^vish historian Josephus. It seems im- 
possible to say whence this kindred arose, i. e. 
if it really did exist : unless, as Grotius supposes, 
the Lacedaemonians were derived from the Dores, 
who came from the Pelasgi. These last are 
called " Barbarians " by Herodotus, and possibly 
may have sprung from the Syrians and Arabians, 



and so have been thus far the posterity of Abra- 
ham by Hagar or Keturah. Yet all this is very 
problematical. 

The Lacedaemonians inhabited the S.E. portion 
of the Peloponnesus, which was a rugged and 
mountainous country, naturally barren and dif- 
ficult of culture. They rendered themselves 
illustrious by their courage, their love of li- 
berty, and by their aversion to sloth and lux- 
ury. They were inured from their youth to 
labour, hardship, and war ; and were forbidden 
by their laws to exercise any mechanical arts or 
trades, which, together with the labours of agri- 
culture, devolved on the slaves, called Helots. 
Owing to this austere education, and their am- 
bition of military glory, backed by their being 
regardless of humanity and justice, they obtained 
great influence over the afiairs of Greece for 500 
years. At length, they attacked their great rivals 
the Athenians, and thu.s commenced the famous 
Peloponnesian War of twenty-seven years, which 
ended in the fatal battle of iEgos Potamos, b. c. 
405, when the latter people were beaten and re- 
duced for a time to subjection. The Lacedae- 
monians thus acquired for a time the undisputed 
ascendency over the rest of Greece ; but becom- 
ing corrupted by wealth and prosperity, their 
empire soon began to decline. Athens freed 
itself from its galling yoke of the Thirty Tyrants ; 
the Laced£emonians were compelled to give way to 
the rising greatness of Thebes, and subsequently 
Q 4 



232 



LACHISH. 



LAODICEA, 



to the ambitious designs of Philip of Macedon. 
At a still later period, they were defeated by the 
Achasans, and compelled to join their league ; but 
when eventually the Romans became masters of 
the whole country, they granted the Lacedgemo- 
Bians greater privileges than any of the other 
Greek provinces. Their chief city was Sparta or 
Lacedoemon, now in ruins near the modern 
Mistra ; it lay on the right bank of the R. Euro- 
tas, still called Eure. 

LACHISH, an ancient royal city!bf tbe Amor- 
ites in Canaan, whose king was instigated by 
Adoni-zedec, king of Jerusalem, to join the 
league of the Five Cities against Gribeon, because 
it had made peace with Joshua; this brought 
on the destruction of the city, as well as of the 
king and people, notwithstanding the succour 
which the king of Gezer vainly endeavoured to 
give them, Josh. x. 3. 5. 23. 31, 32, 33, 34, 35., 
xii. 11. On the subsequent division of the ter- 
ritory by Joshua, it fell within the limits of the 
tribe of Judah, and is numbered among their 
cities which lay in the Valley, Josh. xv. 39. It 
was on the Philistine frontier, which perhaps 
may have induced Rehoboam to fortify it, when 
he was endeavouring to strengthen the kingdom 
of Judah, 1 Chron. xi. 9. It was hither that 
after he had turned aside from following the 
Lord, Amaziah, king of Judah, fled from those 
who had conspired against him, but they pur- 
sued and killed him'here, 2Kgs.xiv. 19. : 2 Chron. 
XXV. 27. ; and it is not unlikely that the idolatry 
which the prophet Micah, i. 13., charges Lachish 
with introducing into Judah, and which it may 
have learned through constant intercourse with 
Israel (being on the borders of this kingdom), 
may have already begun to corrupt the people. 
For thus being " the beginning of sin to Judah," 
IMicah threatens Lachish with invasion, a pro- 
phecy which was brought to pass when Senna- 
cherib attacked and took it, together with all the 
other fenced cities of Judah ; and it was while 
encamped here, that Hezekiah sent him a mes- 
sage of submission, with the promise of such 
tribute as Sennacherib should put on him, to 
divert him from coming against Jerusalem, 2 
Kgs. xviii 13, 14. Hezekiah paid this appointed 
tribute (300 talents of silver and 30 talents of 
gold, i. e. about £270,000), which he was enabled 
to do by stripping the Temple of some of its 
riches ; and Sennacherib, or Sargon, as he is 
called in Isa. xx. 1., appears to have proceeded 
in his campaign against Egypt. But within 
three years he came again to Lachish, of wMch 
he appears to have once more possessed himself; 



and thence sent his ambassadors v»'ith a great 
host, as well asa tbveateniag letter, to Hezekiah,, 
demanding his instant submission and that of all 
J udah, 2 Kgs. xviii, 17.^ xix. 8. ; 2 Chron. xxxii, 
9. ; Isa. xxxvi. 2., xxxvii. 8. But his menaces 
were defeated, for the angel of the Lord went out 
by night and smote 185,000 in the Assyrian camp ; 
and Sennacherib himself returning home, was 
assassinated in his idol's temple by his own sons. 
Lachish was afterwards besieged by Nebuchad- 
nezzar, who appears tO' have destroyed it; though 
its great strength had enabled it to resist the 
attacks made so generally upon all the fenced 
cities of Judah, that it was one of the very few 
that were left, Jer. xxxiv. 7. It was, however^ 
restored and reinhabited by the children of 
J udah after the seventy years' captivity, Neh, 
xi. 30. Eusebius places Lachish 7 miles S. of 
Eleutheropolis, in the district of Daromas. 

LAHAI-ROI, Gen. xxiv. 62., xxv. 11. Se€ 
Beer-lahai-koi. 

LAHMAM, a city of the tribe of Judah, in 
the Valley, Josh. xv. 40. 

LAISH, Judg. xviii, 7. 14. 27. 29. ; Isa. x. 30. 

See Dan. 

LAKE, THE, i.e. of Gennesaret, Lu. v. 2., 
viii. 22, 23. 33. ; which see. 

LAKUM, a city of the tribe of Naphtali, oc 
the frontier towards Jordan, Josh. xix. 33. 

LAODICEA, a city of Asia Minor, towards 
the S.W. part of the Peninsula. A Christian 
church was early formed here, in connection 
probably with those at Colosse and Hierapolis, 
which were adjacent to it. But it is very 
doubtful whether St. Paul ever visited it, though 
he was anxiously solicitous about the Christians 
there; commending the zeal of Epaphras for 
them, who appears to have belonged to the 
neighbouring city of Colosse, Col. ii. 1., iv. 13. 
15. Likewise, he desired the Colossians to send 
his Epistle to them to the Laodiceans, and that 
they would read the Epistle from Laodicea, Col. 
iv. 16. By the latter expression, it is generally 
conjectured that the Epistle to the Ephesians is 
signified, though others think that it was a 
special epistle addressed to the Laodiceans, 
which has not come down to us. The epistle 
which is pretended to be that of St. Paul to the 
Laodiceans, is a miserable forgery, prcbably 
imitated from, though not identical with, an 
older imposture with the same title. Laodicea 
was the seat of one of the Seven Churches of 
Asia, addressed by St. John in his Revelation, 
i. 11., iii. 14., and seems to have quickly fallen 



LASEA. 



LATIi^. 



233 



into a lukewarm state so offensive to tlie Divine 
Redeemer, that He threatened to spue them out 
of His mouth. The spiritual pride, also, with 
which He charged them, was in accordance with 
the character of the people in general, who 
were puffed up with high notions of their own 
wealth, grandeur, and refinement of every kind, 
and who certainly looked out upon one of the 
most magnificent and gay cities in Asia Minor. 
It has now, hoAvever, long been nothing but a 
heap of ruins, which though beautiful even in 
their decay, give a lasting testimony to the truth 
of the Volume of Inspiration. 

Laodicea stood on the banks of the small R. 
Lycus, now called Diocbunar, near its con- 
fluence with the Maeander, now the Mender e. 
It was near the W. extremity of the great 
province of Phrygia, though it is sometimes 
reckoned to Lydia and Caria, from its being 
close upon their borders. It was formerly called 
Diospolis and Rhoas, but was named Laodicea 
by Antiochus II.. in honour of his consort 
Laodice. It is sometimes also distinguished 
from other cities of the same name, of which there 
are many in the ancient world, by the epithet 
Laodicea ad Lycum. It was a large and wealthy 
place, celebrated for its extensive commerce, 
and for the fine soft wool of its sheep ; its theatres, 
palaces, temples, and other public buildings, were 
very splendid. Soon after St. Paul's message to 
them, Laodicea (together with its neighbour 
cities Colosse and Hierapolis) suffered from a 
terrible earthquake, far worse than the many it 
had already experienced ; but it arose from this 
desolation through its own great resources, and 
the industry and ingenuity of its inhabitants, 
backed by the munificence of the Roman em- 
perors. It is now called Eskihissar, and is a 
mere resort of wolves, jackals, and other wild 
beasts ; not a Christian inhabits it, and the only 
prayers which are there heard, are those which 
rise from a Mahometan mosque in the neigh- 
bourhood. So utterly has the candlestick been 
removed, and the vial of rejection been poured 
forth upon it. 

LASEA, a city on the S. coast of the island 
of Crete, or Candia, as we now call it, near the 
Fair Havens, where St. Paul and his com- 
panions, when on their way to Rome, passed a 
few days. Acts xxvii. 8. It was no doubt an 
inland town of this hundred-citied isle, of which 
the Fair Havens, which still retains its name, 
was the port; and it was probably the same 
place with Lisia or Lasos, mentioned by the 
profane authors as being in this neighbourhood. 



LASH A, one of the N.E. bounds of the land 
of Canaan, Gen. x. 19. See Dan. 

LASHAROX, an ancient royal city of the 
Canaanites, whose king was one of the thirty- 
one monarchs vanquished by Joshua, Josh. xii. 
18. It was in the W. part of the country, near 
the coast of the Mediterranean, and is better * 
known by the name of Sharon ; which see. 

LATIN, the name of the people from whom 
the ancient Romans affected to be descended ; 
derived, as was said, from their progenitor, the 
chief Latinus, or from the country of Latium, 
the earliest seat of the race. The Latin language 
was at the time of our Blessed Redeemer's 
crucifixion more widely understood than any 
other, the Greek alone excepted; and was the 
common language employed in all great official 
matters, Avherever the Romans were masters of 
a country. It was a common practice Avith them 
to set up their public notices in different lan- 
guages, of which their own, and also that of the 
people whom such notice concerned, were usually 
two. Hence Pilate's inscription over the cross 
of Christ was written in Hebrew, Greek, and 
Latin (or rather Roman, according to the 
original), Lu. xxiii. 38. ; Jo. xix. 20. ; and would 
be, in fact, to publish to all in Judjea, more 
extensively than in any other tongues, that 
Jesus the Nazarene was the King of Israel, the 
expected Messiah. No wonder, therefore, at the 
offence it gave to the Jewish rulers in thus 
publicly convicting them of crucifying their 
Messiah, and so fulfilling prophecy, Acts iii, 18. ; 
or that Pilate, purposing probably a reflection 
on them, and a vindication of his own sense of 
our Lord's innocence. Matt, xxvii. 24., persisted 
in keeping it there. 

It is this same Avord Latin, or Lateinos, as it 
is in the Greek language (wherein the Reve- 
lation of St. John has come down to us), that is 
thought to make up the mystical " number of 
the beast," which is also "the number of a 
man ; " and is declared by the Apostle to be 
666, Rev. xiii. 18. Irenasus, in the second century 
of the Christian era, seems to have been the first 
to observe it; and Protestants have long in- 
terpreted this number of the apostate church of 
Rome, which is the Latin church, planted in the 
Latin soil and in the Latin metropolis, with a 
Latin Pope, a Latin Bible, a Latin service, Latin 
creeds, and Latin decretals. It is remarkable, 
also, that the word Romiith, Avhich is the Hebrew 
version of the same name, is likeAvise the number 
666, when rendered into numerals; and it is not 
believed, that any Avord can be found having 



23i LEBANAH, CHILDREISr OF. 



LEBAXOK 



the same import in two languages, whicli will 
make up that number of a man, which is the 
number of the apocalyptic beast. The numbers 
are as follows: Lateinos=L. 30, a. 1, t. 300, e. 
5, i. 10, n. 50, 0, 70, s. 200=666: Komiith= 
E. 200, 0. 6, m. 40, i. 10, i. 10, th. 400 = 666. 

• LEBANAH, THE CHILDREN OF, a family 
of the Nethinims, who returned home with Ze- 
rubbabel after the seventy years' captivity 
in Babylon, Ezra ii. 45. ; Neh. vii. 48. 

LEBANOiST, otherwise Libanus, part of the 
extensive chain of mountains which in various 
ways, and under many names, traverses the 
whole of Syria and Palestine, from the connect- 
ing ranges of Mt. Taurus in Asia Minor on the 
N., to Mt. Seir and Mt. Sinai in Arabia on 
the S. But the name of Lebanon is more or less 
confined to that portion of this vast ridge im- 
mediately touching Palestine on the N. and 
Phcenice on the E. This ridge is composed 
of two nearly parallel chains, which separate 
from the main range on the N., about the source 
of the R. Orontes; the Lebanon properly so 
called terminating abruptly on the Mediterra- 
nean coast, between the cities of Tyre and Sidon. 
The other and more easterly chain, called Anti- 
Libanus by the profane authors, divides itself at 
the source of the Jordan, running southw^ard on 
each side of this river into Arabia. The Anti-Li • 
banus is not mentioned by this name in the Bible, 
but apparently by that of Mt. Hor, Num. xxxiv. 
7, 8., as also by that of Hermon, which is one 
of its loftiest portions, and that wherein are the 
springs of the Jordan. See Hermox. There is 
a large valley between the Lebanon and Anti- 
Lebanon, which is now designated El-Bakaa; 
the profane authors call it Au.lon or the Great 
Plain, and reckon it as the chief portion of their 
district of Coele-Syria. This valley is called the 
Valley of Lebanon by Joshua, xi. 17., xii. 7., 
who describes it as lying within the city of Baal- 
gad, to the K of Canaan. 

Mt. Lebanon is often spoken of as one of the 
N. boiands of the land of Israel, Deut. i. 7., xi. 
24. ; Josh. i. 4., ix. 1., xi. 17 , xii. 7., xiii. 6. ; 2 
Esd. XV. 20., but a considerable portion of it (" all 
Lebanon," Josh. xiii. 5.), actually lay within 
the limits of the Promised Land; though the 
Hivites who inhabited it, had not been driven 
out in the time of Joshua' and the judges, Josh, 
xiii. 5.; Judg. iii. 3.; nor do the Israelites 
appear to have had full possession of it even in 
the days of Solomon, as maybe inferred from the 
latter's making a treaty with the king of Tyre 
about cutting cedar and fir there, to build 



the Temple and his palace at Jerusalem, 1 Kgs. 
V. 2—11. ; 2 Chron. ii. 3-16. Cf. Ezek. xxvii. 
5. Hence the name seems to have been applied 
to the adjacent region, if not to the whole N. 
portion of the land of Israel, Zech. x. 10.; 
Judith i. 7. 

Mt. Lebanon is one of the loftiest ranges in 
W. Asia, some of its summits being about 
10,000 feet high, and always covered with snow. 
It would seem to have been occasionally visited 
with severe tempests, Ps. xxix. 5, 6. ; Isa. ii. 13. 
There are several important rivers which rise 
from it, as the Jordan, the Leontes (noM^ Litany'), 
and the Orontes (now Aaszy), which running 
in opposite directions, completely traverse the 
whole of Syria and Palestme. There are also 
many smaller, but yet Avell-known rivers, which, 
with a short yet often impetuous course, run 
down from it into the Mediterranean Sea. All 
these rivers are much swollen by the melting of 
the snow in the mountain ; and hence in the dry 
and hot seasons the " streams from Lebanon " 
aflforded deliciously cool water, such as they who 
could taste them were not likely to forsake for 
other streams. So. of Sol. iv. 15. ; Jer. xviii. 14. 

It is also one of the most magnificent moun- 
tains in the world, and must have been still 
more so when clothed in all that beauty for 
which it is so much celebrated in Holy Writ 
and by the profane authors. No wonder, then, 
that Moses, who probably beheld its summits 
from Bashan, and had heard much of its gran- 
deur, earnestly desired of God that he might be 
permitted to go over Jordan and see it, Deut. iii. 
25. It was especially famed for its noble cedar- 
trees, the number and excellence of which are so 
often spoken of in the Bible, Judg. ix. 15. ; 1 
Kgs. iv. 33., V. 6. 9, 10. ; 2 Kgs. xiv. 9., xix. 
23.; 2 Chron. ii. 3., xxv. 18.; Ps. xxix. 5., 
xcii. 12,, civ. 16. ; So. of Sol, v. 15.; Isa. ii. 13., 
xiv. 8., xxxvii. 24., xl. 16. ; Jer. xxii. 23. ; Ezek. 
xvii. 3,, xxvii. 5., xxxi. 3. {cf. Ecclus. xxiv. 
13., 1. 12.) ; and also for its fir and algum (or al- 
mug) trees, its pine and box, 1 Kgs. v. 8. 10. ; 2 
Kgs. xix. 23. ; 2 Chron. ii. 8. ; Isa. xiv. 8., Ix. 
13. : Ezek. xxxi. 15, 16. The first of these, and 
most likely the rest, were sent for by Solomon 
when he built the Temple and some of those 
other splendid edifices which he erected in Je- 
rusalem. For this purpose he had 30,000 men, 
whom he sent to Lebanon, 10,000 a month by 
courses, whilst the servants of Hiram, king 
of Tyre, assisted in the work, and brought down 
the timber from Lebanon to the sea, and thence 
in floats to Joppa, 1 Kgs. v. 2 — 14. ; .2 Chron. ii. 
3 — 16. So much of these valuable woods was em- 



LEBAXOX. 



LEBONAH. 



235 



ployed ia the constructiou of the Temple, that in 
one of the prophecies of its destruction it is called 
Lebanon, Zech. xi. 1, ; and another of Solomon's 
buildings ^-as so richly adorned with them, that 
it Avas styled the House of the Forest of Lebanon, 
1 Kgs. vii. 2., X. 17. 21. ; 2 Chron. ix. 16. 20. 
The chariot of the wood of Lebanon, which Solo- 
mon made himself, is also spoken of, So. of Sol. iii. 
9. It is probably these vast forests that are de- 
signated in Scripture as the glory of Lebanon, 
Isa. XXXV. 2., Ix. 13., the head of Lebanon, 
Jer. xxii. 6., and the flower of Lebanon, Nahum 
i. 4. ; and are represented as waving and shaking 
over the whole mountain, Ps. Ixxii. 16. But the 
middle and lower parts of it were cultivated 
with vines, the wine from which was much va- 
lued, Hos. xiv. 7. ; and also with fruits and 
grain of many kinds, Ps. Ixxii. 16. ; Isa. xxix. 
17. ; as well as pastured by flocks and folds, Isa. 
xl. 16. All these manifold productions gave out 
a delightful fragrance, which was carried to some 
distance by the wind, and is mentioned as the smell 
of Lebanon, So. of Sol. iv. 11. ; Hos. xiv. 6, 7. ; 
and owing to them anything great and majestic 
in the political or religious world is compared 
to Lebanon, Isa. ii. 13., x. 34., xiv. 8. ; Jer. xxii. 
23. ; Ezek. xvii. 3., xxxi. 3. 15. ; whence, 
probably, the insulting threat of Sennacherib, 2 
Kgs. xix. 23. ; Isa. xxxvii. 24. 

Solomon appears to have built much in Leba- 
non, 2 Chron. viii. 6. ; perhaps a palace, to retreat 
from the oppressive heat of summer, So. of Sol. 
iv. 8., and that Tower of Lebanon which looketh 
towards Damascus, So. of Sol. vii, 4. : and it is not 
imlikely that some stronghold or idolatrous high 
place was set up here by the later kings of Israel 
or Judah, Jer. xxii. 20. Some parts of Lebanon 
seem to have been haunted by beasts and birds of 
prey, 2 Kgs. xiv. 9. ; 2 Chron. xxv. 18. ; So. of 
Sol. iv. 8. ; Ezek. xvii. 3. ; Hab. ii. 17. ; which 
came down occasionally and committed havoc 
in the lowlands, and skulked in the thickets of 
Jordan, especially after the removal of the 
Ten Tribes, 2 Kgs. xvii. 25. Much of the 
beauty and gloiy of Lebanon began then, as it 
Avould appear, to fade away, as had been foretold 
of it by the prophet Isaiah, ii, 13., x. 34., xxxiii. 
9. ; but when the second Temple was built, the 
Jews obtained cedar from Lebanon for it, as So- 
lomon had done 480 years before, by a grant of 
Cyrus, king of Persia, Ezra iiio 7. ; 1 Esd. iv. 48., 
V. 55. There are now, however, only a very few 
of these noble cedars left, yet enough to show 
what they must have been when in all their 
beauty ; some of them measuring 36 feet round 
the trunk, more than 100 between the extreme 



points of the opposite branches, while a little above 
the ground they send out five limbs each mea- 
suring 12 or 15 feet in circumference. Cf. Hos. 
xiv. 5. But though it has been verified that Lebanon 
should be ashamed and hewn domi, and that the 
trees of the forest should be few, that a child 
may write them, Isa. x. 19., xxxiii. 9. ; yet it is 
also foretold, that in the coming days of Israel's 
glory Lebanon shall have its share and contri- 
bute its wealth, Isa. xxix. 17., xxxv. 2., xli. 19. ^ 
Ix. 13. ; Hos. xiv. 5, 6, 7. ; Zech. x. 10. 

LEBANON, HOUSE OF THE FOEEST OF, 
a splendid edifice in Jerusalem, erected by 
Solomon, and so named, probably, from the 
quantity of cedar and other precious wood 
from Lebanon wherewith it was built. It was 
100 cubits long, 50 broad, and 30 high, upon four 
rows of cedar pillars upon cedar beams ; it was 
covered with cedar above upon the beams that 
lay upon forty-five pillars, fifteen in a row, and 
there were three rows of square windows oppo- 
site one another, 1 Kgs. vii. 2., x. 17. 21. ; 2 
Chron. ix. 16. 20. It seems also to have had a 
porch of pillars of the same width as the house 
and thirty cubits deep. Here Solomon laid up the 
200 targets of beaten gold and the 300 shields 
of beaten gold as well as many other golden 
vessels for the use of the house, and here they 
seem to have remained until the invasion of 
Jerusalem by Shishak, king of Egypt, who 
took them away, 2 Kgs. xiv. 26. ; 2 Chron. xii. 

9. It is not at all known for what purpose 
this magnificent building was erected, but as 
Rehoboam replaced the shields with brazen 
ones, which were committed to the hands of the 
chief of the guard, and as the guard bare them 
before the king when he went into the Temple, 
and then brought them back into the " guard- 
chamber," 2 Kgs. xiv. 27, 28. ; 2 Chron. xii. 

10, 11. ; it has been conjectured that the House 
of the Forest of Lebanon was connected in some 
way with the Temple as a place of defence, or 
robing and procession for the king, and it has 
hence been identified by some with "the Ar- 
moury," described by NehemJah, iii. 19., as hav- 
ing been at the Turning of the Wall in Jerusalem. 

LEBANON, VALLEY OF, Josh. xi. 17., xii. 
7. See Lebanon. 

LEBAOTH, a city assigned originally to the 
tribe of Judah, Josh. xv. 32., but afterwards 
given to that of Simeon, Josh. xix. 6., in which 
last passage it is called Beth-lebaoth. 

LEBONAH, a place in the mheritance of the 
tribe of Ephraim, near Shiloh, on the E. side 
of the road between Bethel and Shechem. It 



236 



LEHABTM. 



LEVITES 



was near it that the annual festival took place 
upon one celebration of which (by the conni- 
vance and advice of the elders of the congrega- 
tion) the remnant of Benjamites who had 
escaped the national vengeance upon their tribe 
stole away the virgins that danced there, and 
made them their wives, Judg. xxi. 19, There 
is still a place now called Lebban or Lemna, 
about 10 miles S. of the ruins of Shechem, which 
modern travellers identify with Lebonah. 

LEHABIM, a people descended from the 
third son of Mizraim, the son of Ham, Gen. 
X. 13. ; 1 Chron. i. 11. They are thought to 
have settled in N. Africa, immediately to the 
\V. of Egypt, and to have given their name 
to the country commonly termed Libya by the 
profane authors, and hence transferred by the 
Greeks to the whole continent of Africa. The 
Lehabim are also called Lubim in 2 Chron. xii. 
8., xvi, 8., where they are mentioned together 
with the Sukkiims and Ethiopians, as a warlike 
race, famous for chariots and horses, and 
as having assisted Shishak, king of Egypt, in 
his invasion of Jerusalem in the- j;ime of Reho- 
boam ; and again in Nahum, iii. 9., Avhere they 
are described as the allies of No (i.e. Thebes on 
the R. iSIile), in union with Egypt, Ethiopia, 
and Phut. From all which it would appear 
that they were located between Egypt and the 
Great Syrtis; the country immediately to the 
W. of them being inhabited by their brethren the 
Ludim, Gen. x. 13., and that which lay still fur- 
ther W, by Phut, Gen. x. 6. The prophet Jere- 
miah, xlvi. 9., mentions the Lybians in his 
predictions of the overthrow of Egypt, as likewise 
does Ezekiel, xxx. 5., xxxviii, 5., though both 
of them seem to refer to Phut, which is the name 
in the original Hebrew. Daniel also mentions 
the Libyans, when foretelling the invasion and 
tyranny of the Romans, as in some way at the 
steps of the king of the North, Dan. xi. 43. They 
are called Lud by the apocryphal author of the 
book of Judith, ii. 23., who enumerates them 
among the people destroyed by Holofernes. The 
Roman province of Libya, which extended from 
Egypt to the Great Syrtis, and included the 
Pentapolis of Gyrene, is spoken of in Acts ii. 10., 
in the account of the gift of tongues on the 
great Day of Pentecost. 

LEHI (i.e. Jaw-bone), the name of a place in 
the territory of the tribe of Judah, whither the 
Philistines came to take vengeance upon the 
Israelites and to bind Samson for his having 
slain so many of them when they had burnt to 
death his wife with her parents. Upon his 



being bound by 3000 men of Judah, who went 
to the top of the rock Etam to fetch him, he 
suflFered himself to be brought to Lehi, under 
the promise that they themselves would not 
fall on him ; but when he arrived in the Philis- 
tine camp, the Spirit of God came mightily 
upon him ; and he slew 1000 of them with the 
jaw-bone of an ass which he found there. He 
called the place of this encounter Ramath-lehi, 
and the fountain which God miraculously made 
there to quench Samson's thirst, Enhakkore, 
Judg. XV. 9. 14. 17. 19. 

LESHEM, Josh. xix. 47. ^-eeDAN. 

LETUSHIM, a tribe descended from Dedan, 
the son of Jokshan, Abraham's second son by 
Keturah, Gen. xxv. 3. They appear to have 
settled in the N. part of Arabia. 

LEVITES, one of the twelve tribes of Israel, 
so named after Levi (i.e. joined), the third son 
of Jacob by Leah, Gen. xxix. 34. ; Ex. i. 2. ; 
2 Chron. ii. 1. They are likewise continually 
called the children of Levi, the sons of Levi, and 
even Levi alone. Levi had three sons, Gershon 
or Gershom, Kohath, and Merari, Gen. xlvi. 11. ; 
Ex. vi. 16. 25.; Num. iii. 17.; 1 Chron. vi. 1. 
16. 19. ; who became the heads or chiefs of large 
families whilst Israel was in bondage in Egypt. 
In the blessing of his children by Jacob at his 
death, he reminded Levi of his cruel conduct 
towards the Shechemites, Gen. xxxv. 25. 30. ; 
foretelling that his descendants should be scat- 
tered in Israel, xlix. 5. 7., which came eventually 
to pass on the division of the Land of Promise, 
where they were made to dwell in forty-eight 
cities, dispersed over the whole country, instead 
of in one lot, as the other tribes. But this 
turned to the welfare of the whole nation, inas- 
much as they became so many centres of light 
and learning in the land ; and, according to the 
blessing pronounced by Moses upon this tribe, 
Deut. xxxiii. 8—11,, they not only had the 
glory of Urim and Thummim, with the offeiing 
of incense and sacrifices to God, but they taught 
His law and judgments to the people, 2 Chron. 
xvii. 8, 9. Moses belonged to the Kohathites of 
this tribe, Ex. ii. 1. ; Num. xxvi. 59. ; 1 Chron. 
xxiii. 14. ; as did also Aaron, Ex. iv. 14., and 
Miriam, Num. xxvi. 59. 

When they came out of Egypt at the Exodus, 
about 260 years after the birth of Levi, they 
amounted to 22,000 males from a month old and 
upward. Num. iii. 15. 20, 39. ; though out of 
these, there were only 8580 able-bodied men 
appointed to do the work of the Tabernacle, 
Num, iv. 46, 48. When the Levites were again 



LEYITES. 



257 



numbered by Piloses, tliirtr-eight years after- 
-\vards, in the Plains of Moab, they had increased 
to 23,000, Xum. xx^d. 57, 58. 62. ; and in the 
time of David, they amounted to 38,000 above 
thirty years old, 1 Chron. xxiii. 2, 3. The 
whole Hebrew nation was originally a " king- 
dom of priests," Ex. xix. 6., probably by right 
of their first-born ; but soon after the passage of 
the Red Sea, the tribe of Levi was especially set 
apart for the service of God, Xum. i. 47. 49, 50, 
51. 53., ii. 33., 1 Kgs. xii. 31., in place of the 
first-born from all the tribes ; the overplus of the 
latter, in number 273, being redeemed, and the 
money paid into the sanctuaiy, Xum. iii. 12. 41. 
45, 46. 49. And hence the third book of Moses, 
which especially describes the services and sa- 
crifices of the Tabernacle and Temple, is called 
the book of Leviticus after this tribe ; whilst 
the law which they carried out, the dispensation 
under which they acted, and their priesthood, 
are all called Levitical. Cf. Heb. vii. 11., &c. 
The office of the priesthood was conferred by 
God upon Aaron and his descendants, to the ex- 
clusion of all the other tribes of the nation, 
as well as of the rest of the tribe of Levi, 
2s um. iii. 10., xvi. 40., xviii. 7. ; 1 Sam. vi. 19. ; 
2 Chron. xxvi. 18. ; an appointment which the 
confederates of Korah endeavoured to abrogate, 
Xum. xvi. 1. 7, 8. 10. All the priests were 
Levites, but no Levites were priests except the de- 
scendants of Aaron. The duties of the priests were 
especially to minister before God in the matter 
of sacrifices, incense, and prayer ; they waited in 
the Tabernacle, Ex. xxxviii. 21., and had all the 
charge of it and of the holy things ; they reared 
up and took down the sanctuary, and covered 
everj'thing sacred ; they were the chief judges in 
all matters of controversy, and at their mouth the 
people were taught and sought the law, the 
original copy of which was in their keeping. 
Lev. X. 11. ; Deut. x, 8., xvii. 9 — 11., xxi. 5., 
xxiv. 8., xxvii. 9. 14., xxxi. 25, 26., xxxiii. 10. ; 

1 Sam. vi. 15. 19. ; 1 Chron. vi. 49., xv. 2. 27. ; 

2 Chron. v. 4. ; Ezra vii. 10., viii. 7. ; Jer. xviii. 
18. ; Ezek. xliv. 23, 24. ; Hag. ii. 11—13. ; Mai. 
ii. 7. They are not unfrequently included in the 
general designation of Levites, for they really 
belonged to the Kohathites, Xum. iv. 18.; 
Josh. xxi. 10.; though it usually refers to the 
rest of the tribe who were not priests. The 
Kohathites were reckoned the chief of the Le- 
vites, Xum. iii. 32. The Gershonites, Kohath- 
ites, and Merarites, were given to the priests, 
Xum. iii. 6. 9., viii. 19., xviii. 2. 6., xxxi. 30. 
47., 1 Chron. xxiii. 28., to assist them in their 
manifold duties, such as bearing the Tabernacle 



and its burdens, rearing it up and taking it 
down, guarding it at all times, as well as to serve 
in various ways, Xum. i. 51., iv. 2. 15. 23 — 33., 
X. 17. 21., vii. 5, 6., xviii. 2. ; 1 Chron. vi. 48. : 
only they were not to come nigh the vessels of 
the sanctuary and the altar, lest they and the 
priests should die, Xum. iv. 19,''20., xviii. 3, 

The Levites were solemnly separated from their 
brethren, set apart for ever, and ordained for 
the service of God, by Moses and Aaron, together 
with all the people, Xum. viu. 6. 9, 10, 11, 12, 13. 
15. 20, 21, 22. 26. ; and they became the especial 
portion of the Lord from among His nation of 
priests, isum. iii. 45., viii. 14. 16. 18., xvi. 9.; 
Deut. X. 8, 9. When they marched through the 
WilJemess to Canaan, the Gershonites and Me- 
rarites, with the Tabernacle, followed the camp 
of Judah (i.e Judah, Issachar, and Zebulun), 
immediately before the camp of Reuben (Reu- 
ben, Simeon, and Gad) ; between the latter and 
the camp of Ephraim (Ephraim, Manasseh, and 
Benjamin), came the Kohathites with the sanc- 
tuary, Xum. X. 17. 21. These formed the 
Ca>ip of the Levites, in the midst of the 
camp of the whole nation, Xum. ii. 17. When 
encamped, Moses, Aaron and his sons, pitched 
before the Tabernacle, E. ; the Gershonites be- 
hind it, W. ; the Kohathites, S. ; and the Mera- 
rites, X. ; Xum. iii. 23. 29. 35. 38. The Levites 
were originally appointed to enter fully upon 
their ministry when thu'ty years old, and to con- 
tinue in it until fifty ; though it would appear 
that some of their duties, either in their ordinary 
service or their burden-bearing, were at a later 
period to commence when they were twenty-five 
years ; and in the time of David, when they 
were twenty years old, Xum. iv. 3. 23. 30. 47., 
viii. 24, 25. ; 1 Chron. xxiii. 3. 24. 27. ; 2 Chron. 
xxxi. 17. After the division of the Land of 
Promise amongst the Israelites, the Levites re- 
ceived no inheritance like the other tribes (as 
Jacob had foretold), Xum. xviii. 20. 23, 24.; 
Deut. X. 9., xiv. 27. 29., xviii. 1, 2. ; Josh. xiii. 
14. 33., xiv. 3, 4., xviii, 7. ; but they were all 
scattered throughout the countrv' in forty-eight 
cities, -with their suburbs, Avhich lay in the midst 
of their brethren's possessions. But the Lord 
was graciously pleased to say He was their in- 
heritance, and that they should be His especial 
possession. He was also pleased to grant them 
many privileges, which the other tribes had not 
Lev. XXV. 32, 33. ; Deut. xviii. 6, 7, 8. ; and 
though probably poorer than the rest of Israel, 
and cut oft' from many soui'ces of wealth, their 
brethren were solemnly and repeatedly charged 
not to forget them, but to exercise all liberality 



238 



LEVITES. 



towards them, and to -welcome them to their re- 
joicings and feasts, Deut. xii. 12. J 8, 19., xiv. 
27. 29., xvi. 11. 14., xxvi. 11, 12, 13. 

All the tenth in Israel was given for an inhe- 
ritance to the Levites, Lev. xxvii. 30. 32. ; Num. 
xviii. 21. 24. ; 2 Chron. xxxi. 4. ; Neh. x. 37., 
xii. 44., xiii. 11, 12. ; Heb. vii. 5. 8, 9. ; though 
they, in their turn, were also to give the tenth 
of this again to the sons of Aaron, Num. 
xviii. 26. 30.; Neh. x. 38. They also, as 
well as the priests, partook of the offerings and 
sacrifices of the altar, Lev. ii. 3. 10., vi. 
16—18. 26. 29., vii. 6-10. 14, 15., x. 12, 
13.; Num. v. 9, 10., xviii. 8—20.; Deut. x. 
9., xviii. 1. ; Ezek. xliv. 29. ; 1 Cor. ix. 13., x. 
18. The tribe of Levi does not appear to have 
been at any time liable to be called out to war, 
though they occasionally (perhaps always) shared 
in the spoils taken from the enemies of Israel, 
Num. xxxi. 30. 47. From them and from the 
priests, were likewise chosen the judges, magis- 
trates, and municipal officers, Deut. xvii. 9. ; 
1 Chron. xxiii. 4. ; 2 Chron. xix. 8. 11. : they 
had also the charge of the great copy of the 
law, Deut. xvii. 18. On their entrance into the 
Promised Land, the priests, the Levites bearing 
the ark, were the first to enter the K. Jordan, 
upon Avhich its waters Avere immediately cut off, 
and there they remained until all the people had 
passed over, Josh. iii. 3. 15. 17., iv. 11. ; and at 
the siege of Jericho, the first city captured by 
Israel in Canaan, the priests for six days carried 
the ark once round the city, and seven times on 
the seventh day, after which its walls fell down 
flat before them. Josh. vi. 4 — 16. The whole tribe 
of Levi was one of the six tribes appointed to 
stand upon Mt. Gerizim, to bless the people, 
Deut. xxvii. 12. After the division of the 
country amongst the tribes, their forty-eight 
cities were given to the Levites by lot, out of 
the midst of the possessions of their brethren, at 
the commandment of the Lord, Num. xxxv. 2. 
4. 6, 7, 8. ; Josh. xxi. 1. 3, 8. 10. 20. 27. 34. 40, 
41. ; 1 Chron. vi. 54. 64. 66. 71. 77. ; each city 
having fields or suburbs round it for the distance 
of about 1000 cubits. Num. xxxv. 2 — 5., which 
could never be sold. Lev. xxv. 34., though the 
houses might be, until the 3^ear of Jubilee, when 
they ust retui'n to the Levites again. Lev. 
XXV. 32 33. The following were the Leviti- 
CAL Cities, 

Sons of Aaron, Rest of the Kohathites, 

13. cities. 10 cities. 

In Judah. In Ephraim. 

Hebron.* Shechem in Mt. Eph- 

Libnah. raim.* 



Soxs of Aaron. 

Jattir. 

Eshtemoa. 

Holon. 

Debir. 

Juttah. 

Bethshemesh. 
In Simeon. 

Ain. 
In Benjamin, 

Gibeon. 

Geba. 

Anathoth. 

Almon. 



Rest of the Kohath- 
ites. 
Gezei'. 
Kibzaim. 
Bethhoron. 

In Dan. 

Eltekeh. 

Gibbethon. 

Aijalon. 

Gath-rimmon. 
In Half 3Ianasseh This 
side Jordan. 

Tanach. 

Gath-rimmon. 



Mkrarites, 
12 cities. 
It Zehidun. 
Jokneam. 
Kartah. 
Dimnah. 
Nahalal. 
In Reuben. 
Bezer in the Wilder 

ness.* 
Jahazah. 
Kedemoth. 
Mephaath. 
In Gad. 
Ramoth in Gilead.* 
Mahanaim. 
Heshbon. 
Jazer. 



Gershonites, 
13 cities. 
In Half Manasseh Be- 
yond Jordan. 
Golan in Bashan.* 
Beeshterah. 
In Issachar 
Kishon. 
Dabareh. 
Jarmuth. 
Engannim. 
hi Asher. 
Mishal. 
Abdon. 
Helkath. 
Rehob. 
In Naphtali. 
Kedesh in Galilee.* 
Hammothdor. 
Kartan. 

Note. — The Cities of Refuge are marked *. 

The Levites seem to have shared in the 
general corruption and disregard of the laws 
which prevailed after the death of Joshua; 
their tithes being, probably, often withheld in 
that season of confusion; which occasioned 
some of them to intermarry with other tribes, 
to wander from their cities, to intrude into 
the priesthood, and to commit idolatry. Some 
such seems . to have been the history of that 
young Levite whom the Danites stole with 
the images, and carried to their new settlement 
in Laish, Judg. xvii. 7. 9, 10, 11, 12, 13., xviii. 
3. 15. It was the cruel usage of a Levite's 
concubine by certain men of Benjamin, that 
brought on the almost extinction of this latter 
tribe, Judg. xix. 1., xx. 4. After this, but little 
mention is made of the Levites, owing, it may 
be, to the confused and idolatrous state of the 



LEYITES. 



239 



country, until the time when they recovered 
the ark from the Philistines at Bethshemesh, 
and it was taken to Kiijath-jearim, 1 Sam. vi. 
15. Samuel, no doubt, introduced more order 
amongst them, and established them in some 
of their rights ; though it is not until the time 
of David that we meet with many details 
concerning them. He gathered them together 
to fetch the ark into Zion, 1 Chron. xiii. 2., 
when Uzzah, one of their number, was struck 
dead for touching it contrary to the law, Xum. 
iv. 15. Indeed, the fact of the ark being un- 
covered, set upon " a new cart," and drawn 
by oxen, after the customs of the heathen in 
their idolatrous processions, instead of being 
properly concealed and borne upon the shoulders 
of the Kohathites, shows how much of their 
duties the Levites, and the nation at large, 
had neglected or forgotten, 1 Chron. xv. 11, 12, 
13. But afterwards David was more exact 
in his appointments, and the Levites, each 
family according to their duties, assisted him 
to bring the ark from the house of Obed-edom 
into Zion, 1 Chron. xv. 14, 15, 16, 17. 22. 26, 27. 

It was about this time likewise that Da\-id 
made a more fixed and settled organisation 
of the Levites, now that the ark was in Jerusa- 
lem, 1 Chron. xvi. 4. (though the high place 
of sacrifice was stiU at Gibeon, 37 — 39.), and 
he thought about erecting the Temple there. He 
arranged them in four bands, of which 24,000 
were to set forward the worK of the house of 
the Lord, 6000 were officers and judges, 4000 
were porters, and 4000 musicians. They were 
also divided into regular courses, there being 
twenty-four courses of the priests, twenty-fom- 
of the singers, and probably the same number 
in each of the other divisions, 1 Chron. xxiii. 
2. 4, 5, 6. 24. 26, 27., xxiv. 4. 6. 20. 31., xxv. 
1 — 31. ; 2 Chron. xxxv. 4, 5, Their duties 
were also somewhat differently disposed, now 
that many of their old employments had ceased 
through God having given rest to His people 
in Jerusalem and His Promised Land ; and it 
was by David, and eventually by Solomon, 
1 Kgs. viii. 4.; 2 Chron. v. 12., vii. 6.; Ps. 
cxxxv. 20., that those arrangements were made 
in their several services, which continued with 
more or less splendour and faithfulness until the 
gradual apostasy of the kings of Judah, and 
the destruction of Jerusalem by Xebuchadnezzar. 

Amongst many of the duties belonging to 
their office after they were settled in Canaan, 
are mentioned the follo-n-ing : they watched the 
Tabernacle or Temple, opening and closing its 
doors, 1 Chron. ix. 26, 27., xxiii. 32., xxvi. 



12, 13—19. ; looked after its cleanliness and that 
of all the instruments and vessels, except the 
' holy ones, 1 Chron. ix. 28., xxiii. 28. ; 2 Chron. 
xxis. 15, 16.; prepared the shewbread, and 
cakes and many other meat-offerings, 1 Chron. ix. 
[ 31, p2., xxiii. 29. ; laid up and had the over- 
seeing of the treasures and stores of the Temple, 
: in common with the priests, 1 Chron. ix. 29., 
xxvi. 20. 22. 24. 26. 28. ; 2 Chron. xxxi. 12—19. ; 
, Xeh. X. 38, 39., xiii. 13. ; arranged the service 
of song, and of the instruments of music, 1 Chron. 
' vi. 31. XV, 19 — 22. 27., xxiii. 5., xxv. 1—7. ; 
2 Chron. v. 12, 13., vii. 6., xxix. 25, 26, 27., 
xxxiv. 12., xxxv. 15.; Ezra iii. 10, 11., xii. 
\ 27. ; assisted the priests in killing and flaying 
' the sacrifices and receiving the blood, 2 Chron. 
! xxix. 22. 34., XXX. 15, 16, 17., xxxv. 10, 
; 11 — 14.; collected the money for the maintenance 
[ and repairs of the Temple, and overlooked the 
' work, 2 Chron. xxxiv. 9 — 13. ; acted as scribes, 
' teachers, officers, and judges, 1 Chron. xxiii. 4. ; 

2 Chron. xvi. 8., xix. 11., xxx. 22., xxxiv. 13. ; 
; had the charge of the wood-offering and the 
first-fruits, Xeh. x. 34 — 37., xiii. 30, 31., as well 
as the protection of the Sabbath day, Xeh. xiii. 
I 22. In some of these duties, they were assisted 
j by the Xethinims. Xo particular dress seems 
j to have been enjoined on the Levites; though 
on certain extraordinary occasions (and perhaps 
I some of the singers, and others of them actually 
engaged in Divine Service, at all times) they 
I were clothed in a robe of fine white linen, 
j 1 Chron. xv. 27. ; 2 Chron. v. 12. 
j The Levites took part with David on the 
\ occasion of Absalom's rebellion, following him 
j with the ark out of Jerusalem, until he sent 
i them back to the city, 2 Sam. xv. 24. The 
: Levites were not nmnbered by Joab when, at 
I David's command, he took the sum of all Israel, 
; 1 Chron. xxi. 6., xxvii. 24. When the Ten 
I Tribes revolted from Rehoboam and formed the 
I kingdom of Israel under Jeroboam, the latter 
; monarch cast off^ the Levites, set up his idola- 
! trous worship at Bethel and Dan, and made 
j priests of the loAvest of the people, 1 Kgs. xii. 
I 31., xiii. 33., xiv. 9. ; 2 Chron. xi. 14, 15., xiii. 9. ; 
; as did also his successors ; but the Levites 
I joined Pichoboam, and leaving their cities all 
I through Israel, came to Judah and Jerusalem, 
'■ 2 Chron. xi. 13, 14. Jehoshaphat, king of 
I Judah, sent some of them amongst all his people 
; to teach the law, and appointed others of them 
' to be judges and officers, 2 Chron. xvii. 8., xix. 
I 8. 11.; and one of their number was raised 
I up as an especial prophet, to encourage him 
in his war against the Moabites and Ammonites. 



240 



LEYITES. 



LIBERTINES. 



XX. 14, In the time of Joash, they greatly 
assisted in preserving his life and placing him 
on the throne, as well as in the restoration of 
the worship of God, 2 Chron. xxiii. 4. 6, 7, 8. 18., 
xxiv. 5, 6. 11. But as the end drew on, they 
seem to have gradually gone with the people 
in many of their evil ways, Ezek. xliv. 10., 
xlviii. 11. Hezekiah exhorted and gathered 
them to their duties for a time, 2 Chron. xxix. 
4, 5. 12. 16. 25, 26. 34., xxx. 15, 16, 17, 21, 22. 
25. 27., xxxi. 2. 4. 9. 12. 14. 17. 19.; as did 
also Josiah, xxxiv. 9. 12, 13. 30., xxxv. 3. 5. 8, 
9, 10, 11. 14, 15. 18. ; but falling away from 
God, for the most part, with the rest of the 
nation, they were led captive to Babylon with 
them. 

After the edict of Cyrus in favour of the Jews, 
a few of the Levites returned home with Zerub- 
babel, and dwelt in Jerusalem and the cities of 
Judah, 1 Chron. ix. 2. 14. 18. 26. 31. 33, 34.; 
Ezra i. 5., ii. 40. 70. ; when they assisted in the 
rebuilding of the Temple, and in the restoration 
of the true worship of God, Ezra iii. 8, 9, 10. 12. 
vi. 16. 20. ; Neh. vii. 43., xi. 3. 15. 18., xii. 1. 8. 
Zerubbabel, likewise, divided the priests and 
Levites into their courses for the service of God, 
Ezra vi. 18., an arrangement which was further 
carried out by Xehemiah, Neh. vii. 1., xii. 22, 
23, 24. 26. ; though as so few returned from Baby- 
ion, the courses must at the first have been small. 
Another party of Levites returned to Judah with 
Ezra about eighty years afterwards, Ezra vii. 
7. 13. 24., viii. 15. 18. 20. 29, 30. 33.; but he 
found many of those who had preceded him 
greatly degenerated, and he commenced a re- 
formation of them, ix. 1., x. 5. 15. 23. On the 
coming of Nehemiah to Jerusalem, they assisted 
him in rebuilding and dedicating the wall of 
Jerusalem, Neh. iii. 17., vii. 1., xii. 27. 30. 44., 
and in teaching the people the law, viii. 7. 11. 
The}' likewise began to perform their appointed 
duties in a more regular and consistent way, ix. 

4, 5. 38., X. 9. 28., xi. 16. 18. 20. 22. 36. Ar- 
rangements were also made for paying them 
their tithes, x. 34. 37, 38, 39., xii. 47. ; but the 
duty both of the people and of the Levites began 
again to decline, xiii. 10, 11. 28, 29, 80. ; Mai. 
ii. 1. 4. 8. 

Little mention is made of the Levites in the 
Xew Testament, though the priests are often 
spoken of, and the course of Abia (to which 
Zacharias belonged) is specially noticed, Lu. i. 

5. The Jews sent some of the Levites from 
Jerusalem, to ask John the Baptist who he was, { 
Jo. i. 19. Our Blessed Redeemer introduces the 
mention of a Levite in one of His parables, Lu. 



X. 32. Barnabas is said to have been a Levite, 
Acts iv. 36. ; and St. Paul in his Epistle to the 
Hebrews, shows the character of the Levitical 
law and priesthood, Heb. vii. 9. 11. The Levites 
no doubt deeply partook in those sins of the 
people, and that crucifying the Lord of glory, 
which brought about the ruin of their nation ; 
and though some of them may have been con- 
verted to the truth by the preaching of the 
Apostles, Acts vi. 7., yet the chief part of them 
perished in the destruction of Jerusalem by the 
Romans, or were led captive amongst the nations. 
There are, however, as it would appear, bright 
days in store for them at the future restoration 
of their nation. St. John in his sealing vision 
beheld twelve thousand of the tribe of Levi ; and 
the prophets Isaiah, Ix^-i. 21., Jeremiah, xxxiii. 
18. 21,22.,Ezekiel,xl.46., xliv. 10. 15., xlviii. 11., 
Zechariah, xii. 13., and Maiachi, iii. 3., record 
gracious promises concerning them, which coming 
days as they roll onwards, will develope and fulfil. 
In his prophetical division of the Holy Land 
which is yet to take place, Ezekiel, xlviii. 10, 11, 
13., is directed to appoint two portions for the 
Levites, each one as large as those of the other 
tribes. One of these portions is to be exclusively 
for the priests, "the sons of Zadok," and in the 
midst of it is to be the Sanctuary of the Lord ; 
the second, immediately to the S. of it, is to be 
for the other Levites; the Xew City with its 
lands being directly under the latter, and the 
portion for the Prince being on each side of the 
three. One of the gates of the Xew City of Je- 
rusalem, is to be named the Gate of Levi, Ezek. 
xlviii. 31. 

LEVI, GATE OF, one of the three gates 
which the prophet Ezekiel, xlviii. 31., mentions 
as on the X. side of the X'ew City of Jerusalem. 

LIBAXUS, MT. See Lebanox. 

LIBERTIXES, mentioned by St. Luke, Acts 
vi. 9., as possessing, in conjunction with the 
Cyrenians and Alexandrians, a synagogue at 
Jerusalem, and having commenced that perse- 
cution of Stephen which ended in his martyrdom. 
It is not at all known who they were, or whence 
they obtained this name. But from their being 
joined with two African sects, it has been thought 
to have been derived from some other place in 
that continent, such as Libertum ; and this the 
rather, since in the council of Carthage the title 
Episcopus Libertinensis occurs amongst others. 
But it has been also conjectured that they re- 
ceived this appellation from being Libertini, i. e. 
emancipated slaves, or the sons of emancipated 
slaves. Whether those here spoken of had been 



LIBXAH. 



LOT, CHILDEEX OF. 241 



Jewish prisoners of "war, afterwards set free by ; 
their Eoman raasters, or Gentiles who had be- | 
come proselytes to Judaism, cannot be said ; yet ' 
it is known from the Latin historians, that about 
fifteen years before the events here recorded by 
St. Luke, the number of those who professed the 
Jews' religion was so great in Rome, that Tibe- ' 
rius Ciesar banished large numbers of them to : 
unhealthy places, and commanded all the rest to \ 
quit the city. 

LIBXAH, a station of the Israelites in the 
Wilderness of Shur, apparently the second after 
they were made to turn southward from Kadesh- 
barnea, for murmuring against the report which 
the spies had brought of the Land of Promise, 
Xum. xxxiii. 20, 21. 

LIBXAH, an ancient royal city of the Ca- 
naanites, taken and destroyed by Joshua after 
his conquest of the five kings who leagued 
together against Gibeon, Josh. x. 29. 31, 32. 39,, 
xii. 15. On the division of the land, it fell 
within the limits of the tribe of Judah, xv. 42. ; 
but was afterwards made a Levitical city, 
and given to the sons of Aaron, xxi. 13. ; 1 
Cliron. vi. 57. It revolted from Joram, king of 
J udah, on account of his cruelty and idolatry, 2 
Kgs. viii. 22. ; 2 Chron. xxi. 10. ; but being 
afterwards recovered, it was besieged in the 
time of Hezekiah, by Sennacherib, king of As- 
syria, 2 Kgs. xix. 8. ; Isa. xxxviL 8. The mother 
both of Jehoahaz and Zedekiah, kings of Judah, 
sprang from this city, 2 Kgs. xxiii. 31., xxiv. 
18. ; Jer. lii. 1. It lay to the S.W. of Jerusalem 
towards the borders of Simeon and Dan. Euse- 
bius places it in the neighbourhood of Eleuthe- 
ropolis, and mentions it as still existmg in his 
time under the name of Lobana. 

LIBXITES, a Levitical family numbered 
by Moses, with the rest of Israel, in the Plains of 
Moab, Xum. xxvi. 58. ; they were so called after 
Libni, the elder son of Gershon, Xum. iii. 18. 21. ; 
1 Chron. vi. 17. 

LIBYA, Jer. xlvi. 9. ; Ezek. xxx. 5., xxxviii. 
5. ; Dan. xi. 43. ; Acts ii. 10. See Lehablm. 

LOD, a city of Canaan, about 12 miles S.E. of 
Joppa, which was built by the Benjamites, 
1 Chron. viii. 12. It does not appear to be 
again mentioned in the Old Testament, until the 
return from the Babylonian captivity ; when some 
of the children of Lod came home with Zerub- 
babel, Ezra ii, 33.; Xeh. vii. 37.; and ha^dng 
repaired their city, it was again inhabited by the 
Benjamites, Neh. xi. 35. It is called Lydda in I 
the Xew Testament, as well as in the Apociypha, ' 



and by Josephus. It appears to have belonged 
to Samaria during the dominion of the Syrian 
kings, and to have been one of the three govern- 
ments which they renounced in favour of 
the Jews, when it became annexed to Judaea, 1 
Mace. X. 30. 38., xi. 34. See Aphekema. The 
city lay upon the road from Jerusalem to Csesa- 
rea ; and is mem.orable from having been one of 
the places where the Gospel early took root, and. 
from the Apostle Peter having there raised up 
JEneas, who had kept his bed eight years, 
and was sick of the palsy. From this place 
the disciples sent for him to Joppa, where 
he raised Dorcas to life. Acts ix. 32. 35. 38. In 
the last great struggle with the Romans it was 
destroyed, but was afterwards restored, and 
became for a time a great seat of rabbinical 
learning; its name was changed to Diospolis, 
but the old one appears still to have prevailed, 
as its site is still called Lvd. 

LODEBAR (i.e. without Pasture'), the name of 
a place beyond Jordan, in the region of Gilead, 
where Mephibosheth, the son of Jonathan, lay 
concealed in the house of Machir, until David 
sent for him to Jerusalem, 2 Sam. ix. 4, 5. It 
was from this place, amongst others, that sup- 
pUes were sent to David when encamped in the 
neighbourhood, after his quitting Jerusalem on 
the rebellion of Absalom, 2 Sam. x^-ii. 27. It 
was probably the same place called Debir by 
Joshua, on the borders of the tribe of Gad, Josh, 
xiii. 26. 

LORD, THE CITY OF THE, Ps. xMii. 8., 
ci. 8., another name for Jerusalem, which is also 
to be applied to it on its future restoration, Isa. 
Ix. 14. Cf. Ezek. xlviii. 35. -See Jerusa- 
lem!. 

LORD, MOUNT OF THE, Gen. xxii. 14., 
another name for Mt. Moriah, where Abraham 
built his altar, and called it Jehovah -jireh, 
after he had been tempted to offer Isaac 
there. 

LORD, MOUNT OF THE, an appellation 
given to Mt. Sinai, Num. x. 33., from the 
Lord having there spoken with Moses. It is 
likewise called the Mount of God; which 
see. 

LOT, CHILDREN OF (i.e. the Moahites and 
Ammonites), so called after their father Lot, Gen. 
xix. 37, 38. Their land having been given to 
them for a possession by God, He would not 
permit His people to molest them, when they were 
going to enter the Promised Land, on the S-E. 
borders of which the children of Lot had settled, 
R 



242 LOW COUNTRY, THE. 



LYCIA. 



Deut. ii. 9. 19. They were the constant enemies 
of the Israelites, Ps. Ixxxiii. 8. 

LOW COUNTRY, THE, 2 Chron. xxvi. 10., 
xxviii. 18., or the 

LOW PLAINS, 1 Chron. xxvii. 28., the large 
extensive plain on the W. part of the tribe 
of Judah, called also the Valley, Josh. xv. 33., 
and the Vale, 1 Kgs. x. 27. It was on the 
borders of Dan and of the Philistines, whence 
the latter people often invaded it. It was cele- 
brated for its olive-trees and sycamore-trees, over 
which David appointed an officer ; as also for its 
flocks of cattle, which King Uzziah, amongst 
others, there pastured. See Valley. 

LOWER POOL, Isa. xxii. 9. See Gihon. 

LUBIM, Nahum iii. 9. ; 2 Chron. xii. 3., xvi. 
8. See Lehabim. 

LUD, a people descended from Lud, the 
fourth son of Shem, Gen. x, 22. ; 1 Chron. 
i. 17. ; who are thought to have originally settled 
somewhere to the E. of the R. Tigris, on the 
borders of Assyria, Persia, and Media ; but Jo- 
sephus and many others with him, identify them 
with the Lydians of Asia Minor ; whilst others, 
again, remove them to India. They are repre- 
sented as great warriors and expert archers, who 
were confederate with Tyre, Ezek. xxvii. 10. 
They are also mentioned by the prophet Isaiah, 
Ixvi. 19., as destined to bear an important 
part in the coming restoration of Israel, in 
connection with Tarshish, Pul, Tubal, and 
Javan. Cf. 1 Mace. viii. 8., where the Romans 
are said to have taken Lydia from Antiochus and 
given it to Eumenes. 

LUDIM, a people of Afi-ica, descended from 
the eldest son of Mizraim, and grandson of 
Ham, Gen. x. 13.; 1 Chron. i. 11. These Lu- 
dira are identified with the Ethiopians or inha- 
bitants of Soudan or Nigritia, as it is now 
called, which lies to the W. of Egypt, and S. of 
the Lehabim or Libya Proper. They are also 
called Lydians in our translation of the Bible. 
The prophet Jeremiah, xlvi. 9., numbers them 
with the allies of the Egyptians, as does also 
Ezekiel, xxx. 5., both connecting them with 
the Ethiopians or Cushites, the Libyans or Phut, 
the mingled people of Arabia and Chub. Cf. 
Judith ii. 23. 

LUHITH, a city of the Moabites, against 
which woe is denounced by the prophet Isaiah, 
XV. 5., and Jeremiah, xlviii. 5. It would seem 
to have been in an elevated position, as both of 



them speak of "the going up of Luhith." 
Nothing is known of its situation. 

LUZ, the ancient name of Bethel ; which see. 

LVZ, the name of a city built in the land of 
the Hittites by an inhabitant of the old Luz, or 
Bethel, who showed to the spies of the Israelites 
the entrance into the city ; in return for which 
they spared him and his family, Jndg. i. 26. 
Its situation is altogether unknown, though 
some have identified it with a place called Luza, 
which Eusebius sets about 3 miles from Sichem. 

LYCAONIA, a district of Asia Minor, the 
limits of which varied much from those after- 
wards assigned to it when erected into a pro- 
vince ; as it was originally within the great 
district of Phrygia, and extended also far into 
Cappadocia. The province of Lycaonia was 
bounded on the N. by Galatia, on the E. by 
Cappadocia, on the S. by Cilicia, on the W. by 
Pisidia and Phrygia. The whole district was 
an elevated plain, well adapted to the feeding of 
sheep. Most of the springs were salt, whence it 
suffered much from the want of fresh water, 
which was a common article of sale. It has 
been- rendered interesting from the labours and 
sufferings of the Apostles Paul and Barnabas, 
who visited three of its chief cities, Iconium, 
Lystra, and Derbe, Acts xiv. 6. Its inha- 
bitants were a mixed race, who are said to have 
spoken a corrupt Greek, largely intermingled 
with Syrian or Assyrian words, the " speech of 
Lycaonia ; " wherein they called Paul Mercury, 
and Barnabas Jupiter, after the miraculous 
healing of the lame man at Lystra, Acts xiv. 11. 
Lycaonia now forms part of the large Turkish 
province of Karamania. 

LYCIA, a province in the S.W. part of Asia 
]Minor, bounded on the E. by Pamphylia and 
Pisidia, on the N". by Phrygia, on the W. by 
Caria, and on the S. by the Mediterranean Sea. 
It was originally called Milyas, and its first 
inhabitants were the Solymi; but these were 
driven inland by a colony of Cretans, who fled 
from Minos. The Lycians were expert archers, 
and are much commended by profane authors 
for their sobriety and love of justice. Their 
maritime situation gave them great advantages 
for commerce and naval superiority, which 
they so abused for piratical purposes, that the 
Romans put them down with a strong hand, 
and eventually took possession of their country. 
Lycia contained many great and important 
cities, of which only two are mentioned in the 



LYDDA. 



MACEDONIA. 243 



Bible; Patara, where St. Paul landed when i 
sailing from Macedonia .to Jerusalem, Acts sxi. | 
1. ; and Myra, where he touched when on his 
voyage to Eome as a prisoner, and where the 
centurion who had charge of him, embarked 
him in a ship of Alexandria bound for Italy, but 
-vNT-ecked oif IMelita, Acts xxvii. 5. Lycia was a 
very mountainous, but yet fertile country ; and 
was amongst other things celebrated for its 
cedars, which are said to have almost equalled 
those of Lebanon. The apocryphal writer of the 
first book of Maccabees, xv. 23., mentions the 
Lycians as one of the nations to whom the 
Romans wrote in behalf of the Jews. 

LTDDA, Acts ix. 32. 35. 38. ; 1 Mace. xi. 
Si. See LoD. 

LYDIA, Ezek. xxx. 5., and 

LYDIAXS, Jer. xlvi. 9., a country and people 
of Africa. See Ludm. 



LYDIA, 1 Mace. viii. 8,, a country to the E. 
of the E. Tigris. See Lud. 

LYSTRA, a city of Lycaonia, a province of 
Asia Minor, which was twice visited by the 
Apostle Paul. Once, during his first journey 
through those regions, in company with Bar- 
nabas, when the lame man was miraculously 
healed by him, and the people would have done 
sacrifice to him and Barnabas, if they had not 
been restrained; though afterwards, at the in- 
citement of the Jews, they stoned hun, Acts xiv. 
6. 8. 21. ; 2 Tim. iii. 11. It was visited by Paul 
the second time, about six years afterwards, in 
company with Silas, when he met with Timothy, 
who is said by some to have been born here, 
though by others, and more probably, at the 
neighbouring city of Derbe, Acts xvi. 1, 2. ; and 
who was already a disciple, having perhaps been 
converted by him in his former journej', and 
been a witness of his persecutions and afflictions, 
1 Tim. i. 2.; 2 Tim. iii. 11. 



IMAACAH, otherwise 

MAACHAH and MAACHATHI, or Steia- 
aiAACHAH, and the inhabitants 

MAACHATHITES ; the name of a city and 
kingdom of S}T:ia to the N.E. of Palestine. It 
formed the N.E. frontier of Og's kingdom in 
Bashan, Josh. xii. 5. ; and after his defeat by 
Moses, of the territory of the half-tribe of 
Manasseh beyond Jordan, Deut. iii. 14.; Josh, 
xiii. 11. ; though some portion of the country of 
the Maachatliites was evidently possessed by 
the latter, the two nations dwelling there to- 
gether. Josh. xiii. 13. Cf. 1 Chron. iv. 19. 
When David went to war with the Ammonites, 
on the occasion of their ill-treating his am- 
bassadors, these Syrians of Maachah were 
amongst the allies whom the Ammonites hired 
to assist them ; but they were vanquished first 
by Joab, and afterwards, when they were backed 
by the Syrians from beyond the Euphrates, by 
David, 2 Sam. x. 6. 8. 13. 15, 16. 18, 19.; 
1 Chron. xix. 6, 7. 14. 16. 18, 19. The Maacha- 
thites seem to have continued afterwards in 
their possessions, and lived peaceably with the 
Israelites. One of David's mighty men belonged 
to their nation, 2 Sam. xxiii. 34. (cf. 1 Chron. 
xi. 36.); and another of them sided with Ish- 
mael, when Gedaliah had been appointed by 
Nebuchadnezzar to be the governor of such 
Jews as remained in the land after the destruc- 
tion of Jerusalem, 2 Kgs. xxv. 23. ; Jer. xl. 8. 



MAALEH-ACRABBIM (i.e. the Going up to 
Acrahhim), Josh. xv. 3.; Judg. i. 36., marg. ; 
called in Num. xv. 4., the Ascent of Akrabbim. 
iSee AKEABBm. 

MAARATH, a city in the hill country of the 
tribe of Judah, Josh. xv. 59. 

MACALOX, 1 Esd. v. 21,, the name of a 
place in the kingdom of Judah, the inhabitants 
of which returned home with Zerubbabel after 
the Babylonian captivity. It seems to be the 
same with Michmas in Ezra ii. 27. 

MACEDONIA, a famous country in Europe 
to the N. of Greece, the limits of which varied 
exceedingly at diiferent periods of its history. 
In the times of Philip and Alexander, it Avas 
bounded on the N. by Moesia, on the E. by 
Thrace, on the S. by the ^gagan Sea and 
Thessaly, on the W. by Grecian Illyria; but 
some time after its conquest by the Romans, 
they included the last-mentioned country within 
its limits, which then extended to the Adriatic 
Sea. It was formerly called MmoAhia. ; a name 
which, as well as that of Macedonia, is con- 
jectured to have been derived from Madai, the 
third son of Japheth, Gen. x. 2. ; 1 Chron. i. 5. 
Others, however, attribute both the name and 
the first colonisation of Macedonia to the 
Eattim, who descended from Javan, the fourth 
son of Japheth, Gen. x. 4. ; 1 Chron. i. 7. The 
prophet Daniel, xi. 30., appears to allude to it 
as the Lakd of Chittim, when describing the 

E 2 



244 MACEDONIA. 



MADMANNAH. 



invcasion of the king of tlie Nortli; and the 
apocryphal writer in 1 Mace. i. 1., viii. 5., 
speaks of Macedonia as the land of Chittim, 
and its king Perseus, as king of the Citims. 
The inhabitants were celebrated for their bravery 
and martial spirit ; their phalanx Avas especially 
noted for its reputed irresistible strength. 

The Macedonian kingdom had already lasted 
about 400 years, when Philip, one of its kings, 
added Thessaly, with great part of Epirus and 
Illyricum, to his dominions ; and by arms and 
intrigue, made it the principal power in Greece. 
His son, Alexander the Great, whose empire 
was foretold by the prophet Daniel, vii. 6., viii., 
represented as a leopard and a rough goat, and 
styled the king of Grecia, viii. 21., made himself 
master of Egypt, Greece, the Persian empire, 
parts of India, and other regions of the East, 
with astonishing rapidity ; but his vast empire 
was quickly broken in pieces after his unex- 
pected death in Babylon, B.C. 323. Cf. Esth. 
xvi. 10. 14. ; 1 Mace. vi. 2. It was then divided, 
as had been predicted by Daniel, into four king- 
doms amongst his principal officers. Hence the 
name of Macedonians is often applied to the 
Syrians during the dynasty of the Seleucidaa, 
or those monarchs who succeeded Alexander 
the Great in the government of Syria, the first 
of whom was his general Seleucus Nicanor, 2 
Mace. viii. 20. The kingdom of Macedonia, 
strictly so called, continued until the time of 
Perseus, its last independent sovereign, when it 
fell under the power of the Romans, b.c. 168, 
who, after one or two changes, erected it at 
length into a proconsular province, of which 
Macedonia itself was only one division, and 
which extended on the S. to their other pro- 
vince of Achaia. These two large provinces, 
under the extended names of Macedonia and 
Achaia, Acts xix. 21. ; Rom. xv. 26. ; 2 Cor. ix. 
2. 4. ; 1 Thess. i. 7. 8., comprehended the whole 
of what the Romans called Greece. It is this 
country which is so frequently mentioned in 
the New Testament Scriptures as one of the 
scenes of Paul's labours, though, perhaps, Mace- 
donia properly so called, may be signified in 
some of the references. The Apostle, being at 
Troas in Asia Minor, saw a vision calling him 
into Macedonia, whither he went in company 
with the brethren, and founded churches at 
Philippi, Thessalonica, Berea, and others of its 
cities. Acts xvi. 9, 10. 12., xviii. 5. He visited 
it afterwards more than once, and in several of 
his epistles speaks of his labours amongst its 
people, commending their faith, liberality, and 
other graces, Acts xix. 22. 29., xx. 1. 3., xxvii. 



2.; Rom. sv. 26.; 1 Cor. xvi. 5. j 2 Cor. i. 16., 
ii. 13., vii. 5., viii. 1., ix. 2. 4., xi. 9. ; Philip, iv. 
15. ; 1 Thess. i. 7, 8., iv. 10. ; 1 Tim. i. 3. 

MACHIR, a name applied in the song of 
Deborah, Judg. v. 14., to the territory of the 
half-tribe of Manasseli beyond Jordan, owing to 
its having been taken from the Amorites by the 
children of Machir, and given to them for a 
possession by Moses, Num. xxxii. 39, 40. ; Josh, 
xiii. 31., xvii. 1. Machir was the son of 
Manasseh, and the father of Gilead, both of 
whom were born in Egypt, and brought up upon 
Joseph's knees, Gen. 1. 23.; Josh. xvii. 1. ; 
1 Chron. ii. 21., vii. 14. ; and gave name to the 
whole family of the 

MACHIRITES, Num. xxvi. 29., who were 
numbered by Moses in the Plains of Moab, 
together with the rest of Israel. 

MACHMAS, 1 Mace. ix. 73., the same with 
Michmash ; which see. 

MACHPELAH, a cave and field near Hebron, 
in the S. of Canaan, purchased by Abraham of 
Ephron the Hittite as a burial-place for Sarah, 
Gen. xxiii. 9. 17. 19. ; after which it became 
the sepulchre of the three patriarchs themselves, 
as well as of their wives. Abraham was buried 
here. Gen. xxv. 9., and Isaac and Rebekah, 
Jacob and Leah, Gen. xlix. 29, 30, 31, 32., 1. 13. 
The Empress Helena is said to have built a 
church over the supposed site of this burial 
place; but this has long since been converted 
into a mosque, most jealously guarded by the 
Turks, who allow neither Jew nor Christian to 
enter it. 

MADAI, the third son of Japheth, Gen. x. 2. ; 
1 Chron. i. 5. ; from whom it is conjectured the 
European provinces of Macedonia and Moesia 
derived their name. There are also traces of it 
in the appellation Amathia by which Macedonia 
was formerly known, as well as in Mygdonia, 
Maedi, and the Majdica Regio, which are all 
met with in it. Some have fancied that Madai 
settled in, and gave name to, the country of 
Media in Asia ; but this would seem to have 
been a long way into the possessions of Shem, 
and far away from those Isles of the Gentiles 
where the descendants of Japheth are stated to 
have settled, Gen. x. 5. 

MADIAN, Acts vii. 29., Judith ii. 26., the 
same with Midian ; which see. 

MADMANNAH, a city belonging to the 
tribe of Judah in the S. part of their territory. 
Josh. XV. 31., called Madmannah by the prophet 
Isaiah, x. 31., when foretelling the invasion and 
defeat of the Assyrians. 



MADMEK 



MALCHIELITES. 



245 



MADMEN, a city of Moab, the destruction of 
which is predicted by J eremiah, xlviii, 2. 

MADON', a royal city in the N. of Canaan, 
whose king, with many others, joined Jabin, 
king of Hazor, to fight against Israel, when 
they were all vanquished by Joshua at the 
Waters of Merom, Josh. xi. 1., xii. 19. 

MAGBISH, THE CHILDREN OF, who re- 
turned home with Zerubbabel after the seventy 
years' captivity, Ezra ii. 30. 

MAGDAL A (i.e. the Tower), a place in Galilee, 
on the W. shore of the L. of Gennesaret, about 
midway between Tiberias and Capernaum ; the 
port whither our Blessed Redeemer came, after 
he had fed the 4000, on the other side of the 
lake, Matt. xv. 39. From it, Mary Magdalene 
is thought to have derived her name. Matt, 
xxvii. 56. 61., xxviii. 1.; Mk. xv. 40., xvi. 
1. 9. ; Lu. xxiv. 10. ; Jo. xix. 25., xx. 1. 18. It 
is now in ruins, but retains its old appellation in 
that of Majdel. In the parallel passage of 
Mark, viii. 10., Dalmanutha is mentioned 
in place of Magdala; from which it has been 
conjectured that they were either the same 
place, or one was in the district of the other. 

MAGED, 1 Mace. v. 36., otherwise Maked, v. 
26., a city beyond Jordan, probably in the 
regions of Gilead, where many of the Jews were 
shut up by their heathen persecutors, until deli- 
vered by Judas Maccabseus. 

MAGIDDO, PLAIN OF, 1 Esd. i. 29. See 
Megiddo. 

MAGOG, Gen. x. 2. ; 1 Chron. i. 5. ; Ezek. 
xxxviii. 2., xxxix. 6. ; Rev. xx. 8. See 
Gog. 

MAHANAIM (i.e. the Two Hosts), a place 
beyond Jordan, to the N. of the R. Jabbok, so 
named by Jacob from his having there had 
a vision of angels when he was on his way to 
meet Esau, Gen. xxxii, 2. A city either existed 
here or afterwards grew up ; as on the division 
of the trans-Jordanic territory by Moses, it fell 
within the limits of the tribe of Gad, close 
on the borders of the half-tribe of Manasseh, 
Josh. xiii. 26, 30. ; though it was eventually as- 
signed to the Levites of the family of Merari, 
Josh. xxi. 38.; 1 Chron. vi. 80. It appears 
to have been a strong and important posi- 
tion, since Abner made it his head quarters 
when he set up Ishbosheth, the son of Saul, 
as king of Israel, in opposition to David, 2 
Sam. ii. 8. 12. 29. David, likewise, here took up 
his abode, when thirty-two years afterwards he 



fled from the conspiracy of Absalom, whose 
rebel forces were routed not far off, 2 Sam. xvii. 
24. 27., xix. 32.; 1 Kgs. ii. 8. Its territory 
formed one of Solomon's twelve purveyorships, 
1 Kgs. iv. 14. Its site is identified in some ruins 
called Mahonah. 

MAHANEH-DAN, or Camp of Dan, Judg. 
xiii. 25., xviii. 12. See Dan and Camp of Dan. 

MAHAVITE, the patronymic of one of David's 
mighty men, 1 Chron. xi, 46. ; whence derived* 
is not known. 

MAHLITES, a Levitical family numbered by 
Moses in the Plains of Moab, Num. xxvi. 58. 
They were descended from Mahli, the eldest 
son of Merari, Num. iii. 20. 33. ; 1 Chron. vi. 19. 

MAKAZ, a city in the purveyorship of Ben- 
dekar, one of the twelve divisions into which 
Solomon parted the land of Israel for the 
purpose of providing victuals for his household ; 
its situation is not known, but from the places 
mentioned with it, it is thought to have been 
on the borders of Simeon and Judah, 1 Kgs. iv. 9. 

MAKHELOTH, an encampment of the Is- 
raelites in the Great Wilderness, about midway 
between Kadesh-barnea and Ezion-geber on the 
Red Sea, Num. xxxiii. 25, 26. 

MAKKEDAH, a royal city in the S.W. 
of Canaan, near which the five kings that had 
leagued together against Gibeon were con- 
quered by Joshua, Josh. x. 10. There was a 
cave here, into which they fled, and where 
Joshua had them shut up and guarded, whilst he 
routed the remainder of their forces ; after which 
he had them brought out, caused his captains to 
put their feet on the kings' necks, in token that 
God would surely subdue all their enemies before 
them, and then he slew them, and hanged them 
on five trees, x. 16, 17. 21. After this, he took 
Makkedah itself, smiting the inhabitants, and ut- 
terly destroying the city, x. 28, 29 , xii. 16. On 
the division of the land of Canaan, it fell within 
the borders of the tribe of Judah, and is numbered 
amongst their cities in the Valley, xv. 41. Eu^ 
sebius places it 8 miles E. of Eleutheropolis. 

MAKTESH, a part of Jerusalem, against 
which the prophet Zephaniah, i. 11., denounces 
coming woe. It appears to have been inhabited 
by merchants, and was probably part of the 
valley between Zion and the Temple. The 
Chaldee paraphrast represents it as the Valley of 
Kidron, Jerome as the Valley of Siloa; but 
it was probably neither of these, though adja- 
cent to both, within the walls of the great city. 

MALCHIELITES, a family of the tribe of 
R 3 



246 MALLOS. 



MAN-ASSEH. 



Asher, numbered by Moses in the Plains of 
Moab, Num. xxvi. 45., and so called after Mal- 
chiel, the grandson of Asher, Gen. xlvi. 17. ; 1 
Chron. vii. 31. 

MALLOS, an ancient city of Cilicia in Asia 
Minor, which was reputed to have been founded 
soon after the siege of Troy. It stood at the 
former mouth of the E. Pyramus, now Tyhoon. 
It is mentioned by the apocryphal writer of 2 
Mace. iv. 30., as a place which, in conjunction 
with the neighbouring city of Tarsus, rebelled 
against the Syrian king Antiochus Epiphanes, 
because they had been given to his concubine. 

MAMRE, Gen. xxiii. 17. 19., xxv. 9., xxxv, 
27., xlix. 30., 1. 13., and the 

MAMRE, PLAIN OF, Gen. xiii. 18.,xiv. 13., 
xviii. 1. See Hebron. 

MANAHATH, a place in the lot of the 
tribe of Benjamin, the situation of which is 
not known, 1 Chron. viii. 6. Cf. ii. 52. 54. 

MANASSEH (i.e. Forgetting), one of the 
twelve tribes of Israel, so called after Manasseh, 
the eldest son of Joseph, Gen. xli. 51., who was 
adopted, together with Ephraim, .by Jacob, and 
by him made to inherit equal portions with his 
own sons, xlviii. 5. Joseph had thus two portions 
given to him, xlviii. 22. ; Josh, xiv, 4, ; proba- 
bly because the birthright became his, 1 Chron. 
V. 1, 2. When Jacob gave them his dying- 
blessing, though he foretold the prosperity of 
both tribes, yet he preferred Ephraim the 
younger son before Manasseh, and predicted 
his superiority in Israel, Gen. xlviii. 13, 14. 17. 
20., xlix. 25, 26., a blessing and preference, 
which were repeated by Moses shortly before 
his death, Deut. xxxiii. 17. At the Exodus, 
about 221 years after the birth of Manasseh, 
the number of fighting men in this tribe was 
82,200, Num. i. 10. 34, 35., ii. 20.; but when 
they were again numbered by Moses in the 
Plains of Moab, thirty- eight years afterwards, 
they had increased to 52,700, Num. xxvi. 28, 
29. 34. They marched, together with Benja- 
min, under the standard of the tribe of Ephraim, 
Num. ii. 20., x. 23., which followed immediately 
after the sanctuary; whence the Psalmist's 
prayer that God would stir up His strength 
in behalf of His people, before Ephraim, Ben- 
jamin, and Manasseh, Ps. Ixxx. 2. Manasseh 
was the eighth tribe, as ranged in the order 
of their journeyings, and their offerings for the 
service of God were made on the eighth day. 
When encamped, they pitched on the W. side 
of the Tabernacle, Num. vii. 54. One out of 



their number was chosen, as was also one out 
of every other tribe, to go and spy out the land 
of Canaan, Num. xiii. 11. It was to this tribe 
that the daughters of Zelophehad belonged, 
who raised the question about female inheritance, 
Num. xxvii. 1., xxxvi. 1. 12. ; Josh. xvii. 3. 

Upon the division of the trans-Jordanic ter- 
ritory by Moses, he assigned the N. part of 
the kingdom of Og in Bashan to the elder 
branch of the family of Manasseh, descended 
from his first-born son Machir, Num. xxxii. 
33. 39, 40., xxxiv. 14. ; Deut. iii. 13. 15., xxix. 
8.; Josh. i. 12., xii. 6., xiii. 29. 31., xvii. 1., 
xviii. 7., xxii. 7. ; 1 Chron. vii. 14. ; hence their 
territory is called Machir in the song of De- 
borah, Judg. V. 14. It is sometimes called 
Manasseh in Bashan, Josh. xxi. 6. ; 1 Chron. 
vi. 62. ; and likewise Manasseh in Gilead, 
1 Chron. xxvii. 21., from its including the N. 
part of this latter region. In the conquest of 
their territory, they were greatly assisted by 
the valour of Jair, a descendant of Machir, 
who possessed himself of sixty cities in those 
quarters, and named them after himself Havoth- 
Jair, Num. xxxii. 41.; Deut. iii. 14. The in- 
heritance of this half-tribe of Manasseh beyond 
Jordan touched to the S. on that of Gad; on 
the W. it was bounded by the Sea of Chinnereth 
and the upper Jordan, which parted it from 
Zebulun and Naphtali; on the N. it was 
bounded by that part of Lebanon which is 
called Hermon; and to the E. it touched upon 
Ammon and Syria, 1 Chron. v. 18. 23. It was 
a mountainous yet fertile district, celebrated for 
its flocks and herds, as well as for its oaks, balm, 
and other spicery. See Bashan and Gilead. 
It contained two Levitical cities, which were as- 
signed to the Gershonites; viz. Golan in 
Bashan, and Beeshterah (otherwise Ashtaroth) ; 
the former being a City of Refuge, Deut. iv. 43. ; 
Josh. XX. 8., xxi. 6. 27. ; 1 Chron. vi. 62. 71. 
In the early part of their history they were 
attacked, together with Reuben and Gad, by 
some of the Hagarites, who dwelt to the E. of 
them in Arabia ; but they subdued them and 
took possession of their country, 1 Chron. v. 
18—22. This half-tribe of Manasseh, together 
with the tribes of Reuben and Gad, covenanted 
with Moses to pass over the Jordan armed 
before their brethren, and assist them to drive 
out the Canaanites; a promise which they 
fulfilled. The united numbers of their armed 
men appear to have amounted to 44,760, 
1 Chron. v. 18. On their return home, they 
built that huge altar of Ed, which well nigh 
led to a fatal collision with the rest of the nation, 



MANASSEH. 



247 



Num. xxxii. 20—32, ; Josh. iv. 12., xxii. 1. 9, 
10, 11. 13. 15. 21. 30, 31. The remaining half- 
tribe of Manasseh had their inheritance allotted 
to them on this side Jordan ; for which purpose 
one of their number was chosen to cast lots 
before the Tabernacle in Shiloh, to divide the 
land amongst the nine tribes and a half, that 
had not yet received their inheritance, Num. 
xxxiv. 23. ; Josh. xiii. 7., xvii. 2. 5, 6., xxii. 

7. Moses was permitted by God to view from 
the top of Pisgah this territory of Manasseh, 
though not to cross the Jordan, Deut. xxxiv. 2. 
It appears to have been at first inteinningled 
with that of Ephraim, Josh. xvi. 4. 9., xvii. 

8. 17. ; 1 Chron. vii. 29. ; but eventually the 
R. Kanah served in a general way for the 
W. part of their border, Josh. xvii. 9, 10. 
Their territory extended likewise into the pos- 
sessions of Issachar and Asher, xvii. 11. Upon 
their complaining, together with Ephraim, of 
the smallness of their lot, Joshua bade them go 
and enlarge their border by taking possession 
of the wood country and the mountains near 
them, which they appear to have done, and 
then each to have had sufficient territory, Josh, 
xvii. 14 — 18. The inheritance of this half-tribe 
of Manasseh was thus bounded on the S. by 
Ephraim, on the E, by the R. Jordan, which 
parted it from Gad ; on the N. by Issachar, Ze- 
bulun, and Asher ; on the W. by the Great Sea, 
Josh. xvii. 7 — 11. It contained two Levitical 
cities, Avhich were allotted to the Kohathites, 
viz., Tanach and Gath-rimmon, Josh. xxi. 5, 25. 
otherwise Aner and Bileam, 1 Chron. vi. 61. 70. 
The Manassites were not able to drive out the 
Canaanites from their cities; though when 
the Israelites waxed stronger, they put them 
to tribute, Josh. xvii. 12, 13. ; Judg. i. 27, 28. 
Gideon belonged to Manasseh on this side 
Jordan, dwelling at Ophrah of the Abiezrites, 
one of the families of this half-tribe. Josh. xvii. 
2.; Judg. vi. 11. 15. 24., vii. 27. 32. There 
an angel of the Lord appeared to him, and sent 
him to deliver Israel out of the hand of the 
Midianites, which, with the assistance of Ma- 
nasseh and other tribes, he fully accomplished, 
Judg. vi. 34, 35., vii. 23., viii. 2. Jephthah 
likewise belonged to the tribe of Manasseh 
beyond Jordan, Judg. xi. 1., and by the assist- 
ance of God, mightily delivered Israel from 
the oppressive yoke of the Ammonites; a 
service for which the tribe of Ephraim quar- 
relled with him (as they had formerly done 
with Gideon upon a like occasion), reproaching 
the Gileadites as being fugitives of Ephraim 
among the Ephraimites and Manassites. This 



reviling cost the Ephraimites the life of 42,000 of 
their tribe, Judg. xi 29., xii. 4. 

Some of the Manassites joined David, when 
he was lying at Ziklag to avoid the vengeance of 
Saul, 1 Chron. xii. 19, 20. ; and others from both 
parts of the tribe went up to Hebron to assist 
in making him king of Israel after Saul's death, 
xii. 31. 37. ; Ps. Ix. 7., cviii. 8. In process of 
time, they had ofiicers and governors appointed 
over them (as was the case with all the tribes), 
some of whom were chosen from amongst each 
half of the tribe, 1 Chron. xxvi. 32., xxvii. 20, 
21. Both di\asions took part with Jeroboam, 
and joined the kingdom of Israel, 1 Kgs. xii. 20, 
21. ; though it would appear, notwithstanding, 
that the pious people among them, as amongst 
all the other tribes, came to J erusalem for some 
years to sacrifice, 1 Chron. xi. 16. ; which was 
especially the case in the time of Asa, when 
many of them joined that good king in making 
a solemn covenant with God, 2 Chron. xv. 9. 
But as years passed on, they, like all the rest of 
Israel, fell away more and more from the true 
religion into the idolatrous practices of the 
heathen ; for which they suffered in many ways, 
particularly in the days of their king Jehu, when 
Hazael, king of Syria greatly harassed the half- 
tribe in Gilead, 2 Kgs. x. 32, 33. Yet this 
warning being disregarded, they were at length 
carried captive, b,c. 740, together with Reuben, 
Gad, Naphtali, and parts of Galilee, by Tiglath- 
Pileser, king of Assyria, 2 Kgs. xv. 29. ; 1 Chron. 
V. 26. For all this, whilst the judgments of God 
and their enemies straitened them on every 
side, they appear to have become so infatuated 
as to destroy each other without mercy ; Ma- 
nasseh Ephraim, and Ephraim Manasseh, and 
both against Judah, Isa. ix. 21. Hezekiah, king 
of Judah, endeavoured to recover from idolatry 
the Manassites who were left on this side Jordan, 
but though some of them came up to his great 
Passover, the majority of them scoi'ned the in- 
vitation, and persevered in their wicked ways, 
2 Chron. xxx. 1. 10, 11. 18., xxxi. 1.: five years 
after which, this remaining half-tribe, together 
with the rest of the kingdom of Israel, was taken 
captive by Shalmaneser, king of Assyria, B.C. 
721, 2 Kgs. xvii. 6. 23. Some of them, however, 
appear to have escaped or to have been left in 
the land; and these, Josiah, king of Judah, tried 
to bring back to the good old way, 2 Chron. 
xxxiv. 6. 9. A few of them returned home with 
Zerubbabel at the end of the seventy years' cap- 
tivity of the kingdom of Judah, and dwelt in 
Jerusalem, 1 Chron. ix. 3. St. John in his vision, 
saw twelve thousand sealed of this tribe, Rev. 
e4 



248 MANASSITES^ 



MASH. 



vii. 6. The prophet Ezekiel, in his prediction 
concerning the restoration of the Jews to their 
own land in the latter days, assigns one portion 
to Manasseh, which he places the fourth in order 
from the K between Naphtali and Ephraim., 
Ezek. xlviii. 4, 5. : but it is observable, that 
there is no gate in the New City to be called 
either after Manasseh or Ephraira, one " Gate of 
Joseph " representing both, Ezek. xlviii. 32. 

MANASSITES, the children or tribe of Ma- 
nasseh, Deut. iv. 43. ; Judg, xii, 4. ; 2 Kgs. 
X. 33. 

MAON, a city of the tribe of Judah, in the 
mountains, towards its S. frontier. Josh. xv. 55. 
It was in a wilderness of the same name, which 
appears to have been a part of Jeshimon or the 
Great Wilderness of Judah, on the W. shores of 
the Dead Sea. Here David took refuge from 
Saul in the neighbourhood of that Carmel where 
Nabal dwelt, whose churlishness called out 
David's indignation, 1 Sam. xxiii. 24, 25., xxv. 2. 

MAONITES, the name of a tribe connected 
apparently with the Amalekites, who oppressed 
Israel in the time of the judges, Judg. x. 12. 
The}" are conjectured to have dwelt in Edom, 
where, a few miles to the E. of Petra, is a place 
still called 3Iaan. These Maonites are identified 
by some with the Mihaammonim of 2 Chron. 
XX. 1. (rendered in our translation "other beside 
the Ammonites"), who together with the Moabites 
and Ammonites, attacked Jehoshaphat, and were 
routed by him ; and also with the Mehunims, 
2 Chron. xxvi. 7., whom Uzziah conquered, and 
who are mentioned in conjunction with the 
Arabians and Ammonites. 

MARAH (i.e. ^tVferwess), a place in the Desert 
of Sinai, three days distant from that part of the 
Red Sea crossed by the Israelites in their return 
out of Egypt. Its waters were so bitter, that 
the people could not drink them, until they were 
sweetened by Moses casting into them a tree 
which the Lord showed him, Ex. xv. 23. ; Num. 
xxxiii. 8, 9. There is still a large bitter pool 
in the same neighbourhood, which the natives 
call Amarah or Hawarah. 

MARALAH, a place in the inheritance of the 
tribe of Zebulun, toward the sea. Josh. xix. 11. 

MARESHAH, a city of the tribe of Judah, in 
the great Valley, Josh. xv. 44. It was enlarged 
and fortified by Rehoboam, as a defence against 
the Philistines and the kingdom of Israel, 
2 Chron. xi. 8. Near it was the Valley of Zepha- 
thah, where Asa met Zerah the Ethiopian, with 
his huge host of 1,000,000 of followers, whom 



by the help of God, he overthrew, and chased 
them out of his dominions, 2 Chron. xiv. 9., 
xvi. 8. The prophet Micah, i. 15., mentions it 
in his predictions concerning the coming desola- 
tions of Judah, probably on account of its being 
a noted place of defence; and also, as some 
think, from its being his own birth- place, wheuce 
he is called the Morasthite, Jer. xxvi. 18. ; 
Mic. i. 1. It was, likewise, the countr}^ of that 
Eliezer the prophet who foretold to Jehoshaphat 
the destruction of those ships which he had 
built in conjunction with Ahaziah, king of 
Israel, 2 Chron. xx. 37. The Edomites seized 
it, as they did most of the cities in the S. of 
Judah, during the seventy years' captivity, which 
occasions J osephus to reckon it to Idumsea ; but 
the Maccabees got possession of it again, and 
repaired it. In 2 Mace. xii. 35., it appears to be 
mentioned under the name of Marisa, as the 
place whither Gorgias escaped, after having 
nearly been slain in abattle with Judas Maccabjeus 
on the borders of Idumsea. When it fell into 
decay, Gabinius, the Roman governor of Syria, 
restored it ; but it was eventually destroyed by 
the Parthians in the wars of Herod. Eusebiixs 
describes it as lying ruinated in his day, and 
about 2 miles from Eleutheropolis. Its site is 
now called Maressa. 
MARISA, 2 Mace. xii. 35. See Mareshah. 

MAROTH, a town of Judah, Mic. i. 1 2., 
which, from the context, is thought to have been 
adjacent to Jerusalem, and appears to have been 
involved in its ruin. 

MARS' HILL, Acts xvii. 22. See Areo- 
pagus. 

MASALOTH, a place before which Bacchides 
and Alcimus pitched their tents, when they 
came a second time to attack the Jews, 1 Mace. 
ix. 2. It is said by the apocryphal writer to 
have been in Arbela, near or in Galgala, i.e. 
Galilee. Perhaps it was near the mouth of the 
R. Kishon, on the borders of Phoenice and 
Galilee, in the neighbourhood of Mashal, 1 Chron. 
vi. 74., a Levitical city of the tribe of Asher. 
See Arbela. 

MASH, the youngest son of Aram, and the 
grandson of Shem, Gen. x. 23., called Meshech 
in 1 Chron. i. 17. His descendants, on the 
division of the world, appear to have settled 
about the sources of the R. Euphrates and 
Tigris ; where we meet in profane authors with 
a mountain called Mas! us, the R. Masca, the 
district Moxoene, the tribes of the Moschici and 
Masiani, and the Moschici Montes ; all betray- 
ing evident traces of the ancient name. 



MASHAL. 



MEDIA. 



249 



MASHAL, a Levitical city of the tribe of 
Asher, near Mt. Carmel, which was assigned to 
the Gershonites, 1 Chron. vi. 74. In the parallel 
passage of Joshua, xxi. 30., it is called Mishal, 
and at xix. 26., Misheal. See Masaloth. 

MASPHA, 1 Mace. iii. 46., v. 35. See Miz- 

PEH. 

MASREKAH, a royal city of Edom, Gen. 
xxxvi. 86. ; 1 Chron. i. 47. ; perhaps where now 
stands Kerek el Shobak, an important position 
near Mt. Hor, about midway between the Bead 
Sea and the Arabian Gulf. 

MASSAH (i. e. Temptation), a place near Re- 
phidim in Mt. Horeb, where the Israelites 
murmured against Moses from want of water. 
Upon this, God promised to stand upon the 
rock in Horeb, and commanded Moses to smite 
it, whereupon water should flow out for the 
people to drink, Ex. xvii, 7. ; whence its name, 
because there the people tempted God. The 
place was also called Meribah (i. e. Chiding), be- 
cause there they strove with Moses. They 
were afterwards often reminded of their pro- 
vocation here, and warned not to repeat it, 
Deut. vi. 16., ix. 22., xxxiii. 8. Cf. 1 Cor. x. 4. 

MATTANAH, a station of the Israelites in 
their journeying to Canaan, after they had 
crossed the R. Arnon, in the Plain country of 
Moab, and not far from Mt. Pisgah, Num. xxi. 
18, 19. According to Eusebius and Jerome, it 
was 12 miles to the E. of Medeba. 

MEAH, TOWER OF, one of the towers on the 
wall of Jei-usalem, on the E. side, near the 
sheep-gate, which was rebuilt by the Jews 
under Nehemiah, Neh. iii. 1., xii. 39. Cf. Ps. 
-xlviii. 12. 

MEARAH (or the Cave), a place near the 
Sidonians, at the N. extremity of Canaan, men- 
tioned by Joshua, xiii. 4., as bounding the 
territory in that direction, which }-et remained 
to be conquered by the Israelites. 

MECHERATHITE, a patronym.ic of one of 
David's mighty men, 1 Chron. xi. 36., whence 
derived is not known. See Maachathites. 

MEDEBA, a city of the Amorites beyond 
Jordan, which had been taken by them from 
the Moabites, and Avas again taken by Moses 
from Sihon, Num. xxi, 30., and given to the 
tribe of Reuben, Josh. xiii. 9. 16. It stood in a 
plain of the same name, in the E. part of 
the Reubenite territory, near the borders of 
Arabia. It was here that the Syrians pitched 
their camp when they came to assist the Am- 



monites against David, and were signally beaten 
by Joab, 1 Chron. xix. 7. Cf. 2 Sam. x. 8. 
The prophet Isaiah, xv. 2., in his predictions 
concerning the desolation of Moab, mentions it 
as one of their cities ; probably from the Moab- 
ites having taken possession of it after the 
Reubenites had been led captive by Tiglath- 
Pileser, about fifteen years before, 1 Chron. v. 
26. In the time of the Maccabees, it was in- 
habited by a tribe of Arabs, called the children 
of Jambri, who having cut off John, the brother 
of Judas Maccabseus, as he was going on an 
embassy to the Nabathites, his brethren re- 
venged his death on them by killing a great 
many of the tribe as they were conducting a 
bride from Nadabatha, 1 Mace. ix. 36, 37., or 
Medeba, marg. There is still a town of the 
same name about 5 miles S.E, from Heshbon, a 
situation which accords with that assigned to it 
by Eusebius. 

MEDES, the inhabitants of 

MEDIA, a country of Asia, the boundaries of 
which are very differently given, and varied 
much, according to the period of its history. 
It is fancied by some to have derived its name 
from Madai, the son of Japheth ; but as the de- 
scendants of this patriarch appear to have settled 
mostly in Europe, and those of Shem in Asia, it 
appears unlikely that this Madai would have 
penetrated so far into the possessions of Shem's 
family; if, therefore, the Modes derived their 
name from Madai, it was more probably from 
one of this name descended from Shem. Strictly 
speaking, and in the earlier period of its history, 
the country of Media was bounded on the W. 
by Assyria, on the N. by Armenia and the 
Caspian Sea, on the E. by Hyrcania and Parthia, 
on the S. by Persis and Susiana; thus cor- 
responding nearly with the modern Persian 
province of Irak. The Modes are stated to have 
been conquered by Ninus, the founder of the 
Assyrian empire, who made it a province of his 
dominions. They continued subject to the As- 
syrian yoke for more than 500 years; but at 
length, Arbaces the Mede boldly asserted the 
independence of his nation, and in conjunction 
with Belesis the Babylonian, besieged Nineveh 
for three years, until Sardanapalus, the Assyrian 
king, burned himself in his palace, and Nineveh 
was reduced, b. c. 817. It would seem, however, 
as if they again became subject to their old 
masters ; since we read in Holy Scripture of two 
of the Assyrian monarchs carrying captive the 
kingdom of the Ten Tribes, and placing some of 
them in the cities of the Medes ; viz. Tiglath- 



250 



MEDIA. 



Pileser, b.c. 740, 2 Kgs. xv. 29.; 1 Chron. v. 
26,; and Shalmaneser, b.c. 721, 2 Kgs. xvii. 6. 
23., xviii. 11. The scene of the story in the 
apocryphal book of Tobit, who is stated to have 
been one of those captives, is laid soon after this 
in Media, Tobit i. 14, 15., xi. 15., xiv. 4., about 
the cities of Rages, iv. 1. 20., ix. 2., and Ec- 
batana, iii. 7., vii. 1., xiv. 12. 14. ; and in 
Nineveh, i. 17. 22., vii. 3., xi. 16., xiv. 10. 15. 

But Sennacherib's distant campaigns, the loss 
of his o^vn army in Judjea, his subsequent 
violent death, and the confusion which there- 
upon arose in his kingdom, 2 Kgs. xix. 35 — 87., 
appear to have induced the Medes once more to 
throw off the Assyrian yoke, about 709, b.c, 
under their king Dejoces; whose son reduced 
Persia, and all Asia Minor as far as the R. 
Halys, under the power of the Medes. Dejoces 
is conjectured by some to be the same with that 
Arphaxad who reigned over the Medes in 
Ecbatana, mentioned in Judith i. 1. The son 
and successor of this last king was Cyaxares, 
who with the assistance of Nabopolassar, king of 
Babylon, took and destroyed Nineveh, as the 
prophet Nahum had foretold, about 612, B.C.; 
whereupon Assyria became a province of the 
Median kingdom. His grandson, Cyaxares 11., 
called in the Bible Darius the Mede, Dan. v. 31., 
vi. 1. 6. 9. 25. 28., ix. 1., xi. 1., was the sovereign 
in whose reign Daniel was cast into the den of 
lions. This prince becoming involved in a 
troublesome war with Babylon, aided by other 
confederate nations, at length gave the command 
of his army to the victorious Cyrus, the reputed 
son of Cambyses ; the two nations of the Medes 
and Persians being henceforward united hy name 
in one kingdom, the Medo-Persian kingdom, as 
they had long been in fact, Esth. i. 3. 14. 18, 19., 
X. 2. ; Isa. xxi. 2. ; Dan. v. 28., vi. 8. 12. 15., viii. 
20. ; 1 Esd. iii. 1. ; Judith xvi. 10. Cyrus con- 
quered the allies of Babylon ; and eventually, as 
the prophets had long foretold, the proud city of 
Babylon itself, when Belshazzar, its last king, 
was slain at his impious feast, b. c. 538, Dan. v. 
SO, 31 ; and now Babylon became a province of 
the Medo-Persian kingdom. The prophets 
Isaiah and Jeremiah especially described the 
JMedes and Persians as instruments and exe- 
cutioners of God's decrees against Babylon, Isa. 
xiii. 17, 18., xxi. 2, 3. ; Jer. li. 11. 28. 

Two years afterwards, Darius, king of Media, 
and Cambyses, king of Persia, being dead, Cyrus 
succeeded to the government of the whole united 
empire, B.C. 536. According to other accounts, 
however, Cyrus stirred up his countrymen to cast 
off the yoke of the Medes, whom he defeated in 



a great battle near the R. Cores or Cyrus. After 
this he soon brought the Avhole of Media within 
his grasp, but from the acknovfledged superiority 
of the latter country, both in arts and arms, over 
that of the former, the two names were for a 
time united together, and the dominions of Cyrus 
described as the kingdom of the Persians and 
Medes, Esth. i. 3. 18, 19. In the first year of 
his reign, Cyrus published the famous edict, 
whereby all the Israelites were allowed to return 
from their captivity in any part of his dominions 
and to rebuild their Temple ; restoring to them, 
at the same time, all the sacred vessels which 
Nebuchadnezzar had brought from that city, 2 
Chron. xxxvi. 22, 23. ; Ezra i. 1—4. 7—9. Cf. 
2 Esd. i. 3. From this time forward, the 
history of Media becomes rather the history of 
Persia; and the prophecy of Jeremiah became 
fulfilled, that the Medes in their turn should 
drink of the cup of God's wrath, xxv. 25. The 
story of Esther belongs, probably, to the era of 
one of the successors of Cyrus, about 519, b.c. 
but which of them, is very much disputed. The 
monarch who then ruled, is called Ahasuerus in 
the Bible, Ezra iv. 6. ; Esth. i. 1. ; and the extent 
of his vast dominions was from India to Ethi- 
opia, over 127 provinces, of which Media, strictly 
so called, appears to have been one, Ezra vi. 2. 
About two centuries later. Media, together with 
the whole of the Persian monarchy, sank under 
the power of Alexander the Great, about 330, 
B.C., Dan. viii. 20. ; 1 Mace. i. 1. ; but after his 
death, it fell to the lot of Seleucus Nicator, and 
became a part of the new Syrian kingdom, until 
after many changes, it was finally seized by the 
Parthians. Cf. 1 Mace. vi. 56„ viii. 8,, xiv. 1, 2. 
The Medes, however, appear to have still re- 
mained a distinct people ; and we find them in 
the New Testament times mentioned as even 
then maintaining their own language, and having 
Jews dwelling in their country, who came up to 
Jerusalem to keep the feast of Pentecost, Acts 
ii. 9. 

The Medes were famed for their bravery and 
military prowess, as well as for their skill in the 
use of the bow, Isa. xiii. 18. ; Jer. li. 11. 28. 
They had arrived at a high state of civilisation 
and luxury, when they were subdued by the 
Persians ; their clothing was particularly splen- 
did, and they were far advanced in the cultivation 
of arts, manufactures, and commerce, Esth. i. 
3 — 7. They were also remarkable for the homage 
which they paid to their sovereign, whom they 
pompously addressed as the king of kings; a 
title afterwards adopted by the Persians, and 
still used in the time of the Romans ; hence per- 



MEGIDDO. 



MELITA. 



251 



haps their almost idolatrous regard to any law 
he had signed, Dan. vi. 8. 15. The chief cities 
of the Medes were Achmetha or Ecbatana, its 
metropolis, Ezra vi. 2., and Rages. 

MEGIDDO otherwise Mageddo, an ancient 
royal city of Canaan, in the W. part, at the foot 
of Mt. Carmel, and no great way from the Me- 
diterranean Sea. Its king was conquered by 
J osliua, and on the division of the land, it was 
assigned to the half-tribe of Manasseh on this 
side Jordan, though it appears to have been 
within the bounds of Issachar or Asher, Josh. xii. 
21., xvii. 11. ; 1 Chron. vii. 29. Manasseh did 
not drive out the Canaanites from it, though 
when strong enough to do so, they put them to 
tribute, Judg. i. 27. It stood on a small river 
called the Waters of Megiddo, on the banks 
of which some portion of the famous battle was 
fought betAveen Deborah and Barak, and Sisera 
the general of Jabin, king of Canaan, Judg. v. 19. 
This stream is perhaps that now known as the 
Kudarra, between the two rivers Kishon and 
Kanah, Megiddo was one of the chief places in 
the purveyorship of Baana, who was one of the 
twelve officers appointed by Solomon over all 
Israel, to provide victuals for the king and his 
household. It was also enlarged and fortified by 
Solomon, 1 Kgs. iv. 12., ix. 15. Hither Ahaziah, 
king of Judah, fled when pursued by Jehu, after 
the slaughter of Jorara, king of Israel ; and here 
he died of the wounds he had received, 2 Kgs. 
ix. 27. But Megiddo is best known, from the 
battle fought there between Pharaoh-Nechoh, 
king of Egypt, and Josiah, king of Judah, when 
the latter was slain on the field, 2 Kgs. xxiii. 
29, 30. ; 2 Chron. xxxv. 22. ; 1 Esd. i..29. The 
scene of this engagement was near Hadadrimmon 
in THE Valley of Megiddo, which was pro- 
bably the W. extremity of the great Plain of 
Jezreel, so often the encampment of hostile 
armies. When Josiah fell, there was great 
lamentation over him ; and such, the prophet 
Zechariah informs us, shall be the mourning of 
the Jews when brought to true repentance for 
their sins against their Messiah, after their 
return to their own land in the latter day, Zech. 
xii. 11. The site of Megiddo is thought to be 
at a place now called Schiz, about 6 or 8 miles 
S.E. of Ctesarea. 

MEHIDA, THE CHILDREN OF, a family 
of the Nethinims, who returned home with 
Zerubbabel after the seventy years' captivity, 
Ezra ii. 52. ; Neh. vii. 54. 

MEHOLATHITE, a patronymic of that Bar- 
zillai whose grandsons were put to death on 



the occasion of the famine about the Gibeonites, 
2 Sam. xxi. 8. It does not appear whence it 
was derived, though it was perhaps from Abel- 
Meholah ; which see. 

MEHUNIM (or Meukim), CHILDREN OF, 
a family of the Nethinims, who returned from 
Babylon under Zerubbabel after the edict of 
Cyrus in favour of the Jews, Ezra ii. 50. ; Neh. 
vii. 52. They may have perhaps dwelt at 
Maon, a city in the S. of Judah. See Maok. 

MEHUNIMS, a people conquered by Uzziah, 
king of Judah, 2 Chron, xxvi. 7. See Maon- 
ites. 

MEJARKON, a city of the tribe of Dan, 
probably not far from Joppa, Josh. xix. 46. 

MEKONAH, a town in the S. of the tribe 
of Judah, which was re-inhabited by the Jews 
after their return from the Babylonian capti- 
vity, Neh. xi. 28. 

MELITA, Acts xxviii. 1., a small island in 
the Mediterranean Sea, lying about 50 miles 
off the S.E. coast of Sicily, now called 3Ialta. 
Here the ship was wrecked which was carrying 
St. Paul a pi-isoner to Rome, who after staying 
three months in the island, preaching the 
gospel and performing many miracles, was 
taken by the centurion who had charge of him ta 
Syracuse, Rhegium, and so on to Rome. It 
was colonised by the Phoenicians at a very early 
period ; but was taken from them by the Greek 
colonists in Sicily, who are said to have given 
it the name of Melita, on account of its excel- 
lent honey. Its possession was long disputed 
between these Greeks and the Carthaginians, 
who after dividing it with them for a time, at 
length become its sole masters. Aa long as 
Carthage stood, it was one of the great depots 
for their merchandise, and a station for their 
ships. The Romans took it from them in the 
first Punic war, but soon lost it again, though 
it eventually passed into their power through 
a treaty made with their great rivals. The 
Romans made it municipal, allowing the people 
to be governed by their own laws, under an 
officer, who at the time of Paul's shipwreck, 
appears to have been Publius. In the year 
1530, it was given by the Emperor Charles V» 
to the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem, who- 
held it for about 270 years, and made Valetta^ 
its chief city, one of the strongest places in the 
world. It now belongs to the British crown. 

Some have conjectured that the Melita where 
Paul was wrecked, is an island now called Meleda, 
off the coast of Illyricum, a long way up the 



252 MEMPHIS. 



MEEARITES, THE. 



Adriatic Sea. But this seems altogether un- 
likely ; for then no fear could have been reason- 
ably entertained of the ship's being driven into 
the Syrtis on the coast of Africa, Acts xxvii. 
17., by such a wind as would carry them thither ; 
nor would they have been likely to have escaped 
being cast on the coasts of Greece. Besides, 
the centurion would then have taken Paul to 
Brundusium, on the E. coast of Italy, and at 
that time the great port of Rome on this side, 
instead of going all round so far out of the way 
to Syracuse ; added to all which this latter Melita 
was far too inconsiderable a place to have had 
any such officer posted there as Publius. 

MEMPHIS, Hos. ix. 6. ; Judith j. 10. See 

NOPH. 

MEE"UCHITES, 1 Chron. ii. 52. 54., marg. 
See Majstahath. 

MEONENIM, THE VhKm OF, a plain 
near Shechem, by which one of the invading 
parties under Abimelech came, when he was 
endeavouring to regain the city after his expul- 
sion from it, Judg. ix. 37. It was probably a 
part of the great Plain of Sharon to the W. of 
Shechem, towards the coast of the Mediterra- 
nean Sea. 

MEPHAATH, a city beyond Jordan in the 
old kingdom of Sihon, king of the Amorites, 
which Moses gave to the tribe of Reuben, Josh, 
xiii. 18. ; but which was eventually assigned to 
the Levites of the family of Merari, Josh. xxi. 
37. ; 1 Chron. vi. 79. It was seized upon by 
the Moabites, after the trans-Jordanic tribes 
had been carried captive by Tiglath-Pileser, 
1 Chron. v. 26. ; and hence we find it enu- 
merated amongst the cities of Moab, the coming 
desolation of which was foretold by the prophet 
Jeremiah, xlviii. 21. It was probably near 
Jahazah, in the S. part of the Reubenites' terri- 
tory. 

MERAN, a place mentioned by the apocry- 
phal writer of Baruch, iii. 28., as celebrated for 
its merchandise and also its fables and wisdom. 
It was probably in Idumasa. 

MERARITES, THE, so named after Merari, 
the youngest son of Levi, Gen. xlvi. 11. ; Ex. vi. 
16. 19. ; Num. iii. 17. 20. ; 1 Chron. vi. 1. 16. 
19. 29. 44. They are likewise called the sons or 
children of Merari. They formed one of the 
three great divisions of the Levites, who were 
given to the priests, the sons of Aaron, for the 
service of the Tabernacle, in place of the first- 
born, Num. iii. 9. 12. 45—51. When the 
Merarites were numbered by Moses soon after 



the Exodus, they amounted to 6200 males from 
a month old and upwards. Num. iii. 33, 34.; 
but the number of men appointed to do the 
work of the Tabernacle of the congregation, 
was only 3200, Num. iv. 29. 42. 44, 45. They 
appear to have somewhat increased when they 
were again numbered by Moses thirty-eight years 
afterwards, in the Plains of Moab, though only 
the sum total of all the Levites is then given, 
Num. xxvi. 57.. 62. ; and still further to have 
increased in the reign of David, 1 Chron. xxiii. 
3. 6. 21. They were to enter fully upon their 
office when thirty years old, and to continue in 
it until fifty, though it would appear, that some 
of their duties, either in their service of ministry 
or of burdens, commenced when they were 
twenty-five years, and in the days of David, 
when they were twenty years old, Num. iv. 3. 
23. 30. 47., viii. 24, 25. ; 1 Chron. xxiii. 3. 24. 
27. Their charge was, not only to perform 
their service, and to do the work in the Taber- 
nacle of the congregation, but also, after they 
had assisted to take down the Tabernacle, to 
bear its boards, bars, pillars, sockets, pins, cords, 
vessels, and all that belonged to them, as well 
as their own instruments of service, during 
all the journeyings of Israel, Num. iii. 36, 37., 
iv. 29. 31. 33., and also to erect it again in the 
appointed place, i. 51., x. 17. 21. ; having four 
wagons and eight oxen allowed them for some 
of their burdens, vii. 8. When marching, they 
followed the standard of the camp of Judah 
(which included the tribe of Judah, Issachar, 
and Zebulun), immediately after the Gershonites, 
and were followed by the camp of Reuben (in- 
cluding Reuben, Simeon, and Gad), Num. x. 17. 
When encamped, they pitched on the side of the 
Tabernacle northward, iii. 35. After the divi- 
sion of Canaan amongst the Israelites by Joshua, 
the Merarites had twelve cities, with their 
suburbs, appointed them for their inheritance ; 
viz. out of the tribes of 

Zebulun. Reuben. 
Jokneam. Bezer 

(a City of Refuge.') 
Kartah. Jahazah. 
Dimnah. Kedemoth. 
Nahalal. Mephaath. 



Gad. 
Ramoth in Gilead 

(a City of Refuge.) 
Mahanaim. 
Heshbon. 
Jazer. 



MERATHAIM, LAIS^D OF. 



MESECH. 253 



Josh. xxi. 7. 34:— 40. ; 1 Chron. vi. 63. 77—81. 
They were divided by lot into courses for the 
work of their ministry in the time of David, 1 
Chron. xxiv. 26. They are mentioned in 2 
Chron. xxix. 12., as having joined with the rest 
of their brethren in assisting King Hezekiah to 
cleanse the Temple, and to restore the worship 
of God ; a good work, in which they also en- 
gaged in the reign of Josiah, 2 Chron. xxxiv. 
12. A few of them returned to Jerusalem with 
Ezra, Ezra viii. 19., upon the occasion of Ar- 
taxerxes making his decree in favour of the 
Jews, B.C. 457, about seventy-nine years after 
the edict of Cyrus, when the seventy years' cap- 
tivity in Babylon ended. 

MERATHAIM, LAND OF (i.e. of the Rebels), 
an appellation which the prophet Jeremiah, 
1. 21., appears to apply to Babylon when fore- 
telling its destruction; whether it was also 
really the name of some country or kingdom 
dependent upon this vast monarchy is not 
known. 

MERCHANT CITY, THE, otherwise Canaan 
in the original, a name given to Tyre, the great 
merchant city of the world in those days, by the 
prophet Isaiah, xxiii. 11., when predicting its 
ruin. 

MERIBAH (i.e. Chiding or Strife), the name 
given to two distinct stations of the Israelites in 
the Great Desert of Mt. Sinai or Shur, during 
their forty years' wandering there. The first of 
these was near Rephidim, in Mt. Horeb, where 
the Israelites murmured against Moses, from 
want of water. Hereupon, God was pleased to 
promise, that He would stand upon the rock in 
Horeb, and commanded Moses to smite it with 
his rod, when water should flow out for the 
people to drink, Ex. xvii. 7. ; whence its name 
Meribah, because there the people strove -ndth 
Moses. Itwas also called Massah (i.e. Temptation), 
because there the Israelites tempted God, Deut. 
xxxiii. 8. ; Ps. Ixxxi. 7. 

The other Meribah was more than 100 miles 
N.E. of the former, not far from Mt. Hor, 
and on the borders of Edom, and was the place 
where Miriam died. It was in the Wilderness of 
Zin or Kadesh, and hence it is called Meribah- 
Kadesh. The circumstances which gave rise to 
the name were much the same as the former, and 
happened thirty-eight years afterwards. The 
people murmured for want of water, whereupon 
God commanded Moses to speak to the rock, and it 
should give forth water for the congregation and 
their beasts to drink ; but instead of this, Moses 



smote the rock tvvice, when the water came out 
abundantly. For this offence, and for speaking 
to the people unadvisedly with their lips, Num. 
XX. 10., Ps. cvi. 33., God declared that Moses and 
Aaron should not bring the congregation into the 
land He had given them. Num. xx. 13. 24., xxvii, 
14. ; Deut. xxxii. 51., xxxiii. 8. ; Ps. Ixxxi. 7., 
cvi. 32. It is this last Meribah (or the Waters of 
Strife in Kadesh, as it is rendered in our transla- 
tion) which is to be one of the points in the S. 
boundary of the tribe of Gad, and of the whole 
land of Israel, at the future restoration of the 
Jews, Ezek. xlvii. 19., xlviii. 28. Cf. 1 Cor. 
X. 4. 

MEROM, WATERS OF, a small round lake, 
now called Huleh. Through it the R. Jordan 
runs, soon after the junction of the two streams 
which form the river. It lay between the 
two tribes Naphtali on the W. and Manasseh 
beyond Jordan on the E. Here Jabin, king 
of Canaan, and all his confederates, pitched 
their camp together to fight against Israel ; and 
here Joshua fell upon them, and smote them 
until they left none remaining. Josh. xi. 5. 7. It 
is called Samachonites, or Semechonitis, by the 
classical authors and by Josephus. 

MERONOTHITE, a patronymic of one of 
David's servants, whom he set over the asses, 1 
Chron. xxvii. 30. ; and also of one of those who 
rebuilt the wall of Jerusalem in the time of 
Nehemiah, Neh. iii. 7. Its origin does not 
appear. 

MEROZ, a place the inhabitants of which 
did not come to the assistance of Deborah and 
Barak when fighting against Sisera, for which a 
curse was pronounced against it by Deborah, 
Judg. v. 23. It was probably near the scene of 
conflict, and is identified by many with a spot 
now called Mezra, 22 miles N. of Samaria; 
though Eusebius and Jerome conjecture it to 
have been the same with a place called Merrus 
in their days, only 12 miles N. of Samaria. 

MESECH or Meshech, a nation of Europe, so 
called after Meshech, the sixth son of Japheth, 
Gen. X. 2., 1 Chron. i. 6., whose descendants 
are conjectured to have settled in the N.E. part 
of Asia Minor and in N. Armenia ; where traces 
of their name may be met with in the people 
called Moschi, the Moschici Montes, and the 
district Moxoene, all frequently mentioned 
by profane authors. Colonies of them are 
thought to have proceeded northward over the 
Caucasus, where they settled in the S.E. parts of 
the continent of Europe, under the little-altered 



254 MESHACH. 



IMESOPOTAMIA. 



name of 3Ioscovites or 3Iuscovites. The t"wo 
passages in Ezekiel, xxxviii. 2., xxxix. 1., 
which our translation renders " chief prince 
of Meshech and Tubal," are in other versions, 
particularly the Septuagint, rendered " prince of 
Eosh, Meshech, and Tubal." It is also stated 
that the E. Araxes, which flows through 
Armenia into the Caspian Sea, was once called 
Eosh by the Arabians, and that on its banks 
dwelt a people named Eosh or Eossi ; and that 
these last, migrating into Europe, settled S. of 
the Iluscovites, towards the Taurica Chersonesus 
or Crimea, where they were long known as the 
Tauri or Eos, a name since altered to that of 
Russians, as Meshech seems retained in that of 
Moscow. 

David laments in Ps. cxx. 5., that he so- 
journed in Mesech; meaning, probably, not that 
he ever actually dwelt amongst this particular 
race, but that the people who so remorselessly 
persecuted him, as Saul, Doeg, the Ziphites, 
Keilites, &c., partook of the wicked and cruel 
character of these distant barbarians. The pro- 
phet Ezekiel, xxvii. 13., speaks of them in con- 
junction with Javan and Tubal, as trading with 
Tyre in slaves and brass ; a trade which is kno^ra 
to have been carried on by the tribes dwelling 
to the S.E. of the Black Sea, in the regions 
where were the early settlements of Meshech. 
He also mentions them, xxxii, 26., amongst 
the uncircumcised nations, who though once a 
terror to others, shall in due time be cast down 
ynih shame into the pit ; especially, after their 
combining with Gog and Magog, in their inva- 
sion of the land of Israel, on the future return 
of the Jews thither, Ezek. xxx^dii. 2, 3., 
xxxix. 1. 

MESHACH, a people descended from the 
youngest son of Aram, Avho was the youngest son 
of Shem, 1 Chron. i. 17. In Gen. x. 23., he is 
called Mash ; which see. 

MESHA, one of the borders (probably the W.) 
of the dwellings of the sons of Joktan, a 
descendant of Shem in the fourth generation ; 
their other frontier was Sephar, " a mount of the 
East," Gen. x. 30. Mesha is conjectured by 
some to have been the same with that range of 
mountains which runs through the X. part of 
Mesopotamia, and connects itself with IMt. 
Taurus on the frontiers of Syria and Asia 
IVIinor. This range is called Masius in the 
profane authors, and is now known as Karadja 
Dag. Others identify Mesha with a country 
about the mouths of the Euphrates and Tigris, 
anciently called Maishon by the Syrians, and 



; Mesene by the Greeks ; in the neighbourhood of 
which, about the modern Bassora, one of the old 
Arabian geographers mentions two cities which 
he calls Maisan and Mushan. 

MESOBAITE, a patronymic of one of David's 
mighty men, whence derived does not appear, 1 
Chron. xi. 47. 

MESOPOTAMIA, a country in the W. of 
Asia, so named by the Greeks from its lying 
between rivers, viz. the Euphrates and Tigris ; and 
hence also sometimes styled by them Syria inter 
Fluvios. The Hebrews called it Aram-Naharaim 
i.e. Aram of or between the two rivers, Judg. iii. 
8., mai-g. ; Ps. Ix. title ; but in our version of the 
Bible it is usually rendered by the Greek name 
^Mesopotamia, though Aram or Ara31-Xaha- 
RALM may be occasionally found in the margin. 
The X. part of this region being much more 
fruitful than the rest, was called Padan, Gen. 
xlviii. 7., or Padax-Ara:m, Gen. xxv. 20., xxvii. 
2. 5, 6, 7., xxxi. 18,, xxxiii.18., xxxv. 9. 26., xlvi. 
15., that is to sa.y fruitful or cultivated Aram ; 
which is also the signification of Sedan-Aram, by 
which the same region is distinguished in Hos. 
xii. 12., though rendered in our translation. The 
country of Syria. The inhabitants of Mesopo- 
tamia are like-vvise sometimes denominated. The 
Syrians beyond the Eiver (i.e. Euphrates), as in 
2 Sam. X. 16. ; 1 Chron. xix. 16. ; where they are 
mentioned as having come out to help the Am- 
monites against David, and being signally de- 
feated. The Greeks often included the whole ter- 
ritory between the Euphrates and Tigris, to the 
jimction of the two rivers, within the limits of 
Mesopotamia, thus comprehending a large portion 
of Babylon ; but though this was the natural boun- 
dary, yet it does not appear that the political or 
provincial name was ever used in this extended 
wa;v^. Properly speaking it was bounded on the 
E. by Assyria, on the S. by Babylon and Ara- 
bia, on the W. by Syria, and on the l!^. by Ar- 
menia ; and corresponds in a general way with 
the modem Turkish division of Al Gezira (i.e. 
the Island), a name given to it from its peninsular 
situation. Mesopotamia is first mentioned in 
the Bible under the name of the Land of Shinar, 
Gen. xi. 2., where mankind settled soon after the 
Deluge. It appears to have been governed 
by its own sovereigns, one of whom was Amra- 
phel, who joined the league of Chedorlaomer, 
king of Elam, to reconquer the nations W of the 
Euphrates ; upon which occasion Lot was taken 
prisoner, but was recovered by Abraham, Gen. 
xiv. 1. 9. About 500 years afterwards, another 
of their monai-chs is mentioned, named Chushan- 



MESOPOTAMIA. 



MIDDLE GATE, THE. 255 



rishathaim, who in the time of the judges, op- 
pressed the Israelites for eight years, until they 
were delivered by Othniel, Judg. iii. 8. 10. They 
-were probably still independent in the days 
of David, when the Ammonites hu-ed them 
to fight against Israel, 1 Chron. xis. 6.; but 
though, perhaps, they had often been rendered 
tributary for a time to their more powerful 
neighbours, they seem to have finally fallen under 
the power of the Assyrians before the reign of 
Hezekiah, king of Judah ; since Sennacherib in 
his blasphemous message and letter to him, 
includes some of the Mesopotamian cities 
amongst those which his fathers and himself 
had destroyed, 2 Kgs. xviii, 33, 34., xix. 11, 12, 
13.; Isa. xxxvi. 18, 19., xxxvii. 11, 12, 13. 
Subsequently it became an integral part of the 
great Assyrian empire, and fell with it into the 
hands of the Medes, and subsequently of the 
Persians. It is hence frequently included in the 
general names Ass^-ria and Syria (or Aram), and 
Babylon. After this, it came into the power of 
the Macedonians and the Seleucidfe ; and was 
finally seized upon by the Romans, when it 
became the scene of some of their most sangui- 
nary struggles with the Parthians and Persians, 
until Julian the Apostate withdrew to the W, of 
the R. Chaboras, which thenceforward became 
the border of Mesopotamia in that direction. 

Mesopotamia is rendered most interesting to 
us from its having been the cradle of the Hebrew 
race ; Terah, Abraham, Xahor, Sarah, Rebekah, 
Leah, Rachel, and all the sons of Jacob, except 
Benjamin, having been born here. Two of its 
cities, viz. TJr and Charran, are particularly men- 
tioned ; in the fonner of which it would appear to 
have been, that God was pleased to appear to 
Abraham, commanding him to leave his own 
countiy and his father's house, and to go into 
the Land of Promise, Gen. xi. 28. 31, 32., xii. 1.-; 
Josh. xxiv. 2, 3.; Acts vii. 2.; Judith v. 7. 
Hither, likewise, Abraham sent his servant for a 
wife for Isaac, Gen. xxiv. 10. ; and hither Jacob 
fled to his uncle Laban, to avoid the revenge 
of his brother Esau, and to get a wife who was 
not of the idolatrous families of the Canaanites, 
Gen. xxvii. 43., xx\iii. 2. ; Hos. xii. 12. It was 
in Pethor, a city or district of Mesopotamia, 
near the R. Euphrates, that Balaam dwelt when 
he was hired by Balak, king of Moab, ta curse 
Israel, Num. xxii. 5. ; Deut. xxiii. 4. Mesopo- 
tamia was ravaged by Holofernes, the general 
of Nebuchadnezzar, after his defeat of Arphaxad, 
Judith ii. 24. It was probably to some of its 
cities that the Assyrians and Babylonians led 
captive the Jews ; and here, after the edict of 



■ Cyrus, many of them still remained, even to 
' apostolic times, as some of their descendants 
appear to have been present at Jerusalem on the 
great Day of Pentecost, Acts ii. 9. 

METHEG-AMI^Lm, 2 Sam. viii. 1. See 
Gath. 

MICHMASH otherwise Mich:\ias and j\Iach- 
MAs, a town in the inheritance of the tribe of 
Benjamin, to the N. of Jerusalem, and to the E. 
of Bethaven, on one of the great roads leading 
to the former city. It was a strong and import- 
ant position, and gave name to a narrow pass 
called the Passage of Michjiash, 1 Sam. xiii. 
23., or sometimes the Passages, 1 Sam. xiv. 4. ; 
Isa. X. 29. Cf. Jer. xxii. 20. This defile was 
formed by two sharp rocks called Bozez and 
Seneh, one of which faced Gibeah, and the other 
Michmash. Here Saul and the Philistines en- 
camped for some time, until J onathan went, un- 
kno-vm to his father, and miraculously smote the 
Philistine garrison; whichledto their repulse and 
overthrow, though the completeness of the victory 
was hindered by Saul's unadvised adjuration, 1 
Sam. xiii. 2. 5. 11. 16., xiv. 5. 31. Here likewise 
Sennacherib appears to have encamped for a time, 
and left some of his heavy baggage, when he in- 
vaded Judah, during the reign of Hezekiah, Isa, 
X. 28. After the edict of Cyrus in favour of the 
Jews, some of its inhabitants returned home, and 
re-inhabited it, Ezra ii. 27., vii. 31., xi. 31. ; 
upon which it began to recover some of its old 
importance, and became again a strong post 
dm-ing the Maccabtean wars, where Jonathan 
took up his quarters for a time after the death 
of his brother Judas, 1 Mace. ix. 73. Eusebius 
speaks of it as still a considerable place in his 
day, about 9 miles N. of Jerusalem, and not far 
from Rama ; its ruins are still said to bear the 
name of 3Tukkmas. 

MICHMETHAH, a city or place on the 
borders of the tribes of Ephraim and Manasseb 
on this side Jordan, over against Sichem, JosK 
xvi. 6., xvii. 7. 

MIDDIN, a city belonging to the tribe of 
Judah, one of the six cities lying in the Wilder- 
ness, Josh. XV. 61. 

MIDDLE GATE, THE, a gate in Jerusalem 
which was seized upon by the Chaldeans under 
Nebuchadnezzar, after they had effected an en- 
trance into the city; and where the princes of 
Babylon took up their quarters, and sate, while 
the city was being broken up, and Zedekiah with 
his nobles was escaping through the gate on 
the S., by the way of the king's garden, Jer. 



256 MIDIAN". 



MIDIANITES. 



xxxix. 3. It is thought to have been a gate in 
the very centre of Jerusalem, in the valley con- 
necting the lower city with Mt. Zion ; whither 
the Chaldeans, having entered on the N. side by 
a breach in the walls, rushed Avith all haste, that 
they might become masters of the whole city at 
their Avill. 

MIDIAN, the name of a country Avhose in- 
habitants, the 

MIDIANITES, were descended from Midian, 
the fourth son of Abraham by Keturah, Gen. 
XXV. 2. 4. ; 1 Chron. i. 32, 33. They appear to 
have originally settled to the S.E. of Canaan, on 
the E. shores of the Dead Sea, near the Moabites : 
and here, very early in their history, they were 
smitten in the " Field of Moab " by one of the 
kings of Edom, Gen. xxxvi. 35. ; 1 Chron. i. 46, 
They were engaged in merchandise, trading 
between Arabia, Palestine, and Egypt; into 
wdiich last-mentioned countrj^ some of them 
were travelling with the much-prized balm of 
Gilead and other valuable spiceries, when 
the sons of Jacob sold Joseph to them. Gen. 
xxxvii. 28. 36. There appears to have been 
some alliance between the Midianites and Ish- 
maelites, as both names are used to designate the 
merchantmen who bought Joseph, Gen. xxxvii. 
27, 28. 36., xxxix. 1.; and also those Midianites 
who were conquered by Gideon in the days of 
the judges, Judg. viii. 22. 24. They were a 
nomadic race, and had many flocks and herds, 
Ex. ii. 16,, iii. 1, ; Judg. vi. 5. ; which the}'- pas- 
tured in the valleys between the Dead Sea and 
Mt. Horeb. One of their number thus employed 
was Jethro, the priest (or prince) of Midian, with 
whom Moses took refuge for forty years, w^hen he 
fled from Egj^pt ; and whose daughter Zipporah 
he married, Ex. ii. 15, 16., iii. 1., iv. 19. ; Acts 
vii. 29, Zipporah is called a Cushite or Ethi- 
opian woman in Num. xii. 1. ; which seems 
to point out the N.W. portion of Arabia Petrsea, 
which was a part of the country of Cush, as their 
dwelling-place. 

Jethro afterwards came to Moses, when he 
and all Israel were encamped round ELoreb, 
bringing to him his wife and his two sons; 
upon which occasion he counselled Moses as 
to the method of judging the people, Ex. xviii. 
1. Moses endeavoured to persuade him to 
accompany them in their march to Canaan that 
they might benefit by his knowledge of the 
Wilderness; at the same time promising him 
a share in whatever blessings the Lord was 
pleased to bestow upon Israel, Num. x. 29. 
This, his son Hobab is thought to have done, either 



now, or afterwards ; as later in the history we 
meet with some of his descendants, called Ke- 
nites, seated about the city of Palm-trees and 
the Wilderness of Judah, Judg. i. 16.; in the 
tribe of Naphtali, Judg. iv., 11.; and in the 
S. of Judah, towards the Amalekite, Edomite, 
and Philistine frontiers, 1 Sam. xv. 6., xxvii. 
10. : though it is not at all unlikely that the 
last mentioned were some of those Kenites 
descended from Canaan, Gen. xv. 19., and who 
may have been (in some way unknown to us) 
allied to the Midianites and Kenites who sprang 
from Abraham. Those Midianites who dwelt 
near the Dead Sea and the country of Moab, 
appear to have been conquered by Sihon, king of 
the Amorites; as, about the time that the 
Israelites approached his dominions, five of the 
kings of Midian, Num. xxxi. 8., are called dukes 
of Sihon, Josh. xiii. 21. These Midianites united 
with Balak, king of Moab, in hiring Balaam to 
curse Israel. Their elders fetched him out of Me- 
sopotamia ; and the Midianitish women were, at 
the suggestion of Balaam, the chief instruments 
emplo3^ed in tempting the Israelites to idolatry, 
for which the wrath of God cut off 24,000 of 
them by plague. For all these abominations, 
the Midianites were punished with the almost 
total destruction of their nation; five of their 
kings were slain, and Balaam himself was cut oflP, 
Num. xxii. 4. 7., xxv. 6. 14, 15. 17, 18., xxxi. 2. 
3. 7, 8, 9. 16. ; Josh. xiii. 21, 22. ; Rev. ii. 14. 

They recovered, however, from this destruc- 
tion; and about 195 years afterwards, God was 
pleased to deliver the Israelites for their idolatry 
into the power of the Midianites, by whom they 
were grievously oppressed for seven years, Judg^ 
vi. 1, 2, 3. 6, 7. 11. 13. But they were delivered 
from their thraldom by Gideon, who through 
the miraculous help of God, smote them wdth 
great slaughter, destroying their kings, and pur- 
suing the host until hardly a man was left, 
Judg. vi. 14. 16. 33., vii. 1, 2. 7, 8. 12, 13, 14, 15. 
23, 24, 25., viii. 1. 3. 5. 12. 22. 26. 28., ix. 17. ; 
Ps. Ixxxiii. 9. ; Isa. ix. 4., x. 26. The Midi- 
anites do not appear to have ever recovered 
from this overthrow, or to have in any way 
afterwards molested the Israelites. Some of 
them, perhaps, became incorporated with the 
Moabites and Arabians, or withdrew more to the 
S., towards the Eed Sea; where many years 
afterwards Hadad the Edomite, found a refuge 
amongst them from the arms of David and 
Joab, 1 Kgs. xi. 18 ; and where the prophet 
Habakkuk, iii. 7., in vision beheld their affliction. 
The apocryphal author of the book of Judith, ii. 
26., describes their tents and sheepcotes as having 



MIGDAL, EL. 



MILLO. 



257 



been destroyed by the Assyrian general Holo- 
fernes ; and some of tbe profane authors place a 
town or district named Modiana or Madiene, 
now Moilah, on the E. side of the JLlanitic Gulf 
of the Eed Sea. The Midianites were celebrated 
for their vast number of camels and dromedaries ; 
which, in the latter days, they are in some way 
to employ to the glory of Israel, Judg. vi. 5. ; 
Isa. Ix. 6. 

MIGDAL, EL, a city belonging to the tribe 
of Xaphtali, Josh. xix. 38. 

MIGDAL-GAD, a city in the inheritance of 
Judah, lying in the Valley, Josh. xv. 37. 

MIGDOL, i.e. the Tower. Two places in 
Egypt appear to have borne this name. One 
was near the W. head of the Eed Sea, opposite 
which the Israelites encamped just before they 
crossed over on dry ground, Ex. xiv. 2. ; ISTum. 
xxxiii, 7. The other lay considerably to the IsT. 
of it, near the easternmost or Pelusiac mouth 
of the R. Nile, and is thought to be the place 
mentioned by the prophet Ezekiel, xxix. 10., 
marg., xxx. 6., 'marg., as the N.E. boundary of 
Egypt, which he describes as lying between 
Migdol and Syene ; though in the text of our 
translation, it is otherwise rendered. In the 
Itinerary of Antoninus, Migdol is placed 12 
miles from Pelusium, i.e. abou.t 70 miles from 
the spot where the Israelites crossed the Eed 
Sea. It is not known which of these two places 
is referred to by Jeremiah, xliv. 1., xlvi. 14., 
when enumerating those cities of Egypt whither 
the Jews had fled after the destruction of Jeru- 
salem by Nebuchadnezzar, and the murder of 
Gedaliah by Ishniael. At Migdol, at Tahpan- 
hes, at Xoph, and in the country of Pathros, they 
settled under the guidance of Johanan, who 
forced Jeremiah to go with them ; soon after 
which, he was put to death, whether b}'^ his own 
countrymen (against whose migration to Egypt 
he had prophesied evil), or by the Egyptians, is 
uncertain. 

MIGRON, a town of the tribe of Benjamin, 
in the uttermost part of the district of Gibeah, 
where Saul tarried under a pomegranate tree, 
Avhilst the Philistines lay encamped at Mich- 
mash, just before they were miraculously smitten 
by Jonathan, 1 Sam. xiv. 2. It is also mentioned 
by the prophet Isaiah, x. 28., as lying between 
Aiath and Michmash, and as one of the stations 
of the Assyrian king Sennacherib, in his wicked 
invasion of Judah. 

MIGHTY, HOUSE OF THE, a place in 
Jerusalem, by the wall of the city, which is 



mentioned by Nehemiah, iii. 16., in his descrip- 
tion of its rebuilding under him. It was near 
the Sepulchres of David, probably at the S.E. 
end of the city of David. 

MILETUS or Miletum, a city of the province 
of Caria, on the S.W. coast of Asia Minor, at the 
movith of the E. Mseander or 3Iendere, as it is now 
called. It was founded at a very early period by 
a colony of Cretans, and, from their great energy, 
and the advantageous position of their new city, 
it rapidly grew into such importance as to be 
considered the metropolis of Ionia. It was noted 
for the nautical skill and enterprise of its people, 
and is said to have had four harbours ; but the 
face of the country has been so altered by the 
alluvial deposit of the Masander, that not only 
have these disappeared, but the ruins of Miletus 
itself are now found considerably inland. The 
inhabitants were warlike and powerful, and 
defended themselves bravel}' against the kings 
of Lydia and Persia, as well as against Alex- 
ander the Great; on which account Darius 
Hystaspes compelled all of them to quit the city, 
whereas Alexander treated them with great 
respect, as did also the Eomans when the city 
fell into their hands. Miletus is said to have 
founded no fewer than 380 colonies in different 
parts of the world; it was the reputed birth- 
place of many celebrated men in the heathen 
world, as Thales, one of the contemporar}^ seven 
wise men of Greece ; of his scholar, Anaximander ; 
of Pittacus, another of the sages; of Anaxi- 
menes the mathematician ; of Hecataeus the 
historian; and Timotheus the musician. It 
was especially famed for its splendid works of 
art, as well as for its magnificent buildings, its 
opulence, and show; but latterly it had a bad 
character for luxury and dissipation. Its wool 
was much prized. 

But Miletus is rendered more intei-esting to 
the Christian, from its having been visited by 
the Apostle Paul when on his voyage from 
Macedonia to Jerusalem. Not wishing to incur 
delay by going to Ephesus, he sent for the elders 
of that church to Miletus, Acts xx. 15. 17., 
where he delivered the affecting farewell charge 
recorded in Acts xx. 18 — 35. It was here, also, 
that he left Trophimus (who was of the neigh- 
bouring city Ephesus, Acts xxi. 29.), sick, 
whether on this voyage, or a later one, aoes not 
appear, 2 Tim. iv. 20. The ruins of Miletus are 
now called Palatia, from the many relics of its 
former magnificence still existing there. 

I MILLO {Fulness), the name of a place in Jeru= 
salem, the situation and purpose of which are 

' - S ' 



258 MINGLED PEOPLE, THE. 



MITYLENE. 



very uncertain. It is though.t to have lain in 
an elevated spot between Mt. Zion and Mt. 
Moriah, and to have derived its name from 
having been a capacious place of assembly for 
deliberating certain public affairs, such as may 
have once existed in many cities of Israel. In 
the book of Judges, ix. 6. 20., we read of the 
"House of Millo," together with the men of 
Shechein, gathering together to make Abimelech 
king ; where by the House of Millo is perhaps 
meant the assembling of the elders or coun- 
cillors of Shechem in the public senate-house or 
town-hall, to decide the matter in question. 
After David took the stronghold of Zion, he 
began to build round about from Millo inward, 
2 Sam. V. 9. ; 1 Chron. xi. 8. ; enclosing it within 
the walls of the city of David, 2 Chron. xxxii. 5. ; 
but it was not until the reign of Solomon that 
the House of Millo itself was built, 1 Kgs. ix. 
15. 24., xi. 27., where it is conjectured to have 
been made a strong post connecting the Temple 
with Mt, Zion. It was here that Joash, king of 
J udah, was slain by conspirators, 2 Kgs. xii. 20. 
From the account in 2 Chron. xxxii. 5., it may 
be inferred, that this house of state was also a 
sort of armouiy, or at least a place of more than 
ordinary'- strength; for it is mentioned, that 
amongst the measures adopted by Hezekiah to 
fortify Jerusalem against Sennacherib, was the 
repairing of Millo. 

MINGLED PEOPLE, THE, a name which 
appears to have been given to all the inhabitants 
of Arabia (or at any rate of its X. part), 
owing to their ha\ang descended from several 
stocks, as the Ishmaelites, Midianites, Moabites, 
Ammonite's, Ainalekites, &c. ; the word Arab 
denoting in the Hebrew language, to mix or 
mingle. They are described as dwelling in the 
desert, Jer. xxv. 24. ; as confederate with Egypt, 
Jer, xxv. 20. ; Ezek. xxx. 5. ; and with Chaldfea, 
Jer. 1. 37. ; and, therefore, threatened with a 
share in the desolations about to come on those 
kingdoms. See Arabia. 

MINNI, a kingdom summoned by the prophet 
Jeremiah, li. 27., together with those of Ararat 
and Ashchenaz, to assist the Medes in taking 
vengeance upon Babylon. From the connection 
in which it is mentioned, it would appear to 
have been in the neighbourhood of Armenia and 
Asia Minor ; which two countries correspond in 
a general way with Ararat and Ashchenaz. 
There was a small province in the N. of Ar- 
menia called Minyas; the E. portion of Cap- 
padocia in Asia Minor was called Armenia 
Minor, and was an independent state, governed 



by its own sovereigns until the time of Mithri- 
dates the Great. The Argonauts, who in pro- 
fane history were said to have visited Colchis, 
and taken the golden fleece, were called Minyas, 
perhaps from visiting those shores, though ac- 
cording to the story, owing to the descent of 
some of them from a Boeotian king. The king- 
dom of Minni, then, may perhaps be sought for 
in the regions between Mt. Caucasus, the Euxine 
Sea, and the W. bank of the Euphrates, i.e. 
about the old provinces of Colchis, Iberia, and 
Armenia Minor. 

MINNITH, a city beyond Jordan, on the 
borders of the Ammonites, whither Jephthah 
chased them when delivering Israel from their 
tyrannous oppression, Judg. xi. 33. It is men- 
tioned by the prophet Ezekiel, xxvii. 17., as 
celebrated for its wheat, in which Judah and 
Israel traded in the market of Tyre. Eusebius 
and Jerome call it Maanath or Manath, and 
place it about 4 miles from Heshbon in the di- 
rection of Amnion. 

MIPHKAD, one of the gates of the city of 
Jerusalem, near the place of the Nethinims and 
the Going up of the Corner ; it appears to have 
been rebuilt by the Jews under Nehemiah after 
the Babylonian captivity, Neh. iii. 31. 

MISGAB (i.e. the High Place), a city or altar 
in Moab, the confusion and destruction of Avhich 
are foretold by the prophet Jeremiah, xlviii. 1. 

MISHAL, Josh. xxi. 30., otherwise Misheal, 
Josh. xix. 26. See Mashal. 

MISREPHOTH-MAIM (i.e. Salt-pits), a^lac^ 
near Zidon, probably on the shores of the Medi- 
terranean Sea, whither Joshua chased the Ca- 
naanites who leagued together with Jabin, king 
of Hazor, against Israel, after he had defeated 
them by the Waters of Merom, Josh. xi. 8. It 
appears to have been one of the outmost places 
of the land of Israel in this direction ; and was 
not taken possession of by the Israelites until 
after the death of Joshua, xiii. 6. 

MITHCAH, an encampment of the Israelites 
in the Wilderness, between Tarah and Hash- 
monah. Num. xxxiii. 28, 29. 

MITHNITE, the patronymic of one of David's 
mighty men ; whence derived does not appear, 
1 Chron. xi. 43. 

MITYLENE, the chief city of the island of 
Lesbos, lying off the N.W. coast of Asia Minor, 
and one of the most important islands in the 
^gaean Sea. Like all the large neighbouring 
isles, it was once a free state, but eventually 



MIZAR, THE HILL. 



MIZPEH. 



259 



fell under the power of the Romans. It was 
very fertile, and the wine which it produced 
was much esteemed. The Lesbians were cele- 
brated for their musical skill, and their women 
for their beauty; but the general character of 
the people was so dissipated, that the epithet 
Lesbian was frequently applied to licentious 
extravagance. Lesbos was the birth-place of 
many noted persons amongst the heathen ; as 
Sappho, Alcseus, Arion, Theophrastus, Ter- 
pander, &c. The city of Mitylene or Mytilene 
lay on the E. coast, on the shore of the narrow 
channel running between it and the opposite 
coast of ^olis in Asia Minor. It was a noble 
and splendid place, for a long time a famous 
seat of learning, until it was destroyed in the 
Mithridatic war. It still retains its name, and 
from it the whole island has derived its modern 
appellation of Mytilene. St. Paul visited the 
city of Mitylene on his A'oyage from Macedonia 
to Jerusalem, about a.d. 60, Acts xx. 14. 

MIZAE, THE HILL (i.e. the Little Hill), a 
place where David appears to have received 
some peculiar manifestation of the Divine good- 
ness, which he vows to remember, Ps. xlii, 6. It 
has been conjectured to refer to what is some- 
times called the Little Hermon, a hill between 
Mt. Tabor and the R. Jordan. Others, however, 
suppose that Mt. Paneum is meant, which is a 
lower slope of the Great Hermon, near the 
springs of the Jordan ; and others, again, that 
the Hill Mizar denotes some smaller eminence 
near Mahanaim, in Gilead, where David en- 
camped when fleeing from Absalom. 

MIZPAH (i. e. a Watchtower), a name given by 
Laban to the heap which he and Jacob built 
in Gilead, when they made their covenant after 
their separation. Gen. xxxi. 49., and about which, 
in process of time, grew up a city also called 
Mizpah or Mizpeh of Gilead, Judg. xi. 29. 
Here Jephthah dwelt; and here he and the 
Israelites, when about to attack the Ammonites, 
and shake off their yoke, encamped and made 
a solemn covenant before the Lord, Judg. x, 17., 
xi. 11. 29. 34. It is mentioned by the prophet 
Hosea, v. 1., when denouncing God's vengeance 
against Israel for their cruelty and idolatry, 
especially of the priests, who were to the people 
as a snare on Mizpah: alluding, perhaps, to 
some idolatrous superstitions carried on upon 
the mountain ; or, as others conjecture, to their 
watching the pious Jews who went up to wor- 
ship at Jerusalem, preventing them if possible, 
and if not, ensnaring and persecuting them. 
It appears to have still existed in the days of 



the Maccabees, since it is mentioned in 1 Mace, 
V. 35., as having been taken and burnt by Judas 
IMaccabasus during his campaign in Gilead. 

MIZPEH, THE LAND OF, Josh. xi. 3., the 
name of a region to the S. of Mt. Hermon, 
whither Jabin, king of Hazor, sent to persuade 
the inhabitants to join his great league against 
the Israelites. After Joshua had signally routed 
the whole confederacy at the Waters of Merom, 
he chased some of them to the Valley of 
MizPKH, eastward, until he left none remaining. 
Josh. xi. 8. This region and valley were, pro- 
bably, in the N. of Bashan, in some of the 
numerous and fertile plains between Mt. Hermon 
and the R. Jordan. 

MIZPEH, a city of the tribe of Judah, in the 
Valley, not otherwise mentioned, JosH. xv. 38. 

MIZPEH or Mizpah, a city in the inheritance 
of the tribe of Benjamin, Josh, xviii. 26., which 
owing to its important situation, its veneration 
as a high place, as well as to many other cir- 
cumstances, seems to have grown into greater 
note than any other city of this name. Here 
the Israelites assembled in solemn covenant, to 
take vengeance upon the tribe of Benjamin in 
the matter of the Levite's concubine, Judg. xx. 
1. 3., xxi. 1. 5. 8. Here, likewise, Samuel 
gathered together all Israel on the repentance 
of the nation, when, after fasting and sacrifice, 
they were miraculously assisted by God in 
vanquishing their oppressors the Philistines at 
Ebenezer, 1 Sam. vii. 5, 6. 11, 12.; and here, 
thirty-five years afterwards, he again solemnly 
assembled their tribes to choose a king over 
them as they had demanded, when Saul was 
chosen by lot, 1 Sam. x. 17. Mizpeh was one of 
the three places to which Samuel went from 
year to year to judge Israel ; the two others being 
Bethel and Gilgal, 1 Sam. vii. 16. It was rebuilt 
and strengthened by Asa, king of Judah, with 
the materials taken from that Ramah which 
Baasha, king of Israel, built to annoy Judah, 
but which he abandoned when Benhadad, king 
of Syria, invaded the N. part of his dominions, 
subsequent to which, Mizpeh appears to have 
been a strong advanced post against Israel in 
this direction, 1 Kgs. xv. 22. ; 2 Chron xvi. 6. ; 
Jer. xli. 9. After the destruction of Jerusalem 
by the Chaldeans, Mizpeh became the residence 
of Gedaliah, who had been appointed governor 
over the country by Nebuchadnezzar ; and who 
was here murdered together with many Jews 
and Chaldeans, by Ishmael of the seed royal, 2 
Kgs. XXV. 23. 25. ; Jer. xl. 6. 8. 10. 12, 13. 15., 
xli. 1, 3. 6. 10. 14. 16. It appears to have been 
S.2 



260 MIZPEH OF MOAB. 



MOAB. 



re-inhabited after the return from Babylon, Neh. 
iii. 7. 15. 19., and to have recovered some of its 
consequence as a post of defence. The apocry- 
phal author of 1 Mace. iii. 46., calls it Maspha, 
mentioning it as haMng been formerly the place 
where the Israelites praj^ed; for which reason, 
Judas Maccabasus there assembled all his coun- 
trymen against Antiochus Epiphanes. It is 
now called Nahi SamwiL 

MIZPEH OF MOAB, a place in the territory 
of the king of Moab, somewhere to the E. of the 
Dead Sea, Avhither David brought his father and 
mother out of the reach of Saul, whilst he him- 
self was taking refuge in the Cave of Adullam, 
1 Sara. xxii. 3. 

MIZRAIM, the second son of Ham, Gen. x. 
6. 13. ; 1 Chron. i. 8. 11. See Egypt. 

MOAB, a country to the E. of the R. Jordan 
and the Salt Sea, inhabited by the Moabites, 
who derived their name and origin from Moab, 
the son of Lot and his eldest daughter, Gen. 
xix. 37. They dwelt formerly on both sides of 
the R. Arnon, having, as it would appear, ex- 
pelled the gigantic race of the Emims from the 
country on the K side of this river, Deut. ii. 10, 
11. ; where they built many cities, and gave their 
name to the extensive Plains of Moab, which 
lay between the Jordan and the N.E. shores of 
the Salt Sea. They may, perhaps, have been 
forced thus northward by the Midianites or 
Edomites; as a battle was fought at an early 
period between these two nations in the Field of 
Moab, Gen. xxxvi. 35. ; 1 Chron. i. 46., when 
the latter were victorious. But, before the de- 
parture of the Israelites from Egypt, the Moab- 
ites seem to have been driven by the Amorites 
to the S. of the Arnon, Num. xxi. 26. 29. ; Judg. 
xi. 15., which thenceforward became their border ; 
their capital Ar, or Rabbah of the Moabites, ly- 
ing on the S. bank of the river. The territory of 
the Moabites was thus bounded on the N. by the 
Arnon, Num. xxi. 11, 13. 15., on the W. by the 
Salt Sea, on the S. by Edom, and on the E. by 
the Desert of Arabia ; though the name of Moab 
still continued to be applied to the regions N. of 
the Arnon, Deut. xxix. 1., xxxii. 49., xxxiv. 5, 6. 

When the Israelites were drawing near to 
Canaan, they were forbidden by God to disturb 
the Moabites from the possessions which He had 
given them, Deut. ii. 9. ; Judg. xi. 15..; and 
being refused permission to pass through their 
territory, Judg. xi. 17., and not being met by 
them with bread and water, Deut. xxiii. 3., 
though they sold it to them for monej^ Deut. ii. 
29., they took a circuit by the Wilderness of 



Moab, until they came to the banks of the' Arnon, 
Judg. xi. 18., v/hich they crossed, and pitched 
their camp in the Plains of Moab, Num. xxi. 20., 
xxii. 1, 2., xxxi. 12., xxxiii. 44. 48, 49, 50. ; 
Deut. ii. 8. 18., xxxiv. 8. Upon this Balak, 
king of Moab, alarmed, as Moses had fore- 
told, Ex. XV. 15., at the vast host of the Israel- 
ites, and at the report of their doings, sent for 
Balaam to curse them. Num. xxii. 3, 4. 7, 8. 10. 

14. 21. 36. ; Josh. xxiv. 9. ; when though God 
was graciously pleased to turn His curse into a 
blessing. Num. xxiii. 6,7. 17., xxiv. 17.; Mic. 
vi. 5., the Moabites and Midianites, instigated 
b}'- Balaam, tempted the Israelites to commit 
idolatry and fornication. Num. xxv. 1., xxxi. 
16. ; 2 Pet. ii. 15. ; Rev. ii. 14. ; so that 24,000 of 
them died by the plague. Num. xxv. 9, For 
this the Moabites and Midianites were attacked, 
and severely handled by Israel, Num. xxxi. ; 
and God commanded that the former should not 
enter into the congregation of the Lord, even to 
the tenth generation, Deut, xxiii. 3, 4. ; Neh. 
xiii. 1. After this Moses numbered the Israelites 
the second time in the Plains of Moab, Num. 
xxvi. 3. 63. Here, too, he divided the country 
beyond Jordan amongst the two tribes and a 
half; gave the nation the conclusion of the 
statutes and ordinances they were to keep ; and 
delivered to them his last charge and blessing, 
Num. XXXV. 1., xxxvi. 13. ; Deut. i. 5., xxix. 
1. ; Josh. xiii. 32. ; after which, he was com- 
manded to go up into Mt. Nebo, in the land of 
Moab, and having viewed the Land of Promise 
to, die there, Deut. xxxii. 49., xxxiv. 1. 5, 6. 
About seventy years after the death of Joshua, 
God delivered the Israelites, on account of their 
wickedness, into the hands of Eglon, king of 
Moab, who, after having oppressed them for 
eighteen years, was at length killed by Ehud, 
when 10,000 of the most valiant men of Moab 
were slain by his army, and the nation was 
delivered from their tyranny, Judg. iii. 12. 14, 

15. 17. 28, 29, 30. ; 1 Sam. xii. 9. 

But notwithstanding this, and the strong 
national antipathy which all along existed 
between the two people, they kept up intercourse 
with one another, 1 Chron. iv. 22., viii. 8. ; and 
in the book of Ruth, we have an account of an 
Israelite who, in order to avoid a famine which 
arose in Canaan, went with his wife to sojourn 
in the land of Moab, Ruth i. 1, 2. 6., iv. 3., where 
their two sons married Moabites, i. 4., one of 
whom was Ruth the Moabitess, i. 22., ii. 2. 6. 
21., iv. 5. 10. Somewhat later in their history 
the Israelites were permitted to be enslaved by 
their enemies for worshipping the gods of Moab, 



MOAB. 



261 



Judg. X. 6, A few years after Saul's accession 
to the throue of Israel, the Moabites began to 
experience that subjection which had been fore- 
told by Balaam, Num. xxiv, 17. ; for he boldly 
attacked the Moabites, and kept them in check. 
1 Sam. xiv. 47. This made it easier for David, 
when persecuted by him, to leave his parents 
under the protection of the king of Moab, 
1 Sam. xxii. 3, 4. ; though when he himself 
succeeded to the throne, the Moabites appear to 
have joined with his enemies, and provoked 
him to attack them ; upon which he put to death 
two- thirds of the people, and reduced the whole 
nation to tribute, 2 Sam. viii. 2. 12., xxiii. 20. ; 

1 Chron. xi. 22., xviii. 2. 11.; Ps. Ix. 8., Ixxxiii. 
6., cviii. 9. But notwithstanding this, friendly 
intercourse was still kept up between the two 
powers. One of David's mighty men was a 
Moabite, 1 Chron. xi. 46. ; Solomon took some of 
their women for his wives, and both he and his 
subjects were ensnared into worshipping their 
idols, 1 Kgs. xi. 1. 7. 33. ; 2 Kgs. xxiii. 13. 

Upon the division of the tribes, at the acces- 
sion of Kehoboam, Moab fell to the lot of the 
kingdom of Israel ; and remained subject to it 
until the death of Ahab, when it began to throw 
off the yoke, 2 Kgs. i. 1., iii. 5. Mesha, the 
then king of Moab, refused to pay the customary 
tribute of 100,000 lambs, and as many rams, 
with the wool ; a tribute which appears to have 
been paid ever since the time of David, either 
annually, or at the beginning of each reign, 

2 Kgs. iii. 4. The reign of Ahab's son Ahaziah 
was too short and troubled to enforce it; but 
when his brother Jehoram came to the throne, 
he persviaded Jehoshaphat, the king of Judah, 
together with the king of Edom, to accompany 
him in an inroad against Moab, in the hope of 
recovering this revolted province, 2 Kgs. iii. 
7—9. Jehoshaphat had, only a few months 
before, repelled an attack of the united forces of 
the Moabites, Ammonites, and Edomites, and, 
by the miraculous help of God, gained a signal 
victory over them, 2 Chron. xx. 1. 10. 22, 23. 
Hence, probably, he may have been the more 
ready to join the king of Israel, and been better 
able to influence the king of Edom, whose 
defection from the Moabites brought on that 
cruel massacre of the king of Edom's son, for 
which Moab is denounced by the prophet Amos, 
ii. 1, 2. In this campaign, the three kings of 
Judah, Israel, and Edom, together with their 
armies, would have perished from thirst, had 
they not been miraculously preserved through 
the prophet Elisha, 2 Kgs. iii. 10. 13. ; when, 
though the Moabites were severely beaten, and 



most of their towns destroyed, yet the king of 
Moab, by sacrificing the king of Edom's son on 
the walls of the city where he was besieged, 
eventually drove away the besiegers, and seems 
to have escaped from paying the usual tribute, 
2 Kgs. iii. 18. 21, 22, 23, 24. 26., which, perhaps, 
was never again rendered, Isa. x%a. 1, 2. 

About fifty years afterwards, the Moabites 
invaded the territoiy of some of the tribes in 
the reign of Joash, king of Israel, 2 Kgs. xiii. 
20. ; and appear to have maintained their ground 
until driven back by his son, Jeroboam IT., 
2 Kgs. xiv. 25. One of the murderers- of Joash, 
king of Judah, was descended from a Moabitess, 
the other being descended from an Ammonitess, 
2 Chron. xxiv. 26. When Tiglath-Pileser took 
captive the trans-Jordanic tribes, 1 Chron. v. 26., 
the Moabites appear to have advanced into 
their old territory, which until then had been 
occupied by the tribe of Eeuben ; but the 
prophet Isaiah threatens them with the desola- 
tion of their country within three years after his 
prophecy, Isa. xv. 1, 2. 4, 5. 8, 9., xvi. 2. 4. 6, 7. 
11, 12, 13, 14.; an event which probably came 
to pass when Shalmaneser led captive the rest 
of the Ten Tribes to Assyria. But they were 
threatened by God "with still further vengeance 
for their wickedness, their pride, their idolatry, 
and their cruelty towards the Jews, by the 
prophets Isaiah, xxv. 10., Amos, ii. 1, 2., and 
Zephaniah, ii. 8, 9. This may have begun to 
overtake them when Nebuchadnezzar drove 
them to the S. of the E. Arnon, on his first 
invasion of Judiea ; after which, for a time, they 
joined his marauding bands in attacking the 
Jews, 2 Kgs. xxiv. 2., though they were not 
unwilling to stir up Zedekiah, king of Judah, to 
rebel against Nebuchadnezzar, Jer. xxvii. 3. 
The apocryphal author of the book of Judith 
represents the Moabites as being threatened by 
Nabuchodonosor for not assisting him against 
Arphaxad, and as having afterwards sided Avith 
Holofernes against the Jews, though with 
something like a plea in their behalf, Judith i, 
12., V. 2. 22., vi. 1., vii. 8. 

On the destruction of Jemsalem, some of the 
Jews took refuge for a short time in Moab, Jex'. 
xl. 11 ; but five years afterwards, the Moabites 
themselves were attacked and taken captive by 
Nebuchadnezzar, when the predictions of the 
prophets already mentioned were fulfilled, as 
were those also of Jeremiah, ix. 26., xxv. 21., 
xlviii. 1, 2. 4. 9. 11. 13. 15, 16. 18. 20. 24, 25, 26. 
28, 29. 31. 33. 35, 36. 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 
45, 46., and Ezekiel, xxv. 8, 9. 11. But their 
return from captivity was also foretold, Jer. 
s 3 



262 MOAB, PLAINS OF. 



MODm. 



xlviii. 47. ; Dan. xi. 41. ; and they were ac- 
cordingly set at liberty by Cyrus; when they 
settled again in their own land, rebuilt and 
fortified their cities, and entered upon their old 
footing of intercourse with the Jews, inter- 
marrj'ing with them, and alluring them to 
idolatry, Ezra ix. 1. ; Neh. xiii. 1. 23. ; 1 Esd. 
viii. 69. They continued subject to the Persians 
until conquered by Alexander the Great ; after 
whose death they fell successivelj^ under the 
power of the kings of Syria, Egypt, and the 
Romans, until their name gradually disappears 
in that of the Arabians. But at the victorious 
restoration of all Israel in the latter days, they 
are mentioned as still existing, and as being 
subject to the Jews, Isa. xi. 14. 

The country of Moab was in general moun- 
tainous, but Avell watered 5 it abounded in fertile 
valleys, teeming with corn, wine, and oil, and 
was very rich in cattle. The people are cha- 
racterised as warlike, crafty, lustful, and proud, 
continually aiming to mingle with the Israel- 
ites, or to bring some portion of them into 
subjection. They were gross idolaters, wor- 
shipping Baal-peor and Chemosh, Num. xxv. 
1, 2, 3. 5. ; Ps. cvi. 28. ; 1 Kgs. xi. 7. 33. ; 2 
Kgs. xxiii. 13. ; Jer. xlviii. 13. ; Hos. ix. 10. ; 
whence they are called The people of Che- 
mosh, Num. xxi, 29., and their country itself 
Chemosh, Jer. xlviii. 7. 

MOAB, PLAINS OF, an extensive valley 
lying about the entrance of the E. Jordan into 
the Salt Sea, and along the N.E. shores of the 
latter: they were so called from the Moabites, 
who dwelt there until driven S. of the Arnon 
by the Amorites, Here the Israelites pitched 
their camp previous to their crossing the Jordan, 
Num. xxii. 1., xxxi. 12., xxxiii. 48, 49, 50. ; 
here Moses numbered all the people the second 
time after their leaving Egypt, Num. xxvi. 3. 
63., and distributed their inheritance amongst 
the two tribes and a half E. of Jordan, Josh, 
xiii. 32.; and here he gave the assembled 
nation the conclusion of the Divine ordinances 
and statutes, as well as his own parting charge 
and blessing, before he went up to Mt. Nebo to 
die there, Num. xxxv. 1., xxxvi. 13. ; Dent, 
xxxiv. 1. 

MOAB, WILDERNESS OF, part of the 
great Desert of Arabia Petrasa, lying on the 
borders of it and the regions of Moab, round 
which the Israelites under Moses were obliged 
to pass when the king of Moab would not let 
them go through his territory, Deut. ii. 8. It 
is also called Jeshimon, i.e. the Wilderness; and 



is mentioned as the place near which the 
children of Israel were encamped when Balak, 
king of Moab, sent for Balaam to curse them, 
Num. xxi. 11. 20., xxiii. 28. 

MOCHMUR, a brook in the N. of Palestine, 
mentioned by the author of the apocryphal book 
of Judith, vii. 18., as a place near which some 
of the Edomites and Ammonites encamped when 
they came to assist Holofernes, the Assyrian 
general, in his attack on the Jews. It was 
probably, no great way from the city of Bethulia, 
and may be meant for one of the small rivers 
which run down into the Sea of Galilee. 

MODIN, a city in the N.W. part of the pro- 
vince of Judtea, memorable as the dwelling- 
place of the priest Mattathias and his five sons, 
the founders of the familj^ of the Maccabees, 
1 Mace. ii. 1. There was an altar here (the 
sanctuary at Jerusalem having been wantonly 
profaned and polluted by the Syrians), upon 
which the officers of Antiochus Epiphanes en- 
deavoured to compel the Jews to offer sacrifice 
to idols; which Mattathias himself not only 
refused to do, but slew the first Jew that 
attempted it, as well as the king's commissioner; 
and having pulled down the altar, fled with his 
sons and many followers into the mountains, 
thus commencing the great Maccabiean struggle. 
When Mattathias died, he was buried at Modin, 
having appointed his son Judas Maccabaius to 
be general of the Jewish forces, 1 Mace. ii. 15. 
23, 70. About three years afterwards, there 
was a battle fought near Modin between J udas 
and Antiochus Eupator, in which the latter was 
worsted, 2 Mace. xiii. 14. ; and at a later period, 
another engagement took place between Bac- 
chides and Judas, when many of the forces of 
the latter deserting him, he was overpowered 
and slain; his brothers buried him at Modin, 
1 Mace. ix. 19. Hither, also, the bones of 
Jonathan, his brother, were brought from 
Bascama, where he had been slain by Tryphon ; 
upon which occasion, Simon, another of the 
Maccabsean brothers, raised a lofty monument 
over the family sepulchre, which was visible 
at sea, 1 Mace. xiii. 25. 30. Modin appears to 
have continued to be the head-quarters of the 
Maccab^ean family, and often to have been a 
centre of their operations until the successful 
issue of the struggle, 1 Mace. xvi. 4. It is 
stated by Eusebius to have been at no great 
distance from Diospolis or Lydda, and to have 
stood upon a lofty eminence ; which may ac- 
count for Jerome calling it Mount Modin. Its 
exact locality does not appear to have been 



MOLADAH. 



]MYNDUS. 263 



ascertained ; though, according to some accounts, 
there is still a village of the same name, a few 
miles from Joppa on the road to Jerusalem. 

MOLADAH, a city in the S. of the tribe of 
Judah, towards the border of Edom, Josh. xv. 
26., which was aftei-wards assigned to the tribe 
of Simeon, xix. 2, ; 1 Chron. iv. 28. It was re- 
peopled after the return from the Babylonian 
captivity, Keh. xi. 26. 

MORAD (or the Going down), a place near 
Shebarim, whither the men of Al chased the 
Israelites with much slaughter on the occasion 
of Achan's transgression, Josh. vii. 5., marg. 

MOEASTHITE, a patron^Tnic applied to 
the prophet Micah, Jer. xxvi. 18. ; jMic. i. 1. ; 
derived probably from Mareshah (which see) ; 
though others conjecture it to have been ob- 
tained from Moresheth-gath, Mic. i. l-i. Jerome, 
however, states it to have been derived from 
a village named Morasthi, near Eleutheropolis, 
in the S.W. part of Judah. 

:^IOREH, PLAIX OF, a valley near the 
place where Sichem aftenvards stood. It was 
here that Abraham appears to have first settled 
for a short time after quitting Haran; and 
here the Lord appeared to him in a vision, pro- 
mising him the land of Canaan for an inhe- 
ritance. Gen. xii. 6. Moses speaks of the Plains 
of Moreh as adjacent to Mt. Ebal and Mt. 
Gerizim, Deut. xi. 30. Above them probably 
was the Hill of Moreh. 

MOEEH, THE HILL OF, by the side of 
which the Midianites pitched their camp 
previous to the battle with Gideon in which 
they were so signally defeated, Judg. -sdi. 1. 
It may have been the hill to the X. of Sichem, 
and \Y. of Mt. Ebal; though some place it 
farther X. towards Gilboa. 

MOEESHETH-GATH, a city in the tribe of 
Judah, possibly near Gath, and so, at this time, 
in the power of the Philistines. To it the 
prophet IMicah foretells that Lachish shall in 
the coming calamity give presents, because 
it was the first city to receive, and infuse 
into Judah, the infection of idolatry, Mic. 
i. 14. Some have conjectured that Micah was 
called the Morasthite, Jer. xxvi, 18., Mic. i. 1., 
from having been born here ; but this is very 
doubtful. 

MOEIAH, LAXD OF, the place where 
Abraham was commanded by God to go and 
ofi^er up his son Isaac for a burnt-offering, Gen. 
xxii. 2. It lay to the N.E. of the old city 
Jebus or Jerusalem, and appears to have been 



cultivated even as late as the time of David ; 
since here was the Threshing-floor of Araunah the 
J ebusite, which with the surrounding hill David 
bought for 600 shekels of gold, to build an altar 
for sacrifice after his sin in numbering the people, 
2 Sam. xxiv. 18. ; 1 Chron. xxi. 18. 25. This spot 
David appointed to be the House of the Lord 
God, and the altar of the burnt offering for 
Israel, 1 Chron. xxii. 1, 2.; and here, in due 
season, Solomon built his magnificent Temple, 
2 Chron. iii. 1, In the last passage it is called 
Mt. 3'Ionah, being a distinct hill from all 
the others, on which Jerusalem and its suburbs 
stood; though latterly, some of the valleys 
separating them were partially filled up. The 
word Moriah is thought to be derived from 
a root which signifies lofty or elevated, a 
character not unsuited to the lofty eminence 
upon which the Temple was built, hence called 
the moimtain of the height of Israel, Ezek. xx. 
40. ; and harmonising, likewise, with that descrip- 
tion of it when restored in the last days, which 
is recorded by the prophets Isaiah, ii. 2., and 
Micah, iv. 1., that the mountain of the Lord's 
House shall be established in the top of the 
mountains, and shall be exalted above the 
hiUs. It is called by Moses the mountain of 
the Lord's inheritance, Ex. xv. 17. ; by David, 
the mountain of God's Holiness, Ps. xlviii. 1. ; 
and by Zechariah, the mountain of the Lord of 
Hosts, Zech. viii. 3. 

MOSERA, a station of the Israelites in the 
^Yilderness, where they were encamped when 
Aaron died, Deut. x. 6. : it was, consequently, 
adjacent to Mt. Hor, which is mentioned as 
the scene of his death, Xum. xx. 28., xxxiii. 
38. Its name seems still to survive in that of 
Wady 3Iousa, or the Valley of Moses, a valley 
at the base of Mt. Hor, where the famous city 
Petra or Selah was afterwards built. 

MOSEROTH, another encampment of the 
Israelites in the Wilderness ; which from the 
places mentioned in conjunction with them, 
appears to have been near the former, if not 
identical ■^\dth it, at the W. end of the valley, 
Xum. xxxiii. 30, 31. 

MOZAH, a city of the tribe of Benjamin, 
Josh, xviii. 26. 

MUSHITES a family of the Levites, num- 
bered, together with all Israel, by Moses in 
the Plains of Moab, Xum. xxvi. 58. ; they were 
so named after Mushi, the second son of 
IMerari, Xum. iii. 20. 33. ; 1 Chron. vi. 19. 

MYXDUS, a small city in the W. part of 
s 4 



264 



MYRA. 



NACHON'S THRESHIXG-FLOOR. 



Caria, a province in the S.W. of Asia Minor. It 
was situated at the S.W. extremity of the lassian 
Gulf, now called the G. of Asyn Kale. It was 
a Doric colonj'-, foitnded by some Troezenians, 
and had sufficient strength and influence to 
resist successfully a siege by Alexander the 
Great. It is mentioned by the apocryphal 
writer in 1 Mace. xv. 23., as one of the places 
to "which the Romans wrote in behalf of the 
Jews. It is now called Gumlshhe ; but its 
name appears still preserved in that of the 
surrounding Turkish province Muntesha. 

MYflA, a maritime town of Lycia, a province 
in the S.W. part of Asia Minor. It was here 
St. Paul, when on his voyage to Rome, was 
embarked by the centurion in that ship of 
Alexandria, which was afterwards wrecked 
on the Isle of Melita. It became the capital 
of the province in later times, after the neigh- 
bouring city of Patara, the former metropolis, 
had lost its importance: it is still called Myra. 



MYSIA, a province at the N.W. extremity of 
Asia Minor, and of the modern Turkish province 
Anadolia. To the E. it touched on Bithynia, 
to the S. on L^^dia ; on the W. it was washed 
by the iEgjean Sea, on the N. by the narrow 
waters of the Hellespont. In it stood the 
ancient city of Troy, as well as many other 
well-known places which have been rendered 
interesting to the scholar by profane history 
and poetry: though in later times, Cicero 
describes its inhabitants as a base and con- 
temptible people. It was visited by the Apostle 
Paul, Acts xvi. 7, 8., many times, as it lay on 
the main road from the East to Europe: and 
here he preached the gospel at several places, 
as Troas, Assos, &c. It was on one of these 
occasions, when he was about to pass into 
Bithj'nia, that he was sent forth into Mace- 
donia. Here also was the famous city Perga- 
mos, in which was one of the Seven Churches of 
Asia. 



NAAMAH, a city of the tribe of Judah in the 
Valley, Josh. xv. 41. 

N AAMATIilTE, a patronymic of Zophar, one 
of Job's three friends; but whence obtained 
is not known. Job ii. 11., xi. 1., xx. 1., xlii. 
9. Some derive it from that of Naamah, a 
city in the W. of the tribe of Judah, but that 
seems very unlikely both from the situation and 
probable age of the place. It seems more rea- 
sonably fixed somewhere to the E. of Gilead, in 
the borders of Arabia, and nearer to the land of 
Uz. 

NAAMITES, a family of the tribe of Benja- 
min, numbered, together with all Israel, by 
Moses in the Plains of Moab, Num. xxvi. 40. ; 
they were so called after Naaman, a grandson of 
Benjamin, Gen. xlvi. 21. ; 1 Chron. viii. 4. 
7. 

NAARAN, a city in the inheritance of the 
tribe of Ephraim, 1 Cliron. vii. 28., on the borders 
of Manasseh. It is called 

NAARATH in Josh. xvi. 7. ; and is stated by 
Eusebius to have been 5 miles from Jericho. 

NABATHITES, an Arabian people mentioned 
in the Apocrypha and by profane writers as, in 
later times, inhabiting a large part of the 
country between the R. Euphrates and the Red 
Sea. Tbey were no doubt descended from Ne- 
bajoth, the first-born son of Ishmael, Gen. xxv. 



13. ; 1 Chron. i. 29. ; whose posterity the prophet 
Isaiah, Ix. 7., foretells shall bring in their wealth 
to the church of Christ in the latter days. The 
Nabathites are thought to have intermarried 
with the Edomites, whose famous city Petra, 
they appear to have eventually made their head 
quarters. They are said to have been the only 
neighbouring people who assisted and behaved 
friendly to the Jews during the great Macca- 
bjean struggle. Judas Maccabasus met with 
them three days' journey to the E. of the R. 
Jordan, when they told him of the great suf- 
ferings of his countrymen in Galaad and the 
adjacent regions, 1 Mace. v. 25. ; and they 
appear to have kept up a good understanding 
with his brothers after his death, ix. 35. They 
were a nomadic race, living chiefly by their 
flocks and herds ; but much of the trade between 
the Euphrates and the Red Sea seems also to 
have passed through their hands. In later 
times they were attacked by the Romans, who 
annexed the S. part of their land to the division 
Palasstina Tertia ; but notwithstanding this, they 
do not seem to have made anj'- lasting conquests 
over them. They are usually called JSTabath- 
feans; though Josephus also writes the name 
Xabseothes, and Ptolemy, Napateans. See 
Zabadeans. 

NACIION'S THRESHING FLOOR, 2 Sam. 
vi. 6. ; 1 Chron. xiii. 9., marg. See Chidon. 



NADABATHA. 



NAPHTALL 



265 



NADABATHA, 1 Mace. ix. 37., thought to be 
the same with Medeba ; which see. 

iSTAHALAL or Nahallal, a city of the tribe 
of Zebiilim, which was afterwars made Levitical 
and given to the family of Merari, Josh, xix, 
15., XX i. 35. ; it is called Xahalol in Judg. i. 30., 
where it is mentioned that the tribe had not 
driven out the Canaanites at the death of 
Joshua. 

KAHALIEL, a station of the Israelites near 
the R. Arnon, not far from Mt. Pisgah, on 
the borders of the territories of the Moabitea and 
Amorites ; the last but one before Moses sent to 
Sihon, asking leave to pass through his kingdom, 
Num. xxi. 19. Eusebius places it on the 
E. Arnon. 

NAHASH, CITY OF, 1 Chron. iv. 12., marg. 
See Tr-xahash. 

NAHOR, CITY OF, Gen. xxiv. 10., i.e. Ha- 
ran ; which see. 

XAIX, a small city of Galilee, at the gate of 
which the Blessed Redeemer raised to life a 
widow's son, who was being carried forth to his 
burial, Lu. vii. 11. Jerome places it 2 miles 
S. of Mt. Tabor, in the neighbourhood of which 
at a small decayed village called Nein, its ruins 
are still to be found. 

NAIOTH, a place in the district of Ramah, 
hence called Naioth in Ramah, where Samuel 
dwelt, and where was a school of the prophets. 
Hither David fled to avoid the rage of Saul, 
taking up his abode with Samuel ; whereupon 
Saul sending messengers to take him, and after- 
wards going there himself, both he and they 
were made to prophesy, 1 Sam. xix. 18, 19. 22, 
23., XX. 1. 

NAPHISH or Xephish, a tribe descended 
from one of the youngest sons of Ishmael, Gen. 
XXV. 15. ; 1 Chron. i. 31. ; who settled eventually 
to the E. of Gilead, in the N.W. part of Arabia 
Petrosa. When the two tribes and a half had 
their inheritance given them by Moses, they 
were greatly harassed by these Ishmaelites and 
their allies, until the latter were driven back 
with great loss, 1 Chron. v. 19. 

XAPHTALI (i.e. 3Iy Wrestling), one of the 
twelve tribes of Israel, so named after Kaphtali, 
the sixth son of Jacob by Bilhah, Rachel's maid. 
Gen. XXX. 8., xxxv. 25. ; Ex. i. 4. ; 1 Chron. 
ii. 2. He had four sons. Gen. xlvi. 24. ; 1 Chron. 
vii. 13. ; whose descendants were so blessed with 
increase that when they came up out of Egypt, 
about 257 years after the birth of Xaphtali, the 



tribe possessed 53,400 fighting men, Num. i. 15. 
42, 43., ii. 29. When they were numbered again 
in the Plains of Moab, about thirty-eight years 
afterwards, their number appears to have de- 
creased to 45,400, Num. xx^^. 48. 50. They 
marched under the standard of the tribe of Dan, 
immediately preceded by Asher, being the last 
tribe as ranged in the order of their journeyings, 
and the rereward of all the camps. When en- 
camped, they pitched their tents on the N. side 
of the Tabernacle, Num. ii. 29., x. 27. The 
offerings of the tribe of Naphtali for the service 
of God, on the occasion of the dedication of the 
Tabernacle in the Wilderness, were made on the 
twelfth day, Num. vii. 78. One out of this tribe, 
as out of every other, was chosen by Moses to go 
and spy out the Promised Land, Num. xiii. 14. ; 
and he likewise appointed another of them to 
assist Eleazar and Joshua in dividing the land 
by lot, xxxiv. 28. They were a prudent and 
brave people, Judg. v. 18. ; 1 Chron. xii. 34. ; 
Ps. Ixviii. 27. ; as may be inferred not only from 
their being appointed to bring up the rear of the 
whole nation, but from the exposed position of 
their inheritance in Canaan, and the manner in 
which they bore the brunt of the many attacks 
made upon Israel by the enemies in their direc- 
tion. With this seems to accord the language of 
Jacob's blessing, " Naphtali is a hind let loose ; 
he giveth goodly words," Gen. xlix. 21.; i.e. 
they would be great lovers of liberty, would use 
great smoothness and address with other nations 
to preserve the peace and freedom of their 
country, but when urged by necessity would be 
swift and valiant in its defence. Moses appointed 
Naphtali to be one of the six tribes who should 
stand upon Mt. Ebal, to utter the curses on the 
breach of the law of God, Deut. xxvii. 13. He 
promised that they should be " satisfied with 
favour, and full with the blessing of the Lord," 
Deut. xxxiii. 23. ; which was no doubt fulfilled 
in the rich fertility of the magnificent country 
allotted to them, as well as by its advantageous 
position, and the general estimation of the tribe. 
There is a tradition amongst the Jewish writers 
that, notwithstanding their northerly situation, 
this tribe was generally the first to bring the 
offering of the first-fruits. Cf. 1 Chron. xii. 40. 
Moses himself was permitted to view their in- 
heritance from Mt. Pisgah shortly before his 
death, Deut. xxxiv. 2. Upon the division of 
Canaan by Joshua, the inheritance of Naphtali 
was assigned them in the northernmost part of 
the land, Josh. xix. 32—39. To the W. it 
touched upon Asher, to the S. upon Zebulun, to 
the E. upon Manasseh beyond Jordan, and upon 



266 



NAPHTALI. 



NAPHTUHIM. 



the upper Dan, to the N. upon Syria. In the 
prediction of Moses concerning their portion in 
the Promised Land, they were to " possess the 
sea [in our translation, the west], and the 
south," Deut. xxxiii. 23. This was fulfilled, 
probabl}^ by their having such a large portion 
of the Sea of Chinnereth for their border, as well 
as by the ease with which they could reach the 
Mediterranean; and also by the K. Jordan, 
which formed their E. border, giving them 
the means of communicating with* the S. 
parts of the country. It contained three Levi- 
tical cities within its limits, which Av^ere assigned 
to the Gershonites, viz. Kedesh in Galilee 
(Avhich was also a City of Refuge), Hammoth- 
dor, and Kartan, Josh. xxi. 6. 32. ; 1 Chron. vl. 
62. 76. 

At the death of Joshua, the tribe of Naphtali 
had not driven out the Canaanites from all their 
cities, though they succeeded in putting them to 
tribute, Judg. i. 33.; but a hundred years later 
in the history, these Canaanites and their allies 
had again made such head as to be able to get 
the mastery not only over Naphtali, but over all 
Israel. For their sinful idolatry, and copying 
the evil ways of their heathen neighbours, the 
Lord w^as pleased to sell them into the hand of 
Jabin, king of Canaan, who for twenty years 
grievously oppressed them. He reigned in Ilazor, 
and his general Sisera dwelt in Harosheth of 
the Gentiles, Judg. iv. 2,, both cities of Naphtali. 
But at length, Deborah and Barak delivered 
their country from these cruel enemies; a 
struggle in which Naphtali took a brave and 
leading part, Barak himself belonging to this 
tribe, Judg. iv. 6, 10., v. 18. They also were 
amongst the foremost to assist Gideon in sub- 
duing the Midianites, Judg. vi. 35., vii. 23. 
"When David was made king over all Israel in 
Hebron, the tribe of ISTaphtali were amongst 
those who came to assist at the ceremony, 
bringing with them an abundance of provisions 
and fruits to refresh and rejoice their brethren, 
1 Chron. xii. 34. 40. One of their princes was 
appointed by David to be ruler over the whole 
tribe, probably for civil purposes, 1 Chron. xxvii. 
19. Their country alone formed one of Solomon's 
twelve purveyorships, for supplying him and 
his household with victuals, 1 Kgs. iv. 15. 
Hiram, Avhom Solomon fetched out of Tyre to 
make some of the chief ornaments of the Temple, 
was a widow's son of the tribe of Naphtali, 
whose father was of Tyre, 1 Kgs. vii. 14. ; though 
in the parallel passage at 2 Chron. ii. 14., he is 
said to be the son of a Danite woman. 

On the division of the kingdom in the days of 



Rehoboam, Naphtali fell to the lot of Israel; 
when its troubles began rapidly to thicken, and 
it was made to bear the brunt of every invasion 
from Damascus, Syria, and the other enemies of 
Israel in the N". and E. Asa, king of Judah, 
in order to put a stop to Baasha, king of Israel, 
building his border fortress of Ramah, incited 
and hired Benhadad, king of Syria, to attack the 
N". part of the latter's dominions ; whereupon he 
ravaged all the land of Naphtali, as well as the 
adjacent regions, 1 Kgs. xv. 20. ; 2 Chron. xvi. 
4. In the days of Pekah, most of the inhabitants 
vfere carried captive to Assyria by Tiglath- 
Pileser, king of Assyria, B.C. 740, 2 Kgs. xv. 29. ; 
Isa. ix. 1. ; and others of them no doubt were in- 
cluded in the final captivity of the kingdom 
of Israel by Shalmaneser nineteen years after- 
wards; though a few of them appear to have 
escaped, whom Josiah endeavoured to reform 
from their idolatrous ways, 2 Chron. xxxiv. 6. 
Tobit, whose history is commemorated in the 
Apocrypha, is stated to have been of this tribe, 
Tobit i. 1. 4, 5., vii. 3. 

In this land the Blessed Redeemer and His 
Apostles frequentlyjourneyed and tarried, preach- 
ing the glad tidings of the kingdom of heaven. 
Matt. iv. 13. 15. St. John in his sealing vision 
beheld tw^elve thousand sealed of the tribe of 
Naphtali, Rev. vii. 6. In the prophetical divi- 
sion of the Holy Land by the prophet Ezekiel, 
xlviii. 3, 4., this tribe is placed the third in 
order from the N., between Asher and Manasseh ; 
and one of the gates of the New City on the W. 
side, is to be called the gate of Naphtali, Ezek. 
xlviii. 34. 

NAPHTALI, MT., in which stood Kedesh, the 
City of Refuge, was probably that spur of the 
Anti-Lebanon which detaches itself from the 
main ridge, and runs through the whole of 
Galilee, Josh. xx. 7, ; it is said to be now called 
Szaffad. 

NAPHTALI, THE GATE OF, one of the 
three gates of the New City of Jerusalem, de- 
scribed by the prophet Ezekiel, xlviii. 34., as 
lying on the W. side, together with those of 
Gad and Asher. 

NAPHTUHIM, the descendants of the fourth 
son of Mizraim, Gen. x. 13.; 1 Chron. i. 11.; 
whose position in Egypt or Libya, is not at all 
agreed upon. Some place them in the desert 
between Africa and Asia, in the neighbourhood 
of the Sirbonic Lake and the Torrent of Egypt ; 
others, again, to the W. of Egypt, in the Libyan 
Waste; and others, again, to the S. of Egypt, 
between Ethiopia and the kingdom of Meroe, 



NASOR, THE PLAIIST OF. 



NEBAJOTH. 267 



where the ancient city of Napata, now Mograt, 
on the R. Nile, seems to point out traces of their 
name. 

NASOR, THE PLAIN OF, where Jonathan 
and his forces had an encounter with their 
enemies, when his men deserting him he was 
well nigh overpowered, 1 Mace. xi. 67. It was 
near the Lake of Gennesaret, and Avas pro- 
bably some one of the numerous valleys on the 
\V. side of this beautiful sea. 

NATHAN-MELECH, THE CHAMBER OF, 
a building in the suburbs of Jerusalem, and 'near 
the entrance of the Temple, close to which were 
the horses and chariots that the idolatrous kings 
of Judah had given to the sun; but which 
J osiah took away and burned them with fire, 2 
Kgs. xxiii. 11. 

NATIONS. Tidal, king of Nations, is mentioned 
in Gen. xiv. 1., as one of the three sovereigns 
who were confederate with Chedorlaomer, king 
of Elam, when he attacked and endeavoured to 
recover the Cities of the Plain and the adjacent 
regions ; upon which occasion Lot was taken 
prisoner by them, but rescued by Abraham, Gen. 
xiv. 1. 9. The name is, most probably, con- 
jectured to signify the inhabitants of Galilee, 
which was peopled by manj'- nations. Joshua 
mentions his conquest of the king of " the nations 
of Gilgal " (or Galilee), Josh. xii. 23. ; and one 
of the cities in its N. part is called in the book 
of Judges, iv. 2. 13., Harosheth of " the Gentiles " 
(or Nations). See Galilee. 

NATIONS is a term constantly used in 
Holy Writ, to designate all people but the Jews, 
as in Num. xxiii. 9.; Deut. xxxii. 43. See 
Gentiles. 

NAZARETH, a small and inconsiderable city 
in Lower Galilee, but dignified, and rendered 
most interesting to the Christian, by its con- 
nection with the history of our Lord and Saviour 
Jesus Christ. Hither the angel Gabriel was sent 
by God to the Virgin Mary, to announce the 
coming conception of the Divine Redeemer, Lu. 
i. 26.; and here both the Virgin and Joseph 
appear to have lived, until they went up to their 
own city Bethlehem to be taxed, Lu. ii. 4, 
After their return from Egypt, they again came 
with the Blessed Saviour to Nazareth, Matt. ii. 
23. ; Lu. ii, 39. ; whence they went up every year 
to J erusalem at the feast of the Passover, but 
returned again thither; so that Nazareth be- 
came the Saviour's residence until the com- 
mencement of His public ministry, Mk. i. 9. ; 
Lu. ii. 51,, iv. 16. From this circumstance. He 



was called, as had been foretold, a Nazarene, 
Matt. ii. 23., as were likewise his followers, 
Acts xxiv. 5. ; probably a name of contempt, 
given them on account of the bad reputation in 
which the inhabitants of the city were com- 
monly held by the Jews, Jo. i. 46. Hence, also. 
He was constantly styled Jesus of Nazareth. 
Matt. xxi. 11,, xxvi. 71.; Mk. i. 24., x. 47., 
xiv. 67., xvi. 6. ; Lu. iv. 34., xviii. 37., xxiv 
19. ; Jo. i. 45,, xviii. 5. 7., xix. 19. ; Acts ii. 22. 
iii. 6., iv. 10., vi. 14., x. 38., xxii. 8., xxvi. 9. 
Upon one occasion, he preached to the people of 
Nazareth in their synagogue, when His minis- 
try was not only despised by them, but leading 
Him to the brow of the hill on which their city 
was built, they would have cast Him doAvn 
headlong, had He not miraculously passed through 
the midst of them, and so escaped their hands, 
Lu, iv. 16. After this, He quitted Nazareth as 
His abode, and dwelt at Capernaum, Matt. iv.l3., 
which is thenceforward called " His own city," 

Nazareth is still called Nazirah, but under 
Turkish influence is a mean and dirty place, 
though in the midst of a beautiful and fertile 
country. It is, moreover disgraced by many of 
the debasing superstitions of the Roman Catho- 
lics and Greeks, by whom it is chiefly inhabited. 
Amongst other lying vanities of the Church of 
Rome, it is pretended that the house in which 
the Virgin Mary lived at Nazareth, was con- 
veyed by angels through the air to Loreto, a 
small town of Italy, near Ancona, where an 
image of the Virgin is set up, dressed out in all 
sorts of tawdry finery, before which the credu- 
lous are taught to bow down ; though the num- 
ber of pilgrims to it, and the valuable offerings 
made to the idol, have been most materially 
diminished since the Reformation. 

NEAH, a city or place in the inheritance of 
Zebulun, upon the border. Josh, xix. 13. 

NEAPOLIS, a seaport of Macedonia, where 
Paul landed on his first visit to that country, 
Acts xvi. 11., and from whence he proceeded to 
the neighbouring city Philippi, of which it was 
the haven. Neapolis was situated on the N. 
shore of the -(Egsean Sea, now the Archipelago, 
and was formerly called Datos. Near it, the 
Athenians were severely handled by the Edones, 
the people of the country, when endeavouring 
to found a colony here. It was originally 
reckoned to I'hrace, being close on the borders 
of the two provinces; its modern name is Ca- 
valla, 

NEBAJOTH, a tribe of Ishmaelites, so called 
after Ishmael's first-born son. Gen. xxv. 13. ; 



268 NEBALLAT. 



NETIIINIMS. 



1 Chron. i. 29. They are mentioned by the 
prophet Isaiah, Ix. 7., in connection with Kedar, 
and as abounding in flocks. He foretells that in 
the latter days they shall be joined to the 
Christian church, and bring their offerings into 
it. See Nabathites. 

NEBALLAT, a city of the tribe of Benjamin, 
inhabited after the Babylonian captivity, Neh. 
xi. 34, 

NEBO, MT., now called Attdrus, a mountain 
beyond Jordan, in the land of Moab, N. of the 
R. Arnon, over against Jericho, about 5 miles to 
the E. of the head of the Salt Sea. It formed 
part of the extensive chain of the mountains of 
Abarim ; and under it the Israelites appear to 
have encamped soon after they crossed the R. 
Arnon, Num. xxxiii. 47., before they removed 
to the Plains of Moab. Moses was commanded 
by God to go up there and die, Deut. xxxii. 49. ; 
after having first been permitted to survey from 
that summit of it called Mt. Pisgah, the whole 
of the Promised Land, Deut. xxxiv. 1. It is 
thought to have derived its name from the 
Chaldean idol Nebo, mentioned by Isaiah, xlvi. 
1., and may perhaps have been devoted to its 
superstitious worship. See Pisgah. 

NEBO, a city of the Amorites, which Moses 
took from Sihon, and assigned to the children of 
Reuben, who restored and enlarged it, Num. 
xxxii. 3. 38. ; 1 Chron. v. 8. ; its name being 
changed. It was no doubt near Mt. Nebo; 
and after the captivity of the trans- Jordanic 
tribes by Tiglath-Pileser, 1 Chron. v. 26., the 
Moabites appear to have seized upon it, as 
it is mentioned by the prophets Isaiah, xv. 
2., and Jeremiah, xlviii. 1. 22., amongst their 
cities which shall be laid waste. See Bajmoth- 
Baal. 

NEBO, a city of the tribe of Judah, Ezra 
ii. 29., re-peopled after the seventy years' 
captivity. Nehemiah, vii. 83., calls it " the other 
Nebo," perhaps to distinguish it from the pre- 
ceding. 

NEHELAMITE, an appellation given to the 
false prophet Shemaiah in Jer. xxix. 24. 31, 
32. ; which some derive from the nam.e of a city, 
as the Helam of 2 Sam. x. 16, 17., or the Elam 
of Ezra ii. 7. 31. ; Neh. vii. 12. 34. : others, 
however, translate the word the Dreamer. 

NEIEL, a city of the tribe of Asher, near the 
region of Cabul, Josh. xix. 27. 

NEKEB, a city of the tribe of Naphtali, Josh, 
xix. 33. 



I NEKODA, CHILDREN OF, a family of the 
Nethinims, who returned home with Zerubbabel 
at the end of the Babylonian captivity, Ezra ii. 
48. 60. ; Neh. vii. 50. 62. 

NEMUELITES, a family of the tribe of 
Simeon, numbered together with all Israel, by 
Moses, in the Plains of Moab, Num. xxvi. 12. 
They were so named after Nemuel (or Jemuel), 
the eldest sou of Simeon, Gen. xlvi. 10.; 1 
Chron. iv. 24. 

NEPHIS, 1 Esd. V. 21., supposed to be the 
same Avith the Magbish of Ezra ii. 30. ; which 
see. 

NEPHISH, 1 Chron. v. 19.. ^ee Naphish. 

NEPHTPIALIM, Matt. iv. 13. 15. ; Rev. vii. 
6. ; Tobit vii. 3. ; and 

NEPHTHALI, Tobit i. 1. 4. See Naphtali. 

NEPHTHALI IN GALILEE, Tobit i. 2., 
another name for Kadesh-Naphtali ; which see. 

NEPHTOAH, FOUNTAIN OF THE 
WATER OF, Josh. xv. 9., or the Well of 
Waters of Nephtoah, xviii. 15., a place on 
the common borders of the two tribes Judah 
and Benjamin, not otherwise known. 

NEPHQSIM or Nephishesim, a family of 
the Nethinims, who returned under Zerubbabel 
from the seventy years' captivity, Ezra ii. 50. ; 
Neh. vii. 52. 

NETHINIMS (i.e. Given ox O^erecZ), servants 
dedicated to the service of the Tabernacle and 
Temple, to perform the most laborious offices, 
as hewers of wood and drawers of water ; being 
appointed to assist the Levites, as the latter 
were to assist the priests. They were not ori- 
ginally of Hebrew descent ; but appear to have 
been at first mainly composed of the Gibeonites, 
who were for ever set apart to these duties, 
because of the fraudulent stratagem v/herebj' 
they induced Joshua and the Israelites to make 
a covenant with them. Josh. ix. 21. 23. 27. 
Others of the Canaanites who surrendered them- 
selves to Israel, and whose lives were spared, 
are thought to have been afterwards added to 
the number of the body. Besides these, we 
read in Ezra viii. 20., that David and the 
princes appointed certain Nethinims for the 
service of the Levites. These are conjectured 
to have been some of the captives taken in the 
various wars with the neighbouring nations. 
Solomon levied a tribute of bond-service upon 
all the descendants of those Canaanites whom 
the Israelites had not been able to destroy, 1 
Kgs. ix. 20, 21. ; and it is conjectured that he 



NETHmiMS AND MERCHx\NTS. 



NINEVEH. 



269 



gave a goodly number of them to the service 
of the Temple, especially as the children of 
Solomon's Servants appear to be numbered 
with the Nethiniras in Ezra ii, 58. ; Neh. vii. 
60., xi. 3. A large body was thus raised ; some 
of whom dwelt in Jerusalem, Neh. iii. 26. 31., 
xi. 21., and some in their cities, 1 Chron. ix. 2. ; 
Ezra ii. 70. ; Neh. vii. 73., xi. 3., possibly by 
courses. They were led captive with the rest 
of Israel into Assyria and the cities of the 
Medes. A few of them returned home with 
Zerubbabel at the end of the seventy years, 
Ezra ii. 43. 58. ; Neh. vii. 46. 60., x. 28. ; and a 
few more with Ezra about eighty years after- 
wards, Ezra vii. 7. 24., viii. 17. 20.; but it 
would appear that the greater part remained 
behind. 

NETHINIMS AND MERCHANTS, PLACE 
OF THE, a place in Jerusalem, by the outer 
wall of the city, near the Gate Miphkad and the 
Going up of the Corner, Neh. iii. 31. 

NETOPHAH or Netophathi, a city of 
Jud£Ba, probably within the limits of the tribe of 
Judah, between Bethlehem and the border of 
Benjamin, 1 Chron. ii. 54. Two of David's 
mighty men, whom he appointed to serve him 
one month in the year, were Netophathites, 2 
Sam. xxiii. 28, 29. ; 1 Chron. xi. 30., xxvii. 13. 
15. ; as were also some of the conspirators who 
joined Ishmael in the murder of Gedaliah the 
Chaldean governor of Judjea, 2 Kgs. xxv. 23. ; 
Jer. xl. 8. After the Babylonian captivity, a 
few of them returned home to their old city, 
and re-inhabited it, 1 Chron. ix. 16. ; Ezra ii. 
22. ; Neh. vii. 26. : it was also the residence of 
some of the singers, Neh. xii. 28. 

NEZIAH, CHILDREN OF, a family of the 
Nethinims who returned from Babylon with 
Zerubbabel at the end of the seventy years' cap- 
tivity, Ezra ii. 64. ; Neh. vii. 56. 

NEZIB, a city of the tribe of Judah, situate 
in the Valley, Josh. xv. 43. 

NIBSHAN, a city of Judah, one of the six 
lying in the Wilderness, Josh. xv. 62. 

NICOPOLIS, a city of Greece, in the S.W. 
part of the old region of Epirus, which, latterly, 
the Romans included in their gi-eat province of 
Macedonia. It lay at the N.W, extremity of 
the Ambracian Gulf, now the G. of Arta ; and 
was founded by the Emperor Augustus to 
commemorate his victory over Antony and 
Cleopatra, B.C. 31, on the very spot where his 
camp had been pitched. It was called Nicopolis 
Actia, from its being near the city of Actium, 



after which the battle is named. Augustus 
peopled his new foundation from the surrounding 
cities of Epirus, Acarnania, and ^Etolia. He 
made it a Roman colony ; obtained for it a vote 
in the Amphictyonic Council ; instituted games 
which were celebrated every five years ; and 
built many splendid edifices there ; but it is 
now a heap of ruins, called Old Frevesa. It is 
generally believed to be the place mentioned 
in the Epistle to Titus, iii. 12., as the one whence 
Paul wrote to his young disciple, and where he 
speaks of wintering ; though some are of opinion 
that Nicopolis in Thrace, on the borders of 
Macedonia and on the banks of the R. Nestus, 
is the city meant. The epigraph of the epistle 
describes it as Nicopolis of Macedonia ; but this 
is not to be relied on. 

NIMRAH, Num. xxxii. 3. See Betii-nim- 

KAH, 

NIMRIM, WATERS OF, the desolation of 
which is foretold by the prophets Isaiah, xv. 6., 
and Jeremiah, xlviii. 34.; in conjunction with 
that of the Moabite city Horonaim, which may 
have stood upon or near them. The name pro- 
bably designates one of those small rivers which 
flow down, through the country of Moab, into the 
E. side of the Dead Sea. 

NIMROD, LAND OF, an appellation given 
by the prophet Micah, v. 6., to the old land of 
Shinar, as forming a part of the empire of As- 
syria. See Assyria. 

NINEVEH, the renowned metropolis of the 
Assyrian empire, generally called Ninus by the 
profane authors. It was founded about 2218 
B.C. by Asshur, the second son of Shem, ac- 
cording to the text of Gen. x. 11, 12. ; though 
the marginal reading would seem to state that it 
was built by Nimrod, the son of Cush, and 
grandson of Ham, after he had invaded Assyria. 
It appears to have been situated on the E. bank 
of the R. Tigris, nearly opposite the modern 
city of Mosul, about 240 miles to the N. of Ba- 
bylon ; and to have soon grown up to a magni- 
tude and importance such as few ancient cities 
possessed. For this it ^va,s indebted, not only to 
the ambitious spirit of its princes, and the per- 
severing skill of its inhabitants, but also to its 
advantageous situation, which long rendered it 
the great emporium of all the merchandise of the 
East, Nah. iii. 16, It is described in Holy Writ 
as an exceeding great city of three days' journey 
(i.e. probably in circumference), Jonah i. 2., iii. 
2, 3. ; and as having in it, at the time of Jonah's 
mission, more than 120,000 children who could 
not discern between their right hand and their 



270 



NINEVEH. 



left hand, Jonah iv, 11.. which it is calculated 
would bring the population to about 2,000,000 
souls. According to some of the profane authors, 
Nineveh was larger than Babylon, and the 
greater number of their measurements extant 
accord with this statement, making Babylon 
about 12 miles less in circuit. 

Perhaps the best account of Nineveh is given 
by Diodorus Siculus, who, like the generality of 
the heathen authors, ascribes its foundation 
to Ninus. This king, it is said, resolved to found 
a city of such strength and magnificence that it 
should not only be the greatest in the world, but 
remain unsurpassed by all future monarchs. He 
gave it his own name ; appointed it to be the 
dwelling-place of the richest of his subjects, 
though he allowed the inhabitants of other 
countries to come and settle in it; and he 
granted to its citizens a large adjacent territory. 
Its length was 150 stadia, stretched along 
the bank of the Tigris; its breadth 90, and 
its circumference 480 stadia (or furlongs). Its 
walls were 100 feet high, and wide enough for 
three chariots to drive abreast upon them ; and 
on these there Avere 1500 towers, each 200 
feet high. It was considered in those times im- 
pregnable ; and it is said there was an old tradi- 
tion that the city should never be taken until the 
river became its enem}'. Its inhabitants rose to 
a degree of wealth and luxury such probably as 
were never surpassed in ancient days ; but their 
wickedness and crimes increased with their 
power, Nah. ii. 9., iii. 1. 4. 16, 17., so that God 
sent Jonah to proclaim its destruction after forty 
days. Upon their repentance, howevex-, he 
was graciously pleased to spare the city, B.C. 
862, Jonah i. 2., iii. 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7., iv. 11. ; Matt, 
xii. 41. ; Lu. xi. 30. 32. But its cruelties (es- 
pecially towards Israel) and its corruptions soon 
began to be again indulged, perhaps more 
deeply than ever ; and accordingly, the prophets 
Nahum, i. 1., ii. 8., iii. 7., and Zephaniah, ii. 13., 
were commissioned to predict its coming and 
certain destruction. 

Yet God was pleased to permit Nineveh, 
as afterwards Babylon, to be an instrument to 
scourge His people for their sins, Isa. x. 5. Here 
the Assyrian sovereigns resided ; and hence they 
set out with their overwhelming forces, to attack 
the little nation that lay on the banks of the 
Jordan. Especially may be mentioned the cam- 
paigns of Pul, who put Menahem, king of Israel, 
to tribute, b.c. 771, 2 Kgs. xv. 19. ; 1 Chron. v. 
26. ; of Tiglath-Pileser, who took captive the 
trans-Jordanic and Northern tribes, B.C. 740, 2 
Kgs. XV. 29. ; 1 Chron. v. 6. 26. ; of Shalmaneser, 



who carried captive the rest of the Ten Tribes, 
B.C. 721 , 2 Kgs. xvii. 6. 23., xviii. 9—11. ; of Sen- 
nacherib, who having reduced Judah to subjec- 
tion and exhausted its wealth, endeavoured three 
years afterwards to take Jerusalem, but was 
foiled by the miraculous destruction of 185,000 
of his army near the holy city, and his own as- 
sassination in Nineveh, b.c. 710, 2 Kgs. xix. 
35, 36.; Isa. xxxvii. 36, 37.; of Esarhaddon, 
who reduced Judah, and took its king Manasseh 
captive to Babylon, b.c. 677, 2 Chron. xxxiii. 
11. But all this while, the predicted days 
of vengeance were drawing on ; and at length, 
Sardanapalus, king of Assyria, after having been 
here besieged by Arbaces the Mede for three 
yeai's, and vanquished, burned himself and his 
palace in the midst of his treasures, B.C. 717. 
Trusting to the old tradition about its impreg- 
nable strength, he had confidently made it the 
seat of war ; but at length, the river overflowing 
its banks, made a breach in the walls of 20 
stadia, whereupon the luxurious monarch, at 
once thrown into despair, abandoned his capital 
to the enemy, and fired the palace. At the 
same time his troops, having been furnished 
by him with abundance of wine because of a 
season of festivity they were then observing, 
were fearlessly giving way to the most intempe- 
rate indulgence. The Medes having this double 
oppoi-tunity, came upon them suddenly; and 
having completely mastered them, destroyed the 
city. So were the words of Nahum fulfilled, i. 
10., that " while they be folden together as 
thorns, and while they are drunken as drunkards 
they shall be devoured as stubble fully dry ; " 
and again, ii. 6., " the gates of the rivers shall 
be opened, and the palace shall be dissolved," iii. 
13. ; " the gates of thy land shall be set wide 
open unto thine enemies ; the fire shall devour 
thy bars." 

But after a time, Nineveh recovered from this 
tremendous desolation, and was rebuilt with 
more or less splendour. According to the apo- 
cryphal writer of the book of Tobit, many of 
the Israelites who had been led captive by the 
Assyrian kings were then dwelling in and 
around Nineveh, Tobit i. 3. 10. 17. 19. 22., vii. 3., 
xi. 1.. xiv. 4. 8. 10. 15. ; and in the book of 
Judith, i. 1. 16., Nabuchodonosor is mentioned 
as reigning there. But the doom of Nineveh 
was fixed, and notwithstanding the energy and 
talents of its people, its cup of iniquity became 
at length full, and it was again destroyed about 
601 B.C., by Cyaxares the Mede, and Nabopo- 
lassar the Babylonian, when the Assyrian 
empire was finally overthrown. Smaller and 



NINEVITES. 



NO. 



271 



insignificant cities have at various times arisen 
upon the old site, but their existence was only- 
short, and now, the whole neighbourhood is 
such a confused mass of shapeless and undefined 
ruins, that until lately the mere situation of the 
great city itself has been a matter of specula- 
tion and doubt. Even in the second century of 
the Christian era, Lucian, a native of a city on 
the Euphrates, has informed us that none could 
tell where Nineveh had once stood; so truly 
has the prediction of Nahum been verified, i. 8., 
" the Lord will make an utter end of the place 
thereof," i. 14. ; " I will make thy grave, for thou 
art vile," iii. 17. ; " their place is not known where 
they are." There is a vast mass of ruins and 
rubbish (said to be about 40 or 50 miles in 
circumference) intermixed with cultivated fields, 
opposite to the modern city of Mosul, which are 
now justly considered to be the site of this'ancient 
city ; but it is so difficult there to distinguish 
between nature and art, broken up by the hand 
of time until they closely resemble one another, 
that none have been hitherto able to define the 
exact limits of the old site with the slightest 
approach to accuracy. Qne large mound goes 
by the name of Tel Nunia or Ninoa, but whether 
its ruins fonn a part of the ancient city, or 
merely a suburb, has been doubted ; on another 
heap is pretended to be the tomb of Jonah, and 
indeed almo&t every great protruding eminence 
either has some ruins on it and in it, or some name 
and tradition connecting it with Nineveh. But 
the persevering excavations of recent travellers 
have laid open such wonderful discoveries of 
temples, palaces, inscriptions, &c. &c., at other 
portions of the vast ruins, called by the natives 
Khorsabad, Kouyunjik, 8cc., that abundant and 
undeniable evidence now exists, not only of 
the real locality of Nineveh, but of its former 
vast extent, its strength and resources, and its 
amazing splendour, and of its having been well 
able to contain not only the great population 
attributed to it, but also " much cattle." 

NINEVITES, Lu. xi. 30., Tobit i. 19., the 
inhabitants of the city of Nineveh ; which see. 

NO, or No-AmioN (i.e. Populous No), a large 
and magnificent city of Upper Egypt, about iOO 
miles from tbe S. frontier. It extended along 
both banks of the E. Nile, and was built at 
so remote a period that the Egyptians reckoned 
it the most ancient city in theVorld. Their priests 
asserted that its foundations had been laid 
by Osiris, but that it was completed under 
the earliest of their kings. It was called by 
the Greeks Diospolis Magna or the Great City 



of Jupiter, from its being devoted to this re- 
puted father of heathen deities : and hence it 
has been conjectured that this Jupiter, or 
Ammon, was a heathen personification of Ham, 
the third son of Noah, from whom the Egyp- 
tians sprang, and who is said to have been also 
worshipped in Libya under the title of Ju- 
piter Ammon. It was also called Thebes 
by the profane writers, who always describe it 
as one of the largest and most splendid of 
cities. Homer mentions it as ha^'ing a hundred 
gates, from each of which it could pour forth 
200 armed men, and Tacitus has recorded that 
on an ; emergency it could send 700,000 troops 
into the field. It is stated to have been 40 
miles in circumference, with a wall 24 feet thick, 
and to have contained the most solid and won- 
derful buildings ever known; and the remains 
of its temples, palaces, colossal figures, obelisks, 
sepulchres, and other stately edifices, which are 
scattered over a space of 9 miles, amidst nine 
villages, still attract the wonder of all tra- 
vellers. It was for several centuries the seat of 
the Egyptian kings, who, through many dynas- 
ties, governed the upper part of the land ; they 
were buried in magnificent sepulchres, hewn out of 
the Libyan mountains on the W. side of the 
Nile, where also was their great palace ; this W. 
portion of the city was called Memnonium. 

Erom its being compared by the prophet 
Nahum, iii. 8., with Nineveh, and termed " Po- 
pulous No," it would appear to have been once 
little inferior to it in its magnitude and the 
number of its inhabitants ; though at that time 
it seems to have been desolated, probably by 
Sargon (or Sennacherib), king of Assyria, and 
his general Tartan, agreeably to the predictions 
of Isaiah against Egypt generally, xx. 1 — 6. It 
recovered, however, in some measure from this 
disaster, and the prophet Ezekiel, 150 years 
later, still speaks of its inhabitants as "the 
mxultitude of No," xxx. 15. ; though the rising 
greatness of Noph (or Memphis), which became 
the residence of the Egyptian kings, stripped it 
of much of its renown. Yet its wickedness and 
gross idolatries continued ; and hence both Jere- 
miah, xlvi. 25., and Ezekiel, xxx. 14, 15, 16,, 
foretell its coming destruction, Avhich took place 
about 525 B.C., when Cambyses, king of Persia, 
conquered Egypt. It was afterwards again 
partially rebuilt; but was only a poor city in 
the midst of the ruins of fallen greatness, until 
century after century, it disappeared, and made 
way for the nine villages which at present 
occupy its vast site. Of these the largest are 
Carnac, Luxor, and 3Iedinet Thahu, the last of 



272 



NOB. 



NOPH. 



wliich appears still to preserve some vestiges of 
the ancient name Ttiebes. 

The Memnonium derived its name from Mem- 
non, Avho in the heathen mythology was repre- 
sented as the son of Tithonus and Aurora, and 
reputed to have been king of the Ethiopians, 
being possibly a personification of Ham, or one 
of his sons. He is fabled to have carried his 
arms over many parts of the world, and to have 
been killed at the siege of Troy by Achilles. 
His subjects erected a statue to him, close to 
the entrance of his great palace, which was 52 
feet high and cut out of solid stone. By 
some trick of the priests it was made to utter a 
melodious sound, like the snapping of a harp- 
string, as soon as the first rays of the morning 
fell upon it; but at the setting of the sun, and 
during the night, to utter very plaintive sounds. 
Cambyses caused it to be broken and thrown on 
the ground, but the trick continued to be 
practised, and many of the great men of the 
pagan world, recorded their names upon the 
pedestal of the statue, in attestation of their 
having heard the sound. The modern Arabs 
call this statue Chama (Ham) ; its upper part is 
now in the British Museum. In the Vulgate, 
the Hebrew No-Ammon is often 'rendered Alex- 
andria, but this is manifestly erroneous. 

NOB, a city in the tribe of Benjamin, Neh. 
xi. 32., whither the Tabernacle appears to have 
been removed from Shiloh, after the return 
of the ark from the Philistines. It was pro- 
bably on the borders of Judah, near Kirjath- 
jearim, where the ark remained for many years, 
until taken to Jerusalem by David. Though 
not mentioned as one of the Levitical cities, 
it is called " the city of the priests" in 1 Sam. 
xxii. 19. There Ahimelech was ministering 
when David, ileeing from the rage of Saul, 
obtained from him the shewbread for himself 
and his few followers, as well as the sword 
of Goliath, which was there laid up behind 
the ephod, 1 Sam. xxi. 1. : for which Saul 
sent Doeg the Edomite to put Ahimelech and 
eighty-four other priests to death, destroying 
all the men, women, and children of the city 
with every living thing, 1 Sara. xxii. 9. 11. 
19. The prophet Isaiah, x. 32., fortells the 
encampment of the Assyrians there during 
their invasion of Judah under Sennacherib. 
It was re-inhabited after the return from the 
seventy years^ captivity in Babylon, Neh. 
xi. 32. Jerome states that Jerusalem could be 
seen from it. 

NOBAH, an old city of Bashan, within the 



territory of the half-tribe of ]\Iauasseh. It was 
formely called Kenath ; but when Nobah took 
it, he gave it his own name, Num. xxxii. 42. ; 
1 Chron. ii. 23. Eusebius and Jerome call it 
Canatha, and place it in Trachonitis, near 
Bozra, where there is a place now called Kana- 
wat. Its ruins may, however, probably be those 
at Kaneitarah, somewhat ,to the S.E. of Mt. 
Hermon. 

NOBAH, a city on the borders of the Midi- 
anites and Arabians, passed by Gideon in his 
stealthy and rapid march against the former 
people, Judg. viii. 11. : it was possibly in the 
tribe of Gad, S.E. of Succoth and Penuel, in 
the neighbourhood of Jogbehah. Cf. Num. 
xxxii. 35. See Nophah. 

NOD, LAND OF, whither Cain retired from 
the presence of the Lord, after the murder 
of his brother. It lay to the E. of Eden, Gen. 
iv. 16. ; but where, is a matter of mere con- 
jecture. Some place it in Susiana, some in 
Arabia Petrsea, and others in Parthia or India ; 
the situation assigned to it being, of course, 
made to depend upon that given to Eden. 
Others, however, consider the name only as 
an appellative, the word Nod signifying flight 
or banishment ; and so, the land of Nod would 
be the land of the " fugitive," wherever the 
murderer might go, seeking rest but finding 
none. 

NODAB, a tribe of the Hagarites, descended 
from Ishmael, who, together with their brethren 
of Jetur and Nephish, attacked the trans-Joi'- 
danic tribes, on whose borders in Arabia they had 
settled. They were, however, beaten off, and 
their cattle and cities taken by the two tribes 
and a half who dwelt in their stead until 
the captivity, 1 Chron. v. 19. 

NOMADES OF ARABIA, THE, are men- 
tioned by the apocryphal writer in 2 Mace, 
xii. 11., as haAdng advanced to within 9 fur- 
longs of Jamnia, where they fell upon Judas 
Maccabseus, but were repulsed by him, and 
then entered into a treat}^ of peace. All the 
wandering tribes of Arabia and N. Africa were 
called nomades by the ancients, from their 
pastoral habits ; the name being derived from a 
Greek word signifying to feed. They possessed 
no houses, but dwelt in tents, living upon 
their flocks and herds, and upon whatever 
plunder they might be able to seize. The 
name of nomades has long since been commonl}' 
applied to all the wandering pastoral people of 
the earth. 

NOPH, otherwise Moph, and in the Greek 



ITOPH. 



273 



form Memphis, a very ancient city of the 
province Heptanomis, at its X. extremity, on 
the borders of Lower Egypt. It was situated 
on the W. bank of the Xile, near the end of 
the narrow valley of this river, before it 
branches out into the Delt% and a few miles 
to the S. of the modern city of Cairo, which i 
is on the opposite bank, and is said to be still i 
called 3Ienoph by the Arabs. Xoph is con- | 
jectured to have been the residence of the | 
Egyptian kings in the time of Abraham, j 
Joseph, and Moses: and there is much doubt 
whether it or Xo (i.e. Thebes) was the older 
city. It has been supposed by some, that the 
Egyptian Pharaoh and many of his subjects 
r-etreated from Xoph to Upper Egypt, and 
took up their abode in and about Xo, during 
the invasion and oppression of the Shepherd 
kings ; returning back on the expulsion of the 
latter from the country. But it is not at all 
unlikely that each was the capital, or royal 
city of the province in which it lay ; Xo of 
Upper Eg^'pt, and Xoph of Heptanomis, as 
Sin was of Lowe? Egypt. Hence, perhaps, all 
three are mentioned together by Ezekiel, xxx. 
16. 

According to the native traditions, Xoph 
was originally built by King Menes, but com- 
pleted and beautified by his successors. Ac- 
cording to them, also, it stood formerly on the 
right bank of the Xile, until Menes, by erecting 
a dam in the river, compelled it to take a more 
easterly course, and so leave the city on its 
left bank. It grew rapidly in wealth and im- 
portance, especially after the imion of the 
Egyptian kings; and as Xo declined in splen- 
dour and influence, Xoph increased, until it 
became the metropolis of the whole kingdom. 
It was 150 stadia in circuit, and contained 
many solid and magnificent buildings; par- 
ticularly two temples of Apis and Yuican, the 
former being especially worshipped here. It 
occupied a most important position on the Xile, 
at the head of all the seven streams, Isa. xi. 
15., by which this noble river finds its way to 
the sea ; and hence, must have commanded the 
passage and commerce between the X. and S. 
parts of the country. But its debased idolatries 
and other crimes brought down upon it the 
vengeance of the Most High ; and the prophets 
Isaiah, xix. 13., Jeremiah, xlvi. 14. 19., and 
Ezekiel, xxx. 13. 16., were commissioned to 
foretell its destruction. 

There was much intercourse between Israel 
and Xoph, as well as all the other cities of 
Egypt, in the time of peace; though, when 



opportunity served, Xoph took its part in 
the harassing of the people of God, in com- 
mon vnth the neighbouring cities. Thus 
Hosea, ix. 6., when predicting the captivity 
of the kingdom of the Ten Tribes, declared, 
that many of the Israelites should flee from 
the Assyrians into Egypt for safety, but should 
only find graves at Memphis. And in like 
manner, when Jeremiah is describing the con- 
sequences of Pharaoh Xechoh's invasion, in 
the death of Josiah, and the dethronement of 
Jehoahaz, he speaks of Xoph as taking a lead 
in the matter, ii. 16. And afterwards, when 
the remnant of the Jews who had escaped from 
Xebuchadnezzar fled into Egypt, they took 
refuge at Xoph, as at other cities; though 
they were forewarned by Jeremiah, xliv. 1., 
that for their continued idolatries there, they 
should in due time be punished with Egypt. 

The apocryphal author of the book of J udith, 
i. 10., represents Xabuchodonosor, king of 
Assp-ia, as having summoned iMemphis to his 
assistance^against Arphaxad, but in vain. How- 
ever this may be, it appears that Xebuchad- 
nezzar, king of Bab3'lon, was the first to humble 
the pride of Xoph, as Jeremiah had predicted he 
should, xlvi. 13. ; but the city recovered from 
this blow, and continued to be the royal re- 
sidence rmtil the conquest of Egj^t by the 
Persians, when it began rapidly to decline. It 
suflTered still more when the Ptolemies removed 
the seat of government to Alexandria. But its 
final destruction was consummated in the seventh 
century of the Christian era by the Saracens, 
who puUed down what remained of its splendid 
edifices, to rmi up the mosques and other public 
buildings of their new city Cairo, which they 
erected on the opposite bank of the river, a few 
miles lower down; so that Xoph has been for 
centuries what Jeremiah predicted, " waste and 
desolate, without an inhabitant." Its ruins, 
which are scattered over a vast space of ground, 
not far from the modern villages of 3Iangel 3Iusa 
and 3Iitraheni, stiU astonish the eye of the 
traveller. 

About 3 or 4 miles to the AY. of Xoph, 
on the summit of the mountain-ridge, which 
closes the Valley of the Xile towards Libya, are 
some of those gigantic moniiments of human 
labour, the Pyramids, now called Pharaoli's 
3Iountains, by the Arabs, but usually named by 
Europeans the Pyramids of Ghizeh. They are 
many in number ; but three of them are parti- 
cularly remarkable for their magnitude, and 
on other accounts. It is said, they were in- 
tended as sepulchres for the kings, and great 



274 NOPHAH, 



OBLATIOF, THE. 



people of Egypt, the first and largest of them 
having been built about the time of the patriarch 
Abraham, by the profligate king Cheops, who, 
having barred the avenues to every temple, and 
forbidden the Egyptians to offer any sacrifices 
to their gods, compelled them to labour servilely 
for himself. A hundred thousand men were 
occupied for ten years in hewing stones from the 
mountains, and transporting them to the place 
intended for the situation of the monstrous pile ; 
the pyramid itself was a work of twenty years, 
and is said to have employed 370,000 men. It 
is of a square form, the stones being skilfully 
cemented, and never less than 30 feet long. It 
covers about 11 acres of ground, each side being 
680 feet long, and nearly 600 high; it is as- 
cended by 208 steps (or altars, as some call 
them), each from 2 to 4 feet high. 

NOPHAH, an ancient city or district of the 
Moabites, taken from them by the Amorites, 
who introduced its name into one of their songs 
of triumph, Num. xxi. 30. It was probably 
near or round Medeba, and may have been the 
same with the Nodah, afterwards mentioned in 
the campaign of Gideon, Judg. viii. 11. 

NORTH, THE, and the North Country, 
are appellations emplo^^ed in Holy Writ to dis - 
tinguish all those regions and nations which, 
in a general waj^ may be said to lie northward 
from the land of Israel ; and which were, more 
or less, hostile to the people of God. But the 
kingdom of Judali itself appears to be designated 
as the North in one passage, Isa. xiv. 31., where 
the prophet foretells the coming desolation of 
Philistia by the Jewish armies. The terms, 
however, do not appear to be used in a strictly 
geographical sense, but refer also to the direction 
by which the several nations entered Judaea, 
viz. from the North. On one side, the Medi- 



terranean Sea served as a rampart of defence 
against the western invaders ; and on the other 
the vast sandy desert of Arabia, being impracti- 
cable for an army, the Assyrians, Chaldeans, 
and other eastern foes, usually crossed the 
Euphrates at Tiphsah, advancing through Da- 
mascus, to the Holy Land; both being thus 
compelled, as it were, by natural defences, to 
make their inroads from the North. 

Syria really lay to the N. of Palestine, and^ 
therefore, its king is called the king of the 
North by Daniel, xi. 6. 8. 11. 13. 15.— Isaiah 
describes Cyrus the Mede as raised up from the 
North, xli. 25., and Jeremiah, 1. 3. 9. 41., li. 48., 
predicts the overthrow of Babylon from the 
North, i.e. by the Medes. — Assyria is called the 
North; and under that name doomed to ruin, 
Zeph. ii. 13. — Babylon is called the North 
country near the R. Euphrates, by the prophet 
Jeremiah, Jer. xlvi. 6. 10, 20. 24.; who also 
foretells the desolation of Judjea and Jerusalem 
by the Chaldeans, as coming from the North, 
i. 14, 15,, iv. 6., vi. 1. 22., x. 22. xxv. 9. ; as does 
Joel, ii. 20. ; and, in like manner, the final 
restoration of the whole house of Israel is to be 
principally from the North, though from other 
nations as well, Jer. iii. 18., xvi. 15,, xxiii, 8,, 
xxxi. 8.; Zech. ii. 6. Cf. vi. 6. 8. The 
Babjdonians are, likewise, represented as falling 
from the North upon the Philistines, J er. xlvii. 
2,, and upon Tyre, Ezek. xxvi. 7. ; though they 
themselves were sentenced to desolation amongst 
the other kings of the North, Jer. xxv. 26,; 
Ezek. xxxii. 30. — But some of the western 
nations appear, also, to be included under this 
term, as Gog and Magog, Ezek. xxxviii. 15., 
xxxix. 2.; Togarmah, Ezek. xxxviii. 6.; i.e. 
possibly the Turks, Tartars, Russians, who are 
conjectured to be designated by the same 
appellation in Dan. xi. 40. 44. 



OAK OF WEEPING, near Bethel, where 
Deborah, Eebekah's nurse, Avas buried. Gen. 
XXXV. 8. See Allon-bachuth. 

OATH, WELL OF THE, Gen. xxi. 31.,marg. 
See Beersheba. 

OBED-EDOM, THE HOUSE OF, where the 
ark of God was taken by David after the breach 
upon Uzzah, and where it remained three months 
until David fetched it thence to Zion; during 
which time God was pleased especially to bless 
Obed-Edom and all his household for the ark's 



sake, 2 Sam. vi. 10, 11, ; 1 Chron. xiii. 13, 14 

It was near the Threshing-floor of Nachon, pro- 
bably at no great distance from Kirjath-jearim. 
See GiTTiTE. 

OBLATION, THE, or Offering, Ezek. xlv. 
1. 6, 7,, xlviii. 8, 9, 10, 12. 18, 20, 21,, a portion 
of the Land of Promise between the portions of 
Judah and Benjamin, which the Israelites at 
their final restoration to their inheritance, in the 
last days, are to set apart unto the Lord for the 
priests, the Levites, and the city. It is to be an 



OBOTH. 



OLIVES, MT. OF. 275 



exact square of 25,000 reeds on each side, Ezek. 
xlviii. 20,, the reed being in length six cubits 
and a hand-breadth, xl. 5. It is to consist of three 
portions, each extending completely across the 
land, from E. to W. Of these, the most northern, 
called some times the Holy Portion, is to be for the 
priests, the sons of Zadok, and precisely of the 
same dimensions as the portions of the twelve 
tribes ; in the midst of it is to be the Sanctuary, 
an exact square of 500 reeds, with a void place of 
50 cubits on each side, and a wall to separate it 
from the profane place. Immediately beneath it 
is to be another portion of the same measure- 
ment for the Le^ites. And still farther S. a 
portion of the same length (i.e. 25,000 reeds, but 
only half the width of the other portions, i.e. 
5000 reeds) is to be set apart as " a profane place 
for the city," which is to be for the whole house 
of Israel; the city being an exact square of 
4500 reeds, with suburbs of 250 reeds on every 
side, the residue of the portion being left for 
food unto them that serve the city, who for this 
purpose shall come up out of all the tribes of 
Israel. A portion for the Prince is to be left on 
the E. and W. sides of the whole oblation, but 
the width of it does not appear to be stated. 
The whole offering is called the Holy Obla- 
tion at xlviii. 20., though this term is gene- 
rally applied to the portion of the priests alone. 

OBOTH, a station of the Israelites in the 
Wilderness, not far from the border of Moab, 
Num. xxi. 10, 11., xxxiii. 43, 44. It was be- 
tween it and Mt. Hor that the IsraeKtes were 
punished with fiery flying serpents for their 
murmuring against the Lord. 

OCrS'A, a place mentioned in the apocryphal 
book of Judith, ii. 28., as having had terror 
struck into its inhabitants by the victorious 
invasion of Holofernes, the Assyrian general. 
It is conjectured to have been the same with 
Ace or Accho, called afterwards Ptolemais, and 
now Acre. See Accho. 

ODOLLAM, a city of Judaea, whither Judas 
Maccabaeus retired after his sharp contest with 
Gorgias, the governor of Idumtea, 2 Mace. xii. 
38. It is thought to have been the same with 
Adullam, an ancient royal city of Canaan, See 
Adullajl 

OG, THE LAND OF, or Kingdom of, Deut, 
iii. 4, 10. 13., iv. 47. ; Josh, xii, 4,, xiii. 12. 30, 
31. See Bashax and Gilead. 

OLD GATE, THE, one of the gates of the 
city of Jerusalem, which was repaired and de- 
dicated under Is ehemiah, after the return from 



the seventy years' captivity, Xeh. iii, 6=, xii. 39. 
See Jerusale:m. 

OLD POOL, THE, Isa. xxii. 11. See GmoN. 

OLIYES, MT. OF, otherwise Mt, Olrtst, said 
to be now called Jehelet Tur,a mountain to the E. 
of JeiiTsalem, separated from the city by the valley 
j of Jehoshaphat, through which flowed the brook 
j Kidron. It was a Sabbath-day's journey distant 
I from Jerusalem, Acts i. 12,; according to Jo- 
j sephus, about 5 or 6 furlongs. It derived its 
name from the number of olive-trees which grew 
there, particularly on its W. declivity, but which 
have now for the most part disappeared; and 
was in some parts sufiiciently lofty to command 
a view of the Holy City, as well as of the Me- 
diterranean Sea, Mt. Ebal, Jericho, and the 
Salt Sea. The gTeat public road to the Jordan 
and the trans-Jordanic regions, as well as that 
into Galilee, led over it ; and upon its sides and 
summit were several villages or small towns, as 
Gethsemane, Bethany, Bethphage, &c. David 
passed over it when driven from Jerusalem by 
Absalom, weeping, barefoot, and vnth his head 
covered, worshipping God on the summit, where 
Hushai came to him, but was persuaded to 
return back into the city, 2 Sam. xv. 30, 32., 
xvi. 1, 13. It is called the Hill before Jerusalem 
in 1 Kgs. xi. 7., and Zech. xiv. 4. In the 
former passage the account is given of Solomon's 
building on it high places for Ashtoreth, Chemosh, 
and Molech (or Milcom), the idols of the Zido- 
nians, Moabites, and Ammonites, as well as to 
other false gods worshipped by his strange wives. 
Hence, the mount is called the Mount of Cor- 
ruption 2 Kgs. xxiii. 13. These high places 
were suffered to remain there 360 years, until 
the reign of Josiah, who broke the images, cut 
down the groves, and defiled them with the 
bones of men. 

But this beautiful hill is rendered most inter- 
esting from its having been so often the resort of 
the Divine Redeemer, Lu. xxii, 39, ; Jo, viii, 1, ; 
who in the house of the family of Bethany, and 
in the Garden of Gethsemane, frequently found 
a retreat from the persecuting Jews, It was 
from this hill He commenced His triumphant 
entry into Jerusalem, weeping over the devoted 
city as it came into view. Matt, xxi. 1. ; Mk. xi. 
1. ; Lu. xix, 29. 37. ; returning hither again in 
the evening, and sitting there, when He predicted 
at large the coming desolation of the city, Matt, 
xxiv. 3, ; Mk. xiii. 3. Indeed, the Mt. of Olives 
appears to have been visited by Him for many 
evenings before His crucifixion, Lu. xxi, 37. 
Hither, likewise, He came with His disciples,: 
T 2 



276 



OPHOT. 



after their last paschal supper had been conclnded, 
Matt. xxvl. 30.; Mk. xiv. 26.; Lu. xxii. 39., 
and entered into the Garden of Gethsemane. 
Hence, also, it was, that He ascended from earth 
to heaven, Acts i. 12., from the midst, and in the 
sight of, the eleven Apostles ; to whom the angels 
witnessed, that He should so come in like manner 
as they had seen Him go into heaven. And 
thus, the prophet Zechariah, xiv. 4,, foretells, 
that in the last days, when the Lord shall have 
fought against all the nations that come against 
Jerusalem, His feet shall stand upon the Mt. of 
Olives, which shall cleave in the midst, when 
half of the mountain shall remove toward the 
N., and half of it towards the S. ; leaving a 
valley, as it would appear, for the living waters 
which shall go forth from Jerusalem, to flow 
towards the Former, or Eastern Sea. Cf. Ezek. 
xlvii. 1—12.; Joel iii. 2, 12. 14. 18, According 
to the measurements of some modern travellers, 
Mt. Olivet is about 2720 feet above the level of 
the sea, or 170 feet higher than Mt. Zion. 

ON, a city of Egypt, whose priest's daughter 
was given in marriage to J oseph by Pharaoh, 
Gen. xli. 45. 50. See Aven. 

ONO, a city built by the sons of Eipaal, the 
Benjamite, probably in the neighbourhood of 
Lod, or Lydda, with which it is generally con- 
nected; and so, in the F. perhaps of the in- 
heritance of Dan, 1 Chron. viii. 12. It was 
situated in the Plain of Ono, Neh. vi. 2., which 
appears to have been a part of the Plain of 
Sharon or the Great Valley of Judah ; and was 
the place whither Sanballat the Horonite, and 
Geshem the Arabian, tried to draw Nehemiah 
to a conference, when endeavouring to hinder 
the rebuilding of Jerusalem. Its inhabitants re- 
turned home with Zerubbabel at the end of the 
seventy years' captivity, Ezra ii. 33. ; ISTeh. vii. 
37. ; when they rebuilt and dwelt in the city, 
Neh. xi. 35. It is probably the place called 
Onus in 1 Esd. v. 22. 

OPHEL (i.e. the Tower), a place or eminence 
apparently to the E. extremity of the Hill of 
Zion in Jerusalem, connecting it with Mt. 
Moriah, on the sharp and precipitous scarp of 
the rock overhanging Kidron. It was fortified, 
and united with the external walls of the city ; 
thus becoming one of its main defences on this 
side. It was latterly repaired and strengthened 
by Jothan, king of Judah, 2 Chron. xxvii. 3. ; 
and afterwai'ds by Manasseh, who raised it up 
to a very great height, xxxiii. 14. According 
to some it is alluded to by the prophet Micah, 
iv. 8., as the stronghold of the daughter of 



Zion ; " but this is extremely doubtful. After 
the return from the Babylonian captivity, it 
was rebuilt and fortified under Nehemiah, when 
it became the dwelling-place of the Nethinims^ 
Neh. iii. 26, 27., xi. 21., so that it was, probably, 
not far from the Temple. 

OPHIE, a country thought to have derived 
its name from Ophir, one of the sons of Joktarr^ 
Gen. X. 29. ; 1 Chron. i. 23. ; aH of whose de- 
scendants appear to have settled in the East, 
Gen. X. 30. Its gold was well known, and 
highly prized at a very early period, being 
commended in the book of Job, xxii. 24., xxviii. 
16., and by David, 1 Chron. xxix. 4. ; Ps. xlv. 

9, Solomon fitted out a fleet to go thither, with 
the assistance of experienced Tyrian sailors, 
whom Hiram had sent him ; the ships used to 
sail from Ezion-geber, 1 Kgs. ix. 26., 2 Chron,. 
viii. 17., a port in the land of Edom at the head 
of the Eed Sea, and after an absence of three 
years, 1 Kgs. x. 22., 2 Chron. ix. 21., brought 
a vast amount of gold, besides almug trees, 
precious stones, silver, ivory, apes, and peacocks, 
1 Kgs. ix. 28., X. 11.; 2 Chron. viii. 18., ix. 

10. 21. Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, likewise 
made ships of Tharshish to go to Ophir for gold 
from the same port, in conjunction with Aha- 
ziah, king of Israel; but they were wrecked 
at Ezion-geber, 1 Kgs. xxii. 48. ; 2 Chron. xx. 
37. The prophet Isaiah, xiii. 12., mentions the 
gold of Ophir as very precious. 

It seems now impossible to decide where 
the regions of Ophir were situated; the con- 
jectures about their locality being numerous and 
most conflicting. Some look for them in the 
continent of Africa; as for instance at Sofala^ 
Madagascar, Monomotapa, §-c. ; others in Asia, 
on the coast of Arabia, India, Ceylon, Malacca, 
Sumatra, ^c. But as the descendants of Joktau 
appear to have settled eastward, and not west- 
ward, and as the productions mentioned do not 
seem to be found in Eastern Africa, this country 
can hardly be meant. Arabia seems too near 
to have occupied three years' navigation, even 
in those times ; whilst the E. direction, the 
distance, the commodities, the old Egyptian 
name of India (Sophir), and the ancient classical 
appellation of the Malay Peninsula (the Golden 
Chersonese), all seem to point to India or some 
part of its archipelago. It has been conjectured 
by some critics, that the Uphaz mentioned by 
Jeremiah, x. 9., and by Daniel, x. 5., as produc- 
ing fine gold, was the same region with Ophir. 

OPHNI, a city of the tribe of Benjamin, Josh, 
xviii. 24. 



OPHRAH. 



PAHATH-MOAB. 277 



OPHRAH, a city of the tribe of Benjamin, 
Josh, sviii. 23., in or near the land of Shual, 
towards Tvhich one of the three companies of 
the Philistines went, who ravaged the country 
in the time of Saul, 1 Sam. xiii. 17. Eusebius 
and Jerome place it 5 miles E. of Bethel. It is 
thought to be the same with Aphrah, men- 
tioned by the prophet Micah, i. 10., as about to 
he made desolate for its idolatry. 

OPHRAH, a city of the Abiezrites in the tribe 
of Manasseh, on this side Jordan. Here Gideon 
was dwelling with his father Joash, when the 
Lord was pleased to appear to him, and sent him 
to deliver the Israelites from the oppression of 
the Midianites, Judg. vi. 11. 24. Here also, after 
his victoiy over them, he put the ephod he 
had made of the golden ear-rings of the Ishmaei- 
ites, which eventually became a cause of idol- 
atry to Israel, viii. 27. ; and here, in his own 
city, he was buried, having lived to a good old 
age, Judg. wiii. 32. But after his death, Ophrah 
was the scene of the sanguinary massacre of all 
his seventy sons (Jotham, the youngest, alone 
escaping), by their brother Abimelech, with 
the assistance of the men of Shechem, who 
afterwards made him their king for a time, 
ix. 5. ; though the curse of Jotham was at 
length fulfilled on all the murderers of his 
brethren. See Abiezee. 



OREB, MT., 2 Esd, ii. 33. See Mt. Horeb. 1 
OREB, THE ROCK, the place where the 
Israelites under Gideon, after they had van- 
quished the Midianites, slew Oreb, their prince, 
Judg. vii. 25. ; Isa- x. 26. It lay near the 
borders of the two nations, and was probably an 
important place of defence belonging to the Mi- 
dianites, built by, or at least named after, Oreb. 

ORNAN, THE THRESHING-FLOOR OF, 
1 Chron. xxi. 15. 18. 28. ; 2 Chron. iii. 1. See 
Araunah. 

ORTHOSIAS, a maritime city in the X. part 
of Phoenicia, between Aradus and Tripolis, the 
ruins of which near the modern Khan Bered, 
are said to be still knoT\Ti as Orthosa. It was 
built probably by the Phoenicians ; though the 
name under which it has come down to us, is 
of Greek formation. Hither Tryphon fled from 
Autiochus, 1 Mace. xv. 37. 

OTHER SIDE JORDAN, Dent. xi. 30. ; Josh, 
vii. 7. xii. 1., xiii. 27. 32., xiv. 3., xvii. 5., xx. 
8., xxii. 4., xxiv. 8. ; Judg. vii. 25., x. 8. ; 1 
Sam. xxxi. 7. ; 1 Chron. vi. 78., xii. 37, See 
Beyond Jordan. 

OZXITES, a family of the tribe of Gad, 
numbered, together with all Israel, in the Plains 
of Moab, Num. xxvi. 16. They were so named 
after Ozni or Ezbon, a son of Gad, Gen. xlvi. 16. 



PAD AN, Gen, xlviii. 7., otherwise 

PADAN-ARAM {{.^.Fruitful ^m??i), the name 
given to that part of the extensive region origi- 
nally called Aram, which lay generally speaking 
between the two rivers Euphrates and Tigris, and 
was hence called Aram-Naharaim by the Hebrews 
and ]\Iesopotamia by the Greeks. It was also 
styled Sedan- Aram, or Cultivated Aram, by the 
Hebrews, 'Hos. xii. 12., though rendered Syria 
in our translation, to distinguish it from the 
barren or uncultivated regions of the same 
country. It bordered on Syria, Asia Minor, Ar- 
menia, and Assyria ; and is still called Al-Jezira 
i.e. the Island, by the Turks, one of whose pro- 
vinces it now forms. 

Padan-Ai-am appears to be first mentioned in 
Holy Writ as the land of Shinar, Gen. xi. 2. ; 
and was one of the earliest countries peopled 
after the Flood. It was the birth-place of Heber, 
Terah, Abraham, Nahor, Bethuel, Laban, and 
Sarah, with many others mentioned in the 
history of the Old Testament. It was hence 



that Abraham sent and fetched Rebekah as 
a wife for his son Isaac, Gen. xxiv. 4. 10., xxv 
20. ; hither, also, Jacob fled from Esau, and here 
eleven of his sons were born, xxviii. 2. 5, 6, 7 
xxxi. 18., xxxiii. 18., xxxv. 9. 26., xlvi. 15., 
xlviii, 7. It was, likewise, the country of 
Balaam, Num. xxiii. 7. ; Deut. xxiii. 4, ; and 
was one of the regions whither the kings 
of Assyria and Babylon removed the captive 
Jews, where also many of them remained after 
the edict of Cp'us ; some of their descendants 
being at Jerusalem on the great Day of Pentecost, 
Acts ii. 9. See Mesopotaaha, 

PADON, CHILDREN OF, a family of the 
Nethinims, who returned home with Zerubbabel 
after the seventy years' captivity in Babylon, 
Ezra ii, 44, ; Neh, vii. 47. 

PAHATH-MOAB, a city probably of the 
tribe of Judah, some of the inhabitants of which 
returned with Zerubbabel, and others with Ezra, 
from their captivity in Babylon, Ezra ii. 6., viii. 4. ; 
Neh, vii. 11. It is conjectured by some to have 
T 3 



278 



PAI. 



PAPHOS. 



been so called from the Moabites having been 
worsted in its neighbourhood. 

PAT, an ancient royal city of the Edomites, 
which existed before any king reigned over 
Israel, 1 Chron. i. 50. It is called Pau at Gen, 
xxxvi. 39. It lay probably between the Salt 
Sea and Mt. Hor. 

PALESTINA (in Hebrew Pllesheth, a name 
thought to have been derived from that of Pi- 
lishti or the Philistines), is occasionally applied 
to the Holy Land ; though in Holy Writ, and 
probably in the earliest times, designating only 
the S.W. part of it. The Philistim, descended 
from the Casluhim, who were themselves sons of 
Mizraim, the son of Ham, Gen. x. 14., are thought 
to have migrated northward from Egypt; and 
after having driven out the original inhabitants 
from the S. parts of Canaan, to have settled there, 
especially on the shores of the Mediterranean 
Sea. Here, in process of time, they became so 
important a people as to lead to the whole 
country being often called after them ; though 
their own possessions embraced but a small part 
of it. Moses, in his hymn of triumph on the 
overthrow of Pharaoh in the Red Sea, foretells 
the sorrow that shall take hold on the inhabit- 
ants of Palestina, when they hear of it, Ex. xv. 
14. Isaiah bids Palestina not to rejoice at the 
calamities befalling Jacob, for in due season its 
own judgments shall come on it, xiv. 29. 31. ; 
and Joel, iii. 4., includes Palestine amongst the 
enemies of the people of God, and foretells the 
coming vengeance against it; but in all these 
passages it would appear that the land of the 
Philistines alone is meant. 

Yet at a later period, all the countr}^ on each 
side of the Jordan is usually called Palestine by 
the profane authors, as well as by the ecclesias- 
tical writers. Herodotus distinguishes the whole 
region between Syria and Egypt by this name, as 
do also Ptolemy, Strabo, and Tacitus. Philo in- 
forms us that the country which was of old in- 
habited by the Canaanites, was styled Palestina 
by the Syrians ; and after it fell into the power 
of the Eomans, it was the common name by 
which the entire region was known. Constan- 
tino the Great divided it into Prima, Secunda, 
and Tertia. Paltestina Prima included the land 
of the Philistines, Samaria, and the E". part of 
Judsea ; its capital was Csesarea. Palsestina Se- 
cunda contained Galilee and part of the 
trans- Jordanic territory; its chief town was 
Scythopolis. Palajstina Tertia (or Salutaris as it 
was also called) included the S. part of Judsea, 
with the whole of Idum.sea, extending to the 



head of the Red Sea ; its metropolis was Petra. 
See Canaan. 

PALLUITES, a family of the tribe of Reuben, 
numbered by Moses in the Plains of Moab, 
Num. xxvi. 5. They were so named after 
Pallu or Phallu, the second son of Reuben, 
Gen. xlvi. 9. ; 1 Chron. v. 3. 

PALM-TREES, CITY OF, Dent, xxxiv. 3. ; 
Judg. i. 16., iii. 13. ; 2 Chron. xxviii. 15, ; other- 
wise Jericho; which see. 

PALTITE, a patronymic of one of David's 
mighty men, 2 Sam. xxiii. 26. ; whence derived 
is uncertain. 

PAMPHYLIA, a province in the S. part of 
Asia Minor, bounded on the W. by Lycia, on the 
E. by Cilicia, and on the S. by the Sea op 
CiLiciA AND Pamphylia, which partly flowed 
between it and Cyprus, and over which St. Paul 
sailed v/hen on his tempestuous voyage to Rome 
as a prisoner, Acts xsvii. 5. On the N. it was 
bounded by Pisidia, from which it was separated 
by the defiles of Mt. Taurus ; though the two 
regions formed only one province, under the 
name of Pamphylia, from the time of the Syrian 
kings until the reigns of Diocletian and Con- 
stantino. Indeed, at all times, the name of 
Pisidia has more reference to the people than to 
the country. The Pamphylians are said to have 
been Greeks of various races, who migrated 
hither after the siege of Troy, and united them- 
selves with the original inhabitants. In the 
New Testament times, there were Jews residing 
here, some of whom heard Peter's sermon on 
the Day of Pentecost, Acts ii. 10. ; and as is 
probable, brought the gospel hither. It was 
afterwards visited by Paul and Barnabas, who 
preached in its two chief cities Perga and 
Attalia, Acts xiii. 13. ; xiv. 24., xv. 38. ; at the 
former of which they were left by their com- 
panion Mark. Pamphylia is mentioned by the 
apocryphal writer of 1 Mace. xv. 23., as one of 
the places to which the Romans wrote in behalf 
of the Jews. It now forms the S.E. part of the 
large TurJiish province of Anadolia, joining the 
S.W. end of Karamania. 

PANNAG, a place mentioned in Ezek. xxvii. 
17., as supplying Tyre Avith some of its rich 
commodities, by means of the Jews. Like the 
Panchgea of profane geography, its situation is 
not in the least known ; indeed, some conjecture 
that the word is not the name of a place, but of 
some rich ointment or gum. 

PAPHOS, a city at the S.W. point of the 
isle of Cyprus, which in the New Testament 



PAEAH. 



PARTHIAXS. 



279 



times was the capital of the island, and the 
residence of the Eoman proconsul. It was 
visited by the Apostle Paul, who here converted 
Sergius Paulus, the proconsul. Acts xiii. 6. 13. ; 
Elrmas the sorcerer, having been previously 
struck blind by the Apostle for his wicked 
opposition to the truth. It was, properly speak- 
ing, called New Paphos, to distinguish it from 
a much older city, a few miles distant, which 
was pretended to have been founded by a son of 
Apollo. Both cities were devoted to the worship 
of the heathen goddess Yenus, whose impui-e 
rites were there celebrated. There was a cele- 
brated temple built to her in the older city, on 
the spot where it was fabled she landed when 
she rose from the sea ; a hundred altars are said 
to have daily smoked in it with frankincense, 
which, though exposed to the open air, were 
never wetted by the rain. Xew Paphos, now 
known as Baffa, is reported to have been built 
by Greek colonists, shortly after the destruction 
of Troy, and possessed several beautiful temples 
of the same heathen goddess. It suffered much 
from earthquakes, and was nearly destroyed by 
one during the reign of Augustus, who rebuilt 
the city, and commanded it to be called Augusta. 

PAR AH, a city of the tribe of Benjamin, \ 
Josh, xviii. 23. 

PARAX, an extensive desert or Wilderness, 
stretching in a general way between the land of 
Canaan on the X., and IMt. Sinai on the S. ; 
from Egypt on the W., to Mt. Seir on the E. 
The name appears to have comprehended many 
of the smaller deserts around it, as those of 
Shur, Beersheba, Etham, Sinai, Sin, Zin, Egypt, 
Edom, &c. ; and to have been itself often super- 
seded by the more general one of " the Desert," 
or " the Wilderness ; " though no doubt it was, 
properly speaking, restricted to a particular 
portion of this vast solitude, to the JS". of Sinai, 
Xum. X. '12. It was traversed in various 
directions for nearly forty years, by the Is- 
raelites, under Moses; and was the scene of 
theu" continual rebellions, as well as of some of 
God's greatest miracles in their behalf. It is 
described in Holy Scripture as a waste howling 
wilderness, and very temble ; a land of pits, and 
drought, and of the shadow of death ; a land 
that no man passed through, and where no man 
dwelt; and wherein were fiery serpents and 
scorpions. Dent. viii. 15, 

A part of it, or a chief place in it, is first 
mentioned in Gen. xiv. 6., under the name of 
El-Paran (marg. Plain of Parmi), lying near 
Mt. Seir, and by the Wilderness, as the place 



whither the four confederate kings under Che- 
dorlaomer chased the Horites, whose border it 
seems then to have been. It is mentioned as 
the place where Ishmael took up his abode 
when he became a man, Gen. xxi, 21. The 
Israelites are described as first entering it, after 
they had quitted the Wilderness of Sinai, Num. 
X. 12.; and passing right through it to the 
borders of Canaan, whence Moses sent the twelve 
spies to search the Land of Promise, Xum. xii. 
16., xiii. 3. 21. 26. Many of the statutes of 
Moses were delivered to them during their 
wanderings in it; and God himself manifested 
to them some of his wondrous workings fit'om 
Mt, PARA^f, Dent, xxxiii. 2. ; Hab. iii. 3. ; which 
was probably some lofty eminence connected 
with the main ridge of Mt, Seir. On the death 
of Samuel, David fled from the persecution of 
Saul into the Wilderness of Paran, whence he 
sent to Xabal for sustenance, 1 Sam. xxv. 1. 4. 
14. ; so that at this time, the term seems to 
have been applied to the desert close upon 
Judah. At a later period, Hadad the Edomite, 
took refuge from Solomon in Paran, for a short 
season, until he could escape into Egj'pt, 1 Kgs. 
xi. 18. Some of the profane writers mention 
Paran or Pharan, as lying in this neighbour- 
hood ; and a stream and valley to the W. of Mt. 
Sinai are yet called Wady Feiran. The whole 
of this vast desert is now known to the Arabs 
by the name of the Desert of El Tyh, i.e. " the 
Wandering ; " and is still described by travellers, 
as presenting a wonderful scene of barrenness, 
gloom, and magnificence. 

PAEBAR, one of the gates of the sacred en- 
closm-e of the Temple of Jerusalem, on the W. 
side, towards the Causeway, which Solomon 
made between it and Zion, 1 Chron. xxvi. 18. 

PAROSH, a city of Judah, or Benjamin, the 
inhabitants of which returned home with Zerub- 
babel at the end of the seventy years' captivity ; 
it is the first mentioned in the list, Ezra ii. 3. ; 
Xeh. vii. 8. 

PARTHIANS, the inhabitants of a country 
in the N. of Persia, lying to the S.E. of the 
Caspian Sea. It was bounded on the W. by 
Media, on the S. by Persis and Carmania, on 
the E. by Aria, and on the X. by HjTcania, 
(within the limits of which it was at first 
included) ; corresponding in a general way with 
the modem Persian province of Khorasan. It 
was for the most part an exceedingly arid and 
desert region, being considered, as a whole, by 
far the most barren of the Persian provinces. 
The Parthians were a poor but athletic and 
T ^ 



280 PARYAIM. 



PATHROS, LATO OF. 



wavlike people, and were reckoned the most 
expert horsemen and archers in the world. 
They derived great celebrity from their peculiar 
custom of discharging their arrows while re- 
treating at full speed, which is said to have 
rendered their flight more formidable than their 
attack. They are stated to have been much 
addicted to intoxication and other gross vices, 
some of which were even sanctioned by their 
laws. 

The Pai-thians are said to have migrated from 
Scythia here, where they became tributary 
successively to the Assyrians, Medes, and 
Persians, as well as to Alexander the Great and 
his successors, until the tyranny of Antiochus 
roused them to rebellion. Under Arsaces the 
First, a man of obscure origin, they completed 
their independence about 250 years, B.C., and 
increased their little ten-itory by seizing on 
parts of all the surrounding pro^ances; and 
though the Macedonians often tried to recover 
the lost possession, they were constantly foiled 
by a race of brave and vigilant princes, who, 
from the founder of their kingdom, assumed the 
name of Arsacidte, Their power became at 
length so formidable, that their dominions ex- 
tended from the Euphrates to the Ganges, and 
from the Caspian to the Eed Sea, being com- 
posed of eighteen provinces. The Eomans at 
last, jealous of their rising power, attacked them 
under Crassus ; which gave rise to a furious war 
that raged for many years between them, gene- 
rally to the disadvantage of the Eomans, whose 
mighty empire had long been rapidl}^ on the 
decline, before the Parthian power was swallowed 
up in the newly formed Persian kingdom under 
Artaxerxes, about A. d. 229. The Parthian 
Jews are the first mentioned, together with the 
TiTedes and Elamites, in Acts ii. 9., amongst the 
devout men who were at Jerusalem on the great 
Day of Pentecost, when the Holy Ghost was 
miracvilously poured forth upon the Apostles. 

PAEYAIM, a country which was famed for 
the fine gold it produced, and with which Solo- 
mon adorned his magnificent Temple at Jeru- 
salem, 2 Chron. iii. 6. Its situation is a subject of 
much discussion. Many identify it with Ophir ; 
others with Ceylon, which is said to have been 
called by the Phoenicians " Taph-Parvan," i. e. 
the Shore of Parvan; and(^thers, again, consider 
it only a general word to designate the East, and 
that " gold of Parvaim," merely means Eastern 
gold, i.e. very excellent gold; in the same way 
that *' northern iron," Jer. xv. 12., denotes good 
iron. 



PAS-DAMMIM, 1 Chron. xi. 13., otherwise 
Ephes-dammim ; which see. 

PASEAH, CHILDEEN OF, Ezra ii. 49., or 
Phaseah, Neh. vii. 51., a family of the Nethi- 
nim.s, who returned with Zerubbabel from Ba- 
bylon at the end of the seventy years' captivity. 

PASHUE, CHILDEEN OF, Ezra ii. 38,, 
Xeh. vii. 41., a family of the priests, who 
returned to their possessions in Judah, with 
Zerubbabel, on the edict of Cyrus. 

PASSAGE, THE, Isa. x. 29., or the Pas- 
sages, i Sam. xiv. 4. ; Jer. xxii. 20. ; a narrow 
and important defile on the frontiers of the 
kingdom of Judah. It is called otherwise the 
Passage op Michmash ; which see. 

PASSAGE OF THE CHILDEEN" OF 
ISEAEL, Josh. xxii. 11., the locality where the 
Israelites under Joshua crossed the E. Jordan, 
on their first entrance into Canaan ; on the E. 
side of which the two tribes and a half built 
their great altar of " Witness," when returning 
to their own possessions at the completion of 
the conquest of Canaan. 

PATAEA, a' maritime city of Asia Minor, 
near the mouth of the little E. Xanthus, on the 
S.W. coast of the province of Lycia, whose me- 
tropolis it was. It was famous for a temple and 
oracle of Apollo, who was pretended to reside 
and give responses here during the six winter 
months, the other six being fabled to be 
spent by him at Delphi. It was a place of con- 
siderable magnificence and maritime importance, 
as is testified by its ruins, which are still dialled 
Patara. It was visited by the Apostle Pau.1 
on his voyage from Macedonia to Jerusalem, 
Acts xxi. 1, ; and here he found a ship bound 
to Phoenicia, in which he set sail thither. 

PATHEOS, LAND OF, a district of Egypt, 
which probably derived its name from the Path- 
rusim, who were descendants of a son of Miz- 
raim, the second son of Ham, Gen. x. 14. ; 1 
Chron. i. 12. It is thought to have been the 
same with that which was afterwards called 
by the Greeks Thebais, or Upper Egypt, and now 
Said. The prophet Ezekiel, xxix. 14., when 
announcing the captivity of the Egyptians, and 
their subsequent recovery, seems to intimate, 
that Pathros was the birth-place of Egypt ; and 
he foretells God's coming vengeance upon it for 
its idolatrous wickedness, xxx. 14. After the 
destruction of Jerusalem b}^ the Chaldeans, and 
the murder of Gedaliah, the Babylonian go- 
vernor of Judpea, by Ishmael, a great number of 
the Jews fled with Johanan into Egypt, taking 



PATHRUSIM. 



PEKGAMOS. 281 



the prophet Jeremiah with them, 'and Settled 
amongst other places in Pathros. Against this 
removal Jeremiah had warned them, and was 
afterwards commanded by God to predict the 
ruin of all who had gone there, Jer. xliv. 1. 15. 
Isaiah, however, foretells the time when the de- 
scendants of the Jews who had taken refuge 
here, shall be gathered again to their OAvn land, 
Isa. xi, 11. From the mention of the two great 
cities Zoan and No, in combination with Pa- 
thros ^in Ezek. xxx. 14.,- it has been thought 
that there was also a city of the name of Pa- 
thros; and some have identified it with the city 
of Pathyris or Tathyris, a few miles to the N. 
of the metropolis Thebes on the E. Nile. 

PATHRUSIM, Gen. x. 14. ; 1 Chron. i. 12. 
-See Patheos. 

PATMOS, a small, naked, and barren island in 
the E. part of the .^g?ean Sea, lying to the S. of 
Samos, and S.E. of Ephesus, about 40 miles 
from the mainland of Asia Minor. It was one 
of the group called Sporades by the profane 
authors ; and was so inhospitable a spot that the 
Romans used it as a place of exile for their cri- 
minals. Hither St. John was banished for a 
time on accoimt oT his religion ; and here he had 
his wonderful visions, recorded in the book of 
Revelation, Rev. i. 9. The island, which though 
volcanic and rocky, is cultivated in some sort, 
and is inhabited by a few neglected people, is 
about 25 miles in circuit, and is now called Pa- 
tino. There is much superstitious work amongst 
them, and the monks pretend to show the grotto 
where the Apostle wrote the Apocalypse. 

PAU, Gen. xxxvi. 39., otherwise Pai; which 
see. 

PAVEMENT, THE, Jo. xix. 13. See Gab- 
bath a. 

PEKOD (i.e. Visitation^, Jer. 1. 21., Ezek. 
xxiii. 23., either one of the provinces of Chaldsea, 
the situation of which is unknown, or else a 
prophetical name for the whole country, applied 
to it in the predictions concerning the ruin of the 
Babylonians, because they had visited the Jews 
with unmerciful cruelty, and should themselves 
be visited with vengeance in their turn. 

PELETHITES. See Chekethites. 

PELONITE, a patronymic of two of David's 
mighty men ; whence derived, does not appear, 
1 Chron. xi. 27. 36., xxvii. 10. 

PELUSIUM, Ezek. xxx. 15., marg. See Sm. 

PENIEL or Penuel (i. e. the Face of God), 
a place beyond Jordan, near the Ford Jabbok, 
which was so named by Jacob, from his having 



there wrestled with the angel on his return 
from Mesopotamia, Gen. xxxii. 30, 31. On the 
division of the land by Moses amongst the two 
tribes and a half, it appears to have fallen within 
the limits of the children of Gad. A city was 
eventually built here, with a strong tower, which 
Gideon beat down, slaying also the men of the 
city ; because, after his defeat of the Midianites, 
they scornfully refused to relieve his army, 
when pursiung after Zeba and Zalmunna, Judg. 
viii. 8, 9. 17. Penuel was rebuilt by Jeroboam, 
king of Israel, soon after the division of the king- 
dom ; and was most probably an important posi- 
tion in that part of his trans- Jordanic territory. 

PEOPLE, THE. See Gentiles. 

PEOR, Num. xxiii. 28., xxv. 18., xxxi. 16. ; 
Josh. xxii. 17. See Baal-peor. 

PERAZIM, MT., Isa. xxviii. 21. See B.^IL- 
Pekazeni. 

PEREZ UZZAH, or Perez-Uzza (i.e. the 
Breach of ZTzzah), a place so named by David 
from the Lord having there struck dead Uzzah 
for touching the ark, 2 Sam. vi. 8. ; 1 Chron. 
xiii. 11. It was near the Threshing-floor of 
Nachon or Chidon ; and probably only a little 
way from Baale of Judah, otherwise Kirjath- 
jearim, whence David was bringing the ark to 
Jerusalem. 

PERGA, one of the chief cities of Pamphylia, 
a province in the S. part of Asia Minor. It was 
on the banks of the little river Oestrus, now 
Ak-soo, about 6 miles from its mouth, and was 
a commercial and important place. It was 
famed for a magnificent temple of Diana, built 
on an eminence near it, where a noted annual 
festival was kept in honour of this heathen 
deity. Paul and Barnabas visited Perga more 
than once, preaching the gospel there ; and it 
was thence that Mark departed from them. 
Acts xiii. 13, 14., xiv. 25. 

PE RGAMOS, a noble city of Asia Minor, the ca- 
pital of the province of Mysia, and the metropolis 
of the old kingdom of Asia, as well as subsequently 
of the Roman province of Asia. It was a large 
and splendid city, the residence of the famous 
line of the Attalian kings, and was rendered im- 
portant, not only by its magnificent buildings 
and advantageous situation, but from possessing 
one of the largest and choicest libraries in the 
world. This valuable collection of books con- 
sisted of 200,000 volumes, collected by the dif- 
ferent monarchs who reigned in Pergamos, and 
Ptolemy, king of Egypt, became so jealous of it 
that he forbad the exportation of papyrus from 



282 PERIZZITES. 



PERSIA. 



his dominions. Upon this, the Membranse Per- 
gamenese (parchment^ were invented, and the 
library continued to increase, until it was given 
by Antony to Cleopatra, who transported it to 
Egypt, where it adorned and enriched the Alexr 
andrian collection. Pergamos was also celebrated 
for a famous and much-frequented temple of 
iSsculapius, which was maintained in great 
splendour by offerings from all Asia. There was 
likewise an asylimi connected with it. It was the 
birth-place of Galen the physician. It was 
situated on the right bank of the R, Caicus or 
Grimakli, about 20 miles from its entrance into 
the iEgsean Sea. It is still called Pergamo, and 
though a mean wretched place, with a small 
population, betrays signs of its former greatness. 
It is, however, rendered far more interesting to 
the Christian, from havmg contained one of the 
Seven Churches of Asia, to which St. John was 
directed to write the Epistles in his Eevelation, 
and which, though it had faithfully borne perse- 
cution, even to martyrdom, had become deeply 
infected by error and sin, i. 11., ii. 12. 

PERIZZITES, one of the ancient nations of 
Canaan who, though not mentioned amongst 
the descendants of Canaan in the list of his sons 
at Gen. x. 15 — 18., were probably his offspring, 
as they are enumerated amongst those nations 
commanded to be rooted out by the Israelites, 
Deut. XX. 17. That they occupied an important 
place amongst those devoted races, is evident 
from their being mentioned alone, together with 
the Canaanites, as in Gen. xiii. 7., xxxiv. 30. ; 
Judg. i. 4, 5. (c/. 2 Esd. i. 21.) ; from which 
passages they appear to have dwelt in the S. 
and middle parts of the country, though it 
would seem from Josh. x\di. 15., as if they had 
afterwards moved farther to the N. They are 
specially enumerated amongst the nations given 
by God to Abraham and his posterity, with a 
promise that they should be driven out before 
them. Gen. xv. 20. ; Ex. iii. 8. 17., xxiii. 23., 
xxxiii. 2., xxxiv. 11. ; Deut. vii. 1., xx. 17. ; 
Josh. iii. 10. ; l!^"eh. ix. 8. They were accord- 
ingly attacked by the Israelites under Joshua, 
and though they formed two leagues Tvdth the 
other Canaanites against him, first with those 
who fought against Gibeon, Josh. ix. 1., and 
then with those who were led on by Jabin, 
king of Hazor, xi. 3., they were mastered, their 
king cut off, their possessions chiefly taken from 
them, and by far the greater part of the nation 
destroyed. Josh. xii. 8., xxiv. 11. ; 2 Esd. i. 21. ; 
Judith V. 16. They were not, however, all 
finally conquered until after the death of Joshua, 



when the tribe of Judah led the way to their 
more complete subjection, Judg. i. 4, 5. ; though 
still after this, they dwelt amongst the Israelites, 
Judg. iii. 5., and continued to do so to the days 
of Solomon, when they were put to a tribute of 
bond-service, 1 Kgs. ix. 20.; 2 Chron. viii. 7. 
They are mentioned even after the Babylonian 
captivity, as still in the land, teaching the Jews 
idolatry, and intermarrying with them, Ezra 
ix. 1. ; 1 Esd. viii. 69. 

PERSEPOLIS, the metropolis of the Persian 
empire, which stood in the centre of the pro- 
vince of Persis, and is said to have been built 
at first out of the spoils of the Egyptian Thebes. 
It contauied a splendid palace, surrounded by a 
triple wall, with gates of brass, which was 
burnt to the ground by Alexander the Great 
after his conquest of Darius, when he allowed 
the whole city to be pillaged by his soldiery. 
He is said to have been provoked to do this by 
the sight of about 800 Greeks, whom the Persians 
had shamefully mutilated ; but others state that 
he set the palace on fire at the instigation of 
Thais, one of his courtezans, after he had passed 
the day in riotous revelry. The city was after- 
wards restored with consider^le magnificence ; 
and at a later period, Antiochus Epiphanes 
made an attack upon it, purposing to plunder 
its wealthy temple, but being driven away with 
shame, died of a mortal disease on his way to 
Jerusalem, 2 Mace. ix. 2. Cf. 1 Mace. vi. 1. 
Persepolis stood at the junction of the two 
small rivers Araxes and Medus, which flow into 
the lake now called Baktegaun. Its ruins are sup- 
posed to be those at Istakhar and Kinara, though 
others fix the site at Deh-3Iinaur, which are also 
splendid ruins further to the S., and may pos- 
sibly be the remains of Pasargadse. This last 
was the more ancient Persian metropolis, which 
was enlarged and^beautified by Cyrus : but some 
are of opinion that Pasargadae and Persepolis 
are the same place, the latter being only the 
Greek translation of the old Persian name. See 
Elyjmais. 

PERSIA, a large and important kingdom in 
the S.W. part of the continent of Asia. The 
name does not occur in the earlier part of the 
Old Testament histories, though, in fact, the 
kingdom itself existed under the appellation 
Elam from a very ancient date. See Elam. It 
fell successively under the dominion of the 
Assyrians and the Medes, until the rising 
power and influence of the Persians, foretold by 
Daniel, viii. 3, 4. 20., led to the recovery of their 
old position among the Asiatic states (cf. 



PER 

Judith i. 7., xvi. 10.), and even to a far more 
extensire sway. They are mentioned by Eze- 
kiel, xxvii, 10., amongst the allies of Tyre; 
and are described by profane authors as fond 
of show and military glory, expert archers, and 
excellent horsemen ; a character which appears 
to be also referred to thera by the prophet 
Isaiah, xxi. 2. 

The history of Persia, properly speaking, 
reaUy commences with that of Cyrus : but in 
■what way he gained possession of the vast 
dominions he ruled, whether by conquering 
the Medes, as some affirm, or by inheriting the 
kingdoms upon the death of Darius, king of 
Media, and of Cambyses, the ruling prince of 
Persia, as others say, is a matter of much 
discussion. That the two kingdoms of the 
Medes and Persians had been united some 
time before the days of Cyrus, is evident, not 
only from the general tenor of history, but from 
the empire and laws being described as those of 
the Medes and Persians, Esth. i. 3, 14. 18, 19., x. 
2. ; Dan. v. 28., vi. 8. 12. 15., viii. 20. ; 1 Esd. 
iii. 1, See Media. 

The real name of Cynis is stated to have 
been Agradates, and he is said to have been 
a son of Cambyses (who was either a king of 
Persia, or a man of the first rank there), and 
of Mandane, daughter of Astyages, king of 
Media; but it appears almost impossible to 
reconcile the accounts given of him in the 
classical authors, or to apply them to one in- 
dividual. Upon his coming to the throne, he 
took the name of Cyrus, by which he had been 
designated by the prophet Isaiah, xliv. 28,, 
xlv. 1., more than a hundred years before his 
birth; a fact which points out the important 
part he was destined to perform in regard to 
the chosen people of God, under the guidance 
and control of an Almighty Providence. It 
was he who, after the overthrow of the Baby- 
lonian empire, as had been foretold by Daniel, 
v. 28., issued the famous edict, b. c. 536, for the 
return of the Jews to their own land, and the 
rebuilding of Jerusalem and the Temple, to- 
gether with a noble grant of assistance for this 
purpose, and the restoration of all the sacred 
vessels which Nebuchadnezzar had taken away 
from Jud^a, 2 Chron. xxxvi. 20. 22, 23. ; Ezra 
i. 1, 2. 8., iii. 7., iv. 3. 5., v. 13—15., vi. 3—5. ; 
1 Esd. i. 57. ; and though only a few Israelites 
availed themselves of this permission to return 
home (the prophet Daniel, x. 1., Mordecai, 
Ezra, vii. 6., Kehemiah, i. 1., ii. 1., Esth. ii. 5., 
were amongst those very many leading men 
who remained behind, or were kept at the 



SIA. • 283 

court), and though those who did so, were 
hindered by the artifices of their enemies from 
completing both city and Temple all the days 
of Cyrus, and until the second year of Darius, 
king of Persia, Ezra iv. 24., yet it was by that 
edict their foundations were laid, and that fresh 
constitution of the Jewish state and polity 
commenced, which lasted 606 years, until its 
final subversion by the Eomans. Darius and 
Artaxerxes greatly contributed to their re- 
storation, Ezra vi. 14., ix. 9. ; Neh. xii. 22. ; 1 
Esd. iii. 9., viii, 8. ; Esth. xvi. 23. (c/. 2 Mace, 
i. 19. 33.) ; though, as may be seen by the his- 
tories in the books of Daniel, x. 1. 13, 20., and 
Esth. i, 3. 14. 18, 19., x. 2,, not without many 
trials of the faith and patience of Israel. 

The Persian empire when in its zenith, em- 
braced all the Asiatic countries from the R. 
Indus on the E. to the Mediterranean Sea on 
the W., between the Black and Caspian Seas on 
the K and the Indian Ocean, the Persian Gulf, 
and the Red Sea on the S. It was divided into 
127 pro^ances, lying in a general way between 
India and Ethiopia, Esth. i. 1., viii. 9. ; governed 
by at least 120 princes, Dan. vi. 1. ; with seven 
chief counsellors, Ezra vii, 14. ; Esth. i. 14. ; and 
three presidents, of w^hom, at one time, Daniel 
was first, Dan, vi. 2. But owing to the great num- 
ber of nations included in this vast empire, differ- 
ing, too, so widely in their language, manners, 
coinage, laws, and religion, Darius found it con- 
venient to further divide his heterogeneous 
dominions into 20 satrapies, and appointed a 
governor over each, who was bound to render 
him a yearly tribute. The Holy Land was in- 
cluded in the same satrapy with Syria, Phcenice 
and Cyprus. Cyrus lost his life in an expedition 
against the Massagetas, a Scythian tribe; and 
was succeeded by his son Cambyses, one of the 
most cruel kings that ever ascended a throne. 
This prince distinguished himself by his barbari- 
ties in Egypt and Africa, as well as towards his 
own family ; and the enemies of the Jews had 
sufiicient influence with him to check the resto- 
ration of Jerusalem, though it may be, mere 
respect for his father kept him from absolutely 
revoking the edict concerning it. He was suc- 
ceeded by an impostor called Smerdis, a Magian, 
who pretended to be his murdered brother ; and 
who after a few months' infamous rule, during 
which he issued an order prohibiting the J ews from 
rebuilding the Temple, was assassinated. He 
was followed on the throne by Darius Hystaspis, 
who greatly increased the limits of the empire, 
and is reported to have conquered a large part of 
India. He issued a new mandate for the eom.ple- 

I 



284 



PERSIA. 



PETHOR. 



tion of the Temple, Ezra iv, 24., v. 6. 7., vi. L 
8 — 12. 15. But the lonians at length revolting 
from him, and being assisted by the Athenians, 
that contest commenced which is well known to 
every classical reader. Darius was provoked to 
send an enormous army to Greece, which v/as 
defeated at Marathon, shortly after which he died. 
Xerxes, his son and successor (apparently the 
Fourth king predicted in Dan. xi. 2.), made an un- 
fortunate attempt to revenge his father's cause, 
and invaded Greece with an immense body of 
men, amounting it is said, to 5,000,000 of persons. 
He was gallantly, though unsuccessfully opposed 
at Thermopylffi, but was subsequently completely 
beaten at Salamis, which obliged him to leave 
Europe with precipitation and disgrace. After 
this, his army under the command of his general 
Mardonius, was routed at Plattese, and another 
body of his forces was defeated on the same day 
by the Greeks at Mycale, in Asia Minor. After 
his death, Artaxerxes Longimanus ascended the 
throne. This prince is supposed by many to be 
that Ahasuerus who made Esther his queen, 
Esth. i. 1., and so highly favoured the Jews in 
sending Ezra and all the Israelites who chose to 
accompany him to Jerusalem, together with 
large presents and offerings for the Temple, 
Ezra vii. 7. 11—26. ; but others identify him 
with another Persian monarch. After the suc- 
cessive reigns of Xerxes II., Sogdianus and Darius 
JTothus, the crown of Persia was possessed by 
Artaxerxes Mnemon, or the Second j but his 
brother Cyrus the Younger disputed the succes- 
sion with him at Cunaxa, and lost his life in the 
battle. It was in this expedition that those 
10,000 Greeks were engaged, whose " retreat " 
has been so well described by Xenophon. After 
the two intermediate reigns of Ochus and Arses, 
Darius Codomannus, or the Third, followed. This 
prince was the last of the whole dynasty, and 
was defeated in a series of brilliant victories by 
Alexander the Great, who put an end at length 
to the Persian monarchy, as had been long before 
foretold by the prophet Daniel in his visions of 
the great image and of the beasts, and of the 
rough goat, ii. 39., vii. 17., viii. 21. Cf. 1 Mace, 
i. 1. 

Upon the death of Alexander, this country fell 
under the dominion of the Seleucidae, whence its 
frequent mention in the wars of the Maccabees, 1 
Mace. i. 1., iii. 31., vi. 1. 5. 56., xiv. 2. ; 2 Mace, 
i. 13., ix. 1. ; but it was taken from them, B.C. 141, 
by Mithridates, king of Parthia, who annexed it 
to his o-wn empire. It remained subject to the 
Parthian princes until the reign of Artabanus, 
■vrhen Artaxerxes, a Persian of obscure origin, 



roused his countrymen to recover their indepen- 
dence. Having defeated the Parthians in a 
pitched battle, he was raised to the throne, a.d. 
229., and thus founded the second Persian mo- 
narchy. His father's name was Sassan, and 
hence his descendants are called the Sassanides. 
Artaxerxes became involved in hostilities with 
the Romans, in consequence of his having laid 
claim to all the provinces which once belonged 
to the Persian empire ; and a sanguinary war- 
fare was kept up between the two parties for 
many years. 

The Persians are often confounded with the 
Parthians by the heathen poets and historians. 
They were a luxurious and very superstitious 
people: they were, likewise, worshippers of 
the host of heaven and of fire, an abomination 
which they seem to have assisted with other 
nations in teaching the Jews, Ezek. viii. 16. 
They also paid an almost idolatrous veneration 
to their kings; whence, possibly, arose their 
law, that no decree which the king had signed 
could be changed, Dan. vi. 15. ; a custom which 
was employed so artfully against the Jews, 
both in the time of Daniel and Esther. It 
would appear from the prophecy in Ezekiel, 
xxxviii. 5., that the Persians will, in the days 
to come, join the standard of Gog and Magog 
against the people of God, and with the rest 
of the confederates, receive a signal overthrow. 
The ancient metropolis of Persia was Pasai-- 
gadffi, which is said to have afterwards given 
way to the rising greatness of the neighbouring 
Persepolis (called Elymais in 1 Mace. vi. 1.) ; 
though it is doubtful whether the two names 
do not denote one and the same city. See 
Persepolis. But the city mentioned in Holy 
Writ as containing the palace of the Persian 
kings is Shushan, Neh. i. 1. ; Esth. i. 2. ; Dan. 
viii. 2. 

PERUDA (or Peeida), CHILDREN OF, 
a family of Solomon's servants, who returned 
to Judasa with Zenxbbabel at the end of the 
Babylonian captivitj', Ezra ii. 55.; Neh. vii. 
67. 

PETHOR, a place in Mesopotamia, Deut. 
xxiii. 4., the residence of Balaam, whence he 
was fetched by Balak, king of Moab, to curse 
Israel. It is described as being in Ai'am, in 
the Mountains of the East, by the River of the 
land of the children of his people, Num. xxii. 
5., xxiii. 7. ; and was probably a city or region, 
on the E. of the Euphrates, between Tiphsah 
(identified with it by some) and Babylon. 
It is written Phatyra in the Septuagint ; and 



PETKA. 



PHENICIA. 285 



some suppose it to be called by St. Peter Bosor, 
2 Pet. ii. 15. 
PETE A, Isa. xvi, 1., marg. See Sela. 

PHARATHOXI, a strong city in Judasa, 
TvMch, together with several others, Bacchides 
fortified -vrith high -walls and garrisons, to 
annoy the Jews, 1 Mace. ix. 50. Its situation 
is uncertain; some identity it with Pirathon, 
mentioned in Judg. xii. 15. ; but this was a city 
of Ephraim, not in Judfea. 

PHAEPAE, a river of Syria-Damascus, 
in which, or in Abana, Xaamau, the S}^rian 
leper, was willing to wash when sent by Elisha 
the prophet to wash in Jordan, 2 Kgs. v. 12. 
It is conjectured to have been the same with 
the river now known as the Barrada, which 
from its fertilising waters, was called by the 
Greeks Chrysorrhoas, and flows down from the 
E. slope of the Anti-Lebanon, with a S.E. course 
into the beautifuV Balir-el-3Ierj, or Lake of the 
Meadows. From its name signitying swift or 
impetuous, others have identified it ynXh the 
mountain torrent Fijili, a name having the 
same signification. This broad and beautifully 
clear stream rises to the N.W. of Damascus, 
and after a rapid course of about 20 miles, falls 
into the Barrada. See Abaxa. 

PHAEZITES, a family of the tribe of Judah, 
which, together with all Israel, was numbered 
by Moses in the Plains of Moab, ISTum. xxvi. 
20. They were so named after Pharez, the son 
of Judah, Gen. xxxviii. 29. ; 1 Chron. ii. 4., 
iv. 1. 

PHASELIS, a city of Asia Minor, in the S.E. 
angle of the province of Lycia, on the frontiers 
of Pamphylia, to which province it is therefore 
sometimes reckoned. According to the apo- 
cryphal writer in 1 Mace. xv. 23., it was one 
of the places to which the Eomans wrote in 
favour of the Jews. It stood on a bold pro- 
montory, having three harboui's round it, and 
was destroyed by Servilius Isauricus, the 
Eoman commander, on account of the piracy 
it carried on. It was aftei'wards rebuilt, and 
is now an insignificant place called Tekrova. Its 
inhabitants are censm*ed by the old heathen 
writers for their impiety in contemptuously of 
fering only their smallest fishes to the god ,; 
whence arose the proverb, "f^e sacrifice of :he 
Phaselitce:' 

PHASIEOX, CHILDEEN OF, a tribe men- 
tioned in 1 Mace. ix. 66., as having been 
smitten by Jonathan, the Maccabjean general, 
when Bacchides came against him, after the 



death '.of his brother Judas. They appear to 
have dwelt 'in tents in the Wilderness, and 
were probably a nomadic tribe of Arabs, who 
wandered about the S.E. coasts of the Salt 
Sea. 

PHENICE or Phcenice, Acts xi. 19., xv. 3., or 

PHENICIA or Phcenicia, Acts xxi. 2., a 
country in the W. of Syria, extending between 
Mt. Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea, and 
corresponding'in a general way with the modem 
Fachalic of Acre, and the S. part of the Pachalie 
of Tripoli. Its other limits varied considerably at 
different periods of its history, though they may 
be described as reaching from the E. Cherseus or 
Zirka, on the S. between Dor and Cassarea, to 
Sidon, Gen. x. 19., or rather the neighbourhood 
of the island Aradus on the JST., Ezek. xxvii. 8. ; 
though its limits in this direction were sub- 
sequently formed by the E. Eleutherus, now 
Nahr el Kehir. Their dominions are said to 
have at one time extended as far northward a» 
the Gulf of Issus or Iskenderun, and the regions 
of Antioch, whilst towards the S. they touched 
upon Egypt ; but if they ever really possessed 
this extensive sway, it must have been before 
the arrival of the Israelites in Canaan. The 
name Phoenice never occurs in the Old Testa- 
ment Scriptures, which always read Canaan, 
or Palestine, when speaking of the maritime 
parts of the Holy Land; though it would 
appear as if Phoenice were sometimes described 
as Zidon, Gen. xlix. 13. ; Judg. iii. 3. ; and 
sometimes as Tyre, and the S. coast as Philistia, 
Ps. Ixxx i. 7., Ixxxvii. 4. ; Isa. xxiii. 1. ; Jer. 
XXV. 22 ; Ezek. xxvii. 2. ; Hos. ix. 13. ; and 
even in the New Testament, St. Matthew, xv. 
22., ca Is her a woman of Canaan, whom St 
Mark. irii. 26., describes as a Sj'ro-Phcenician. 
Phoe) :e in the New Testament appears to be 
usua ^ styled the country or Coasts of Tyre 
ANr iiDON, Matt. xi. 21., xv, 21. ; Mk. iii. 8., 
vii 4. 31, ; Lu. vi. 17., x. 13. ; Acts xii. 20. ; 
as -ideed sometimes also in the Old Testament, 
J xxvii. 3., xlvii. 4. ; Joel iii. 4, ; Zech. ix. 2. ; 
f wing, no doubt, to these two great cities and 
„heir kings having originally taken the lead 
in all national affairs. Some few of the Greek 
writers call the whole of Canaan Phoenicia : and 
others of them seem to divide all Syria into 
Maritime Phcenicia, of which Tyre was then 
the chief city, and Midland Phoenicia, of which 
Damascus was the metropolis. The term Sj^ro- 
Phoenician may have been introduced at a 
later date, to distinguish the Phoenicians of 
Syria from those of Carthage and other uu- 



286 



PHEMCIA, 



merous colonies of the aboriginal people; or 
from its being in some way annexed to the 
government of Syria. But however differently 
the appellation Phoenice may have been thus 
employed by the profane authors, or the earlier 
ecclesiastical historians, the real boundaries of 
this country as generally described were as 
above; so that it thus touched upon Syria 
to the N. and E., and upon the Holy Land to 
the S. 

The Phoenicians were descended from Sidon 
or Zidon, the eldest son of Canaan, the son of 
Ham, Gen. x. 15. ; 1 Chron. i. 13. They are 
thought to have built Sidon soon after the 
Flood, and eventually the Sidonians built Tyre, 
hence called "the Daughter of Zidon," Isa. 
xxiii. 12. They wei'e the early merchants of 
the world, Is. xxiii. 2. 8. ; Ezek. xxvii. 8. ; and 
are said to have been the first people who 
steered their ships by the stars, and ventured 
to lose sight of land. They sent out colonies 
to almost all parts of the Mediterranean, among 
which Carthage may be especially mentioned ; 
passing beyond the Straits of Gibraltar to the 
W. coast of Africa, and even to Britain, whence 
they exported our tin, Cf. Ezek. xxvii. 12. 
They also traversed the Eed Sea and the 
Indian Ocean, Phoenician sailors having navi- 
gated the ships of Solomon and steered them 
to Ophir for gold, 1 Kgs. ix. 27., x. 11.; 2 
Chron. viii. 18., ix. 10. Commerce, manufac- 
tures, and the arts flourished especially amongst 
them ; they were renowned for their glass and 
purple dyes, of which they are said to have 
been the discoverers; and they traded in all 
the products of the world, with every nation, 
not excepting their neighbours in Israel, Isa. 
xxiii. 2. ; Ezek. xxvii. Cf. Neh. xiii. 16. They 
were, likewise, reputed among the ancients for 
their learning, a character not unnoticed in 
Holy Writ, Ezek. xxvii. 8, 9., xxviii. 3. ; Zech. 
ix. 2. According to Herodotus, Cadmus, one 
of the nation, introduced letters and writing 
into Greece. They were celebrated as architects, 
ship -builders, and workers in the plastic arts 
generally, excelling at one time all other 
people in their skilful handiwork: so great, 
indeed, was their fame, that the Temple of 
Solomon, the most magnificent building men- 
tioned in the Bible, was built by him, under 
the direction of Sidonian and Tyrian artists. 
They also contributed labour and materials, if 
not workmanship, to the erection of the second 
Temple. 

The Phoenician cities seem to have been all 
originally independent of one another, and 



governed by their own kings ; amongst 
which those of Sidon, Tyre, and Arvad, are 
mentioned in the Holy Scriptures; but, no 
doubt, Sidon was at the head of them all, 
though in process of time. Tyre evidently ex- 
ercised dominion over the rest. The S. part 
of their territory was included in the grant of 
the Promised Land made by God to the Israel- 
ites, Gen. X. 19., xv. 21., xlix. 13. ; Deut. i. 7. ; 
J osh. i. 4. ; and the latter under Joshua van- 
quished those of the Phoenicians who joined 
the league of Jabin, king of Hazor, chasing 
them to the gates of Zidon, and even further to 
theK, Josh. xi. 1.8. The Israelites do not, 
however, appear to have ever fully obtained 
the complete possession of it, Josh. xiii. 5, 6. ; 

1 Kgs. xvii. 9. ; though they lived on friendly 
terms with the old inhabitants, dwelling in 
their cities together with them; and in some 
cases intermarrying with them, contrary to the 
Divine injunctions, and worshipping their gods, 
Judg. X. 6., xviii. 7. 28.; 1 Kgs. vii. 14.; 2 
Chron. ii. 24. Even David and Solomon appear 
to have lived on friendly terms with them, 
making a league with Hiram, then king of 
Tyre, in regard to the building of their palaces 
and of the Temple at Jerusalem: and on the 
completion of the Temple, Solomon presented 
him with twenty cities in the land of Galilee, 

2 Sam. V. 11, ; 1 Kgs. v. 1. 12., ix. 11. (which 
were afterwards restored, 2 Chron. viii. 2., to 
Solomon) ; notwithstanding that about the 
same time, he reduced to bondage all the rest 
of the Canaanites that were left, 1 Kgs. ix. 20, 
21. Though probably others of the king of 
Israel, after the division of the kingdom, kept 
up close alliance with the Phoenician people, 
in order to strengthen themselves against their 
common enemies on the eastward; yet Ahab, 
by marrying Jezebel, daughter of Ethbaal, 
king of the Zidonians, and by publicly intro- 
ducing the Phoenician idolatry of Baal into the 
state, sinned worse than others, 1 Kgs. xvi. 
31. 33. 

That part of Phoenice which was included in 
the Promised Land, appears to have been allotted 
chiefly to the tribe of Asher, Josh. xix. 28, 29. ; 
though its S. portion is thought by some to 
have fallen within the limits of Zebulun, Gen. 
xlix. 13. Severe judgments were denounced by 
man}' of the prophets against the inhabitants of 
the Phoenician cities for their luxurious pride, 
their wanton cruelty, as well as their gross 
idolatry, which was often and long a stumbling- 
block to Israel ; and those threatenings were 
gradually accomplished, in the invasion and 



PHENICE. 



PHILIPPI. 287 



plunder of their country by the Assyrians, 
Chaldeans, and Persians, successively, though 
their more complete fulfilment was reserved for 
the Greeks under Alexander the Great. -See 
Tyre. At a later period, the Syrians, the 
Egyptians, and finally the Eomans, held them 
in subjection. The Phoenicians seem to have 
joined with the other enemies of the Jews in 
writing to put a stop to the building of the 
Temple and city of Jerusalem. Both it and 
Coele- Syria are often mentioned as under one 
governor, yielding common tribute to the Persian 
kings ; and both regions appear to have been in 
some degree involved in the affairs of the Mac- 
cabaean struggle, 1 Esd. ii. 17. 24. 27., vi. 7. ; 
2 Mace. iii. 5., iv. 4. 22., x. 11. 

Our Blessed Redeemer visited the borders of 
Phoenicia, if He did not enter the country itself, 
which, as its S. part was within the Promised 
Land, is not impossible, Matt. xv. 21. ; Mk. vii. 
24. 31. ; yet many of its inhabitants followed 
Him during His ministry, and came to Him to be 
healed of their diseases, Mk. iii. 8. ; Lu. vi. 17. 
The gospel was preached here very early, and 
there were Christian congregations in many of 
its cities, some of which were visited by St. Paul 
in his way to and from Jerusalem, Acts xi. 19., 
XV. 3., xxi. 2. 

PHENICE, a haven on the S.W. coast of the 
island of Crete or Candia, which is now called 
Sphakie, and lies about 20 miles from the small 
island Clauda or Gozzo. It was into this hai'bour 
that the ship which conveyed St. Paul, when a 
prisoner on his way to Rome, endeavoured to 
run fmd winter there, after having quitted the 
Fair Havens, contrary to the Apostle's advice, 
Acts xxvii. 12. ; soon after which it was over- 
taken by the tempest, and wrecked on the island 
Melita. There was a town of the same name 
near it, mentioned by the profane authors, who 
call both. Phoenix. 

PHERESITES, 1 Esd. viii. 69. ; 2 Esd. i. 21. ; 
Judith V. 16. See Perizzites. 

PHILADELPHIA, a city of Asia Minor, in 
the province of Lydia, about 30 miles to the S.E. 
of Sardis, on a small tributary of the R. Hermus, 
called Cogamus. It was built by Attains Phi- 
ladelphus, king of Pergamos, and rose to con- 
siderable distinction; but eventually fell into 
the hands of the Romans, together with all the 
rest of the kingdom. It was visited by such 
numerous earthquakes, and so desolated by 
them, that large bodies of its inhabitants re- 
moved into the country ; until at length, it was 
completely destroyed in the reign of the Em- 



peror Tiberius, A. d. 17 ; at the same time that 
eleven other cities sufiered a similar fate. Owing 
to the frequency of these calamities, and their 
efi*ects on the appearance and products of the 
soil, the whole E. part of Lydia and the neigh- 
bouring regions, were distinguished by the name 
of Catakecaumene, or the Burnt-up Country. 
But Philadelphia recovered from this shock, and 
became again an important city; and it is 
rendered especially interesting to the Christian 
from its having been the seat of one of the 
Seven Churches of Asia, to which St. John was 
commissioned to write one of his epistles in 
words of almost unmixed commendation, Rev. i. 
11., iii. 7. It is still a considerable place, called 
by the Turks, Allah- Shehr, or the City of God, 
having been somewhat spared by these ruthless 
scourges of mankind: and it yet contains a 
congregation of about 1000 Christians, who, 
though sadly debased, still preserve their pro- 
fession of the gospel. 

PHILIPPI, now called Filibah, an ancient 
city of Thrace, founded by the inhabitants of 
the neighbouring island of Thasos, and by them 
called Crenides from its many springsi^ It was 
an important military position, and rendered 
more valuable from its proximity to the gold 
and silver mines in the neighbouring mountain 
Pangseus. Hence it became an object of ambi- 
tion with Philip of Macedon, who eventually 
took it, and greatly increased and strengthened it, 
changing its name to Philippi. He likewise 
advanced the E. boundary of his territory to 
the R. Nestus, it having been previously formed 
by the R. Strymon, and thus, Philippi fell 
within the limits of Macedonia, an arrangement 
which continued during the sway of the Romans ; 
and hence in the Acts of the Apostles, xvi. 12., 
it is mentioned as being in this province. It 
was, however, not far from the borders of Thrace, 
in the S.E, angle of Macedonia, near the source of 
a small tributary of the Strymon called Gan- 
gites, about 10 miles from the shore of theiEgaean 
Sea, where was its port Datos, called afterwards 
Xeapolis, and now Cavalla. 

Philippi is celebrated for the defeat which 
in the neighbouring plains, Brutus and Cassius 
suffered from Antony and Augustus, B.C. 42, 
the latter of whom sent a band of his own sol- 
diers from Rome hither, at the same time giving 
the city Latin rights; and hence it is called 
"a colony" by St. Luke. But there is much 
discussion what is meant when he describes it 
as the " chief city," or " first city of that part of 
Macedonia," a distmction which is believed to 



288 PHILIPPIAITS. 



PHILISTINES. 



have been at that time enjoyed by Amphipolis. 
According to some, it should be rendered " a city 
of the first part of Macedonia," or of Macedonia 
Prima (the Romans having divided the whole 
province into four parts), but there is no various 
reading of the original to justify such a transla- 
tion. Others, therefore, consider the expression 
merely as a title of honour conferred on it, as 
was not uncommon with colonies, as much as to 
denote it an important city of Macedonia; or 
else, that it was the first city at which travellers 
arrived after landing on the shores of Mace- 
donia. 

It is rendered very interesting, from having 
been the first place in Europe where St. Paul 
preached the gospel, about a.d. 53 ; the Apostle 
having been called over to Macedonia by the 
vision which appeared to him at Troas, Acts 
xvi. 9 — 12. He here converted Lydia and the 
gaoler with their households, and dispossessed the 
damsel who had the spirit of divination. Of all 
the churches planted by St. Paul, this appears 
to have cherished the most tender concern for 
him, and though it appears to have been but a 
small community, yet its members were pecu- 
liarly generous towards him, faithfully minis- 
tering to his necessities at Thessalonica, at 
Corinth, and while a prisoner at Rome. It was 
visited by him several times ; and to the Chris- 
tian Church in it he addressed his Epistle to 
the Philippians, Acts xvi. 12., xx. 6. ; Philip, i. 
1., iv. 15. ; 1 Thess. ii. 2. 

PHILIPPIAISTS, the inhabitants of the city 
Philippi ; which see. 

PHILISTIA, the land of the Philistines, Ps. 
Ix. 8., Ixxxvii. 4., cviii. 9. 

PHILISTIM, Gen. x. 14., or 

PHILISTINES (in Hebrew, Pilishtim, called 
Palsestini by Josephus, and Allophyli by the 
Seventy), a numerous and powerful people in- 
habiting the S.W. portion of the Holy Land, 
which portion Moses seems hence to designate 
Palestina, Ex. xv. 14. ; as also Isaiah, xiv. 29. 
31. ; and Joel, iii. 4. Their little territory' appears 
to be likewise styled Canaan by Zephaniah, ii. 
5. They sprang from the Casluhim, who were 
sons of Mizraim, the son of Ham, Gen. x. 14. ; 
1 Chron. i. 12. ; and, probably from their bre- 
thren the Caphtorim also, as the latter are 
stated in Deut. ii. 23., to have driven out the 
Avims (who were most likely Canaanites) even 
unto Azzah or Gaza, and destroyed them and 
dwelt in their stead : and both the prophet 
Jeremiah, xlvii. 4,, and Amos, ix. 7., speak of 



the Philistines as having come from the land 
of Caphtor (i.e. Egypt). Their new country 
was a narrow strip of land, about 80 or 90 
miles long, by about 10 or 15 broad, generally 
speaking of a most fertile and beautiful cha- 
racter, sloping gently down from the mountain- 
ous region of Judaea, to the Mediterranean Sea, 
which was here called the Sea of the Philistines, 
Ex. xxii. 31., after the people who inhabited 
its shores. It extended on the N". from the 
Great Stone of Abel, near Bethshemesh, in the 
neighbourhood of Ekron, 1 Sam. vi. 18., to the 
Torrent of Egypt on the S., though its limits 
on all sides underwent continual changes after 
the arrival of the Israelites in Canaan. 

The time of their migration from Egypt is not 
known, but they must have been dwelling for a 
long time in their new abode, when Abraham 
came into the land, as he found them firmly 
settled there, and living under kings ; with one 
of whom, the king of Gerar, he made a friendly 
covenant at Beersheba, sojourning many days in 
his dominions. Gen. xxi. 32. 34. At first per- 
haps, each chief settlement may have been thus 
governed by a chief, the common sovereign of 
whom may have dwelt at Gerar; for there, 
too, Isaac took refuge from the famine with the 
king of the Philistines, when he denied his wife. 
Gen. xxvi. 1. 14, 15. 18. But later in their 
history, we find them governed by a confederacy 
of five lords, who ruled at Gaza, Ashdod, As- 
kelon, Gath, and Ekron, Josh. xiii. 3.; Judg. iii. 
3.; 1 Sam. vi. 4. 16, 17, 18.; each of which 
capitals, however, had many fenced cities and 
country villages in its lordship. ^ 

The Philistines were perhaps, all things con- 
sidered, the most constant, dangerous, and im- 
placable enemies whom the Israelites ever had. 
The strife and envy, which began in the days 
of Abraham, Gen. xxi. 25., and which at his 
death went on to burn more furiously, xxvi, 14, 
15. 18 — 22., increased more and more with every 
opportunity ; and does not appear to have ever 
ceased, except when they were put down for a 
time by a stronger arm ; and until, according to 
the predictions of the prophets, they were blotted 
out of existence as a nation. They were a brave 
and daring race, very expert in war and its stra- 
tagems, and if not the inventors of the bow 
and arrow (as tradition states), at least very 
adept in its use, Judg. v. "11. ; 1 Sam. xxxi. 3, ; 
2 Sam. i. 18. ; hence, because of their strength 
and warlike skill, the people of Israel, on leaving 
Egypt, were not permitted by God to enter Ca- 
naan through their territory, but went up by the 
way of the Wilderness of the Red Sea, Ex. xiii. 17. 



PHILISTINES. 



289 



They were great cultirators of the fruitful lands 
they possessed, which abounded in all the ne- 
cessaries of life to a wonderful extent ; enabling 
them to maintain their ovni large population in 
comfurt and ease. Cf. Gen. xxvi. 1. 12. ; Num. 
xiii. 23. ; Judg. xiv. 5. 8., xv. 5. ; 1 Sam. xiii. 
2o. ; 2 Kgs. viii. 2, 3. They were also skilled in 
manufactures and handicraft, Judg. v. 8. ; 1 Sam. 
xiii. 20. ; and probably carried on a good deal 
of tramc with Egypt, the part of Africa, and 
Arabia, tlieir country occupying such an import- 
ant position, both in a commercial and militarj'^ 
point of view with respect to these regions. Cf. 
Joel iii. 4. 6. They were, moreover, gross 
idolaters, 1 Sam. xvii. 43. ; 2 Sam. v. 21. ; 1 
BEacc. V. 68. ; Avorshipping Ashtarotli, 1 Sam. 
xxxi. 10. ; Dagon, Judg. xvi. 23. ; 1 Sam. v. 2. ; 
Derceto and Baal-zebub. The last-mentioned 
had an oracle at Ekron, which was consulted by 
Ahaziah, the son of Ahab, when sick, 2 Kgs. i. 2. 
These idols were attended by a multitude of 
priests, diviners, and soothsayers, 1 Sam. v. 5., 
vi. 2. ; Isa. ii. 6. ; who fostered the popular super- 
stition, and contributed to the heathen contempt 
that was so long and so often polu-ed by the 
Philistines upon Israel. Cf. 1 Sam. xvii. 8. 10. 
26. 

On the di\nsion of the Promised Land by 
Joshua amongst the Israelites, they do not ap- 
pear to have had any directions to exterminate 
the Philistines, possibly because they were not 
involved in the curse pronounced against Canaan, 
Gen. ix. 25. ; and though Joshua assigned por- 
tions of their territory to each of the three tribes 
Reuben, Simeon, and Dan, Josh. xv. 45, 46, 47., 
xix. 43., these do not appear to have possessed 
themselves of it before his death. Josh. xiii. 2, 3. ; 
the Philistines having been permitted by God 
to remain undisturbed, in order to prove Israel, 
Judg. iii. 3. But very soon afterwards, in the 
days of Shamgar, one of the earliest judges Avho 
succeeded Joshua, the Israelites were, for their 
idolatr}'- and other sinful compliances with the 
heathen ways, delivered up for a time into the 
hands of the Philistines; and then, about b.c. 
1325, commenced that long series of wars which 
only ended with the destruction of the enemy. 
Shamgar, however, now delivered them; and 
himself slew 600 of them with an ox-goad, 
Judg. iii. 31., V. 6, 7. 11., x. 11. But about 150 
years afterwards, upon their again relapsing into 
idolatry, they were given up afresh into the 
power of the Philistines ; who in conjunction vath 
the Ammonites, Judg. x. 6, 7., and afterwards alone, 
grievously afflicted them for forty years, Judg. 
xiii. 1. ; 1 Sam. xii. 9, ; until Samson was mi- 



raculously raised up to free them from their 
persecutors, xiii. 5. His wonderful acts of dar- 
ing and strength, which cost so many thousands 
of the Philistines their lives, are recorded in the 
book of Judges, xiv. 1, 2, 3, 4., xv. 3. 5, 6. 9. 11, 
12. 14. 20., xvi. 5. 8, 9. 12. 14. 18. 20, 21. 23. 27., 
28. 30. It appears to have been in this forty years 
of Israel's bondage, that the Philistines during 
the rule of Eli, took from them the Ark of the 
Covenant, which his two wicked sons, who v/ere 
slain in the battle, had brought from Shiloh to 
Eben-czer, 1 Sam. iv. 1, 2, 3. 6, 7. 9, 10. 17. The 
arlc was taken by them to Ashdod into the 
temple of their idol Dagon, whose image fell 
down twice before it; thence to Gath, and 
thence to Ekron; after which, owing to the 
plagues of mice, emerods, and other deadly de- 
struction which God brought upon them, they 
sent it home upon a new cart by the way of 
Bethsheraesh, 1 Sam. v. 1, 2. 8. 11., vi. 1. 2. 4. 

12. 16, 17, 18. 21. But it was not until about 
twenty years afterwards, that the Israelites on 
repenting from their idolatry and other hei- 
nous sins, were delivered out of the power of 
their oppressors by Samuel, under whom they 
sustained that signal defeat at Eben-ezer, 
which ended their domination over Israel all the 
days of the prophet, 1 Sam. vii. 3. 7, 8. 10, 11. 

13, " 14. 

But towards the close of his rule, when his 
wicked sons assisted him in the government, 
the Pliilistines again began to gain ground, 
and to harass the Israelites, by invading their 
country and approaching to within a few 
miles of Jei'usalem, 1 Sam. ix. 16., x. 5. ; until 
they were checked in their career by Saul 
in the beginnhig of his reign, as well as by 
the bravery of his son Jonathan, 1 Sam, xiii. 
3, 4, 5. 11, 12. 16, 17. 19, 20. 23., xiv. 1. 4. 11. 
19. 21, 22. 30, 31. 36, 37. 46. Yet the war 
with these implacable foes continued to rage 
all through the reign of Saul ; and though they 
were, for a time, repulsed by him in that 
famous battle at Ephes-dan^raim, where David 
slew Goliath, they do not seem to have lost 
their hold on the country all his days, 1 Sam. 
xiv. 47. 52., xvii. 1, 2, 3, 4. 8. 10, 11. 16. 19. 
21. 23. 26. 32, 33. 36, 37. 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 
46. 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55. 57., xviii. 
6., xxi. 9., xxii. 10. At the commencement 
of Saul's envious persecution of David, he 
endeavoured to entrap him by promising his 
daughter Michal in marriage, in retiu-n for a 
hundred foreskins of the Philistines, which 
David brought, thus more than ever provoking 
their hostility, 1 Sam. xviii. 17. 21. 25. 27. 30., 



290 



PHILISTINES. 



2 Sara. iii. 14. Da\'ici, however, gave them 
many an overthro-n^, both then and after he 
had been compelled to take refuge twice at 
the conrt of the king of Gath ; upon the latter 
of which occasions he was very nearly joining 
them in that battle against Saul in Gilboa, 
which cost Saul his life, 1 Sam. xix. 8., xxiii. 
1, 2, 3, 4, 5. 27, 28., xxiv. 1., xxvii. 1. 7. 11., 
xxviii. 1. 4, 5. 15. 19., xxix. 1, 2, 3, 4. 7. 9. 11., 
XXX. 16., xxxi. 1, 2. 7, 8, 9. 11. ; 2 Sam. i. 20., 
xxi. 12. ; 1 Chron. x. 2. ; Ps. Ivi. title. 

Upon David's accession to the throne, they 
began vigorously to attack him, but he and 
his subjects appear to have had the Divine 
assurance that he should conquer them; and 
though they were permitted to approach twice 
close to the walls of Jerusalem, and to encamp 
in the Valley of Eephaim, and at Bethlehem, 
yet they were each time signally defeated, 
being chased in the last battle to Gazer, 2 Sam. 
iii. 18., V. 17, 18, 19. 22. 24, 25., xxiii. 13, 14. 
16.; 1 Chron. xiv. 8, 9, 10. 13. 15, 16. But 
about seven years afterwards, he again smote 
them, most probably on account of their hos- 
tilities against Israel; upon which occasion, 
he subdued them afresh, and took from them 
Metheg-ammah, or Gath, one of their chief 
cities, with much spoil, which he dedicated 
to the Lord, 2 Sam. viii. 1. 12., xix. 9. ; 1 Chron. 
xviii. 1. 11. Notwithstanding this, they once 
more commenced hostilities about twenty years 
afterwards, not long before the death of David ; 
who, however, went out personally against 
them at the head of his army, and would have 
been cut down in the struggle if he had not 
been succoured by one of his officers. There 
appear to have been, at that time, in all four 
severe battles, in which four of the giants were 
slain by four of David's mighty men, 2 Sam. 
xxi. 15. 17, 18, 19., xxiii. 9, 10, 11, 12. ; 1 Chron. 
XX. 4, 5. After this he seems to have had rest 
from them, 2 Sam. xxii, 1. ; Ps. Ix. 8., Ixxxvii. 
4., cviii. 9. ; as during all his reign, was the case 
likewise with Solomon, to whom they brought 
presents, 1 Kgs. iv. 21. ; 2 Chron. ix. 26. 

Peace continued between the two nations 
for about twenty years after the death of 
Solomon; when, for some reason which does 
not appear, the Ten Tribes under their king 
Nadab, the son of Jeroboam, laid siege to the 
Philistine city Gibbethon, before the walls 
of which he was murdered by Baasha, 1 Kgs. 
XV. 27. The same city was again besieged by 
them about twenty-five years afterwards, when 
Omri was their general, x\a. 15. ; though it does 
not seem in either case, that they actually 



took it. The Philistines appear to have con- 
tinued to be in some sort tributary to the 
kingdom of Judah during the reign of Je- 
hoshaphat, 2 Chron. xvii. 11., thoiTgh it is most 
likely they were included in the confederacy of 
the Ammonites, Moabites, and others, who came 
against him towards the close of his reign, 
2 Chron. xx. 1. ; Ps. Ixxxiii. 70. But at his 
death, God stirred them up against his wicked 
son Jehoram, 2 Chron. xxi. 16., when they 
joined the Arabians in invading Judah, plun- 
dering the palace, and carrying olf his wives 
and all his sons, save Jehoahaz the youngest. 
Cf. 2 Kgs. viii. 2, 3. ; Joel, iii. 3—7. After 
this, they seem to have maintained their in- 
dependence about seventy-five years ; for though 
they were attacked, and their city Gath taken 
by Hazael, king of Sp'ia, 2 Kgs. xii. 17., yet 
it was not until the reign of U zziah that they 
were completely subdued; Gath and Ashdod 
being dismantled, and new cities being built 
in their territory by the king of Judah, 2 Chron. 
xxvi. 6, 7. ; Amos vi. 2. 

But they again rebelled, about seventy years 
latei-, in the reign of Ahaz ; on account of whose 
sins they were permitted to seize upon large 
portions of the land of Judah, with many 
of its important cities, 2 Chron. xxviii. 18. ; Isa. 
ix. 12. These they kept, until his son and suc- 
cessor Hezekiah early in his reign, reduced the 
whole nation once more to subjection, 2 Kgs. 
xviii. 8. They were likewise soon afterwards 
invaded by the Assyrians, when they came up 
against Judah ; upon which occasion, Ashdod 
was taken by Tartan, the general of Sargon, Isa. 
XX. 1., and the whole Philistine country reduced 
into their power, as the prophet Isaiah, xiv. 29. 
31., appears to have foretold. The Assyrians 
probably retired from Philistia after the tei'rible 
destruction of Sennacherib's array; but they 
are said to have again returned under Esarhad- 
don, and once more got possession of Ashdod ; 
though, according to Herodotus, this city was 
eventual]}'' taken from them by the Egyptians 
under Psammetichus, after a siege of twenty- 
nine years. 

The Philistines seem now to have completed'- 
broken away from anything like subjection 
to Judah, and though their country was conti- 
nually harassed by the armies of Assyria and 
Egypt, during the struggle between these two 
mighty nations, Jer. xlvii. 1., yet they found 
abundant opportunities to distress and spoil the 
Jews, Ezek. xvi. 27. 57., for which they are 
threatened by the prophets Isaiah, xiv. 29 — 31. ; 
Jeremiah, xxv. 20., xlvii. 1, 4, 5, ; Ezekiel, xxv. 



PHILISTINES. 



PHKYGIA. 291 



15, 16. : Amos, i. 6, 7, 8. ; Zephamah, ii. 4, 5, 6, ; 
Obadiali, 19.; and Zecliariah, ix. 6.; with tlie 
vengeance of God and the ultimate destruction 
of their T\-hole race. They appear to have 
joined in the plunder and pursuit of the people 
of Judah and Jerusalem, as the day of vengeance 
came on against the devoted city ; and the old 
grudge was no doubt, then, as fully exercised as 
possible in acts of rapine and cruelty, Ezek. 
XXV. 15. But they appear to have been them- 
selves soon afterwards conquered by Xebuchad- 
nezzar, as well as the other nations of Syria and 
Egypt, during or after his siege of Tyre, E2,ek. 
x^x. 18—20. ; and eventually, they fell under 
the dominion of the kings of Persia. 

But, though the Philistines had suffered 
so much during all these wars, they still re- 
mained in then- old settlements long after the 
return of the Jews from Babylon ; and we find 
Xehemiah complaining that many of his people 
had intermarried with them, Xeh. xiii. 23, 2-1. 
Cf. Ecclus. 1. 26. Alexander the Great con- 
quered them on his way to Egj^pt, destroying 
Gaza for its resistance to his arms ; and after his 
death, they fell into the power of his successors. 
This led to their territory being often the scene 
of conflict in the Maccab^ean wars, and being 
disposed of at the will of the conqueror, 1 Mace. 
V. 66. 68., X. 86. 89., xi. 60—62. At one time, 
the whole of it appears to have been handed 
over by the governors of Syria to the JeAvs, 1 
Mace. xi. 59. ; who thereupon endeavoured 
to root out the popular idolatry and superstition, 
burning theu' temples and destroying the images. 
The Komans at length, under Pompey, became 
masters of the whole Philistine territory, which 
now followed the fortunes of Judasa ; and though 
owing to their former influence, as well as their 
important position between the contending 
parties, and their maritime and commercial 
dealings with the Greeks and Romans, the Holy 
Land appears to have derived its name of Pales- 
tine from them; yet henceforth they begin 
rapidly to disappear from the scene of history. 

The awful predictions of the prophets have 
been fulfilled to the very letter upon the pos- 
sessions, and even the very existence of this 
ancient and once flourishing people. Amidst 
the common desolation that of Philistia, not- 
withstanding its beautifal climate and fertile 
soil, seems pre-eminent; the traveller finds 
the threatenings of destruction to have fully 
lighted on its cities; and that the prediction 
has long been accomplished which foretold 
"the remnant of the Philistines shall pensh," 
Jer. xlvii. 4. ; Ezek. xxv. 16. ; Amos i. 8. In 



the coming restoration of the Jews to their own 
land, they are to possess the enthe country 
which was once held by these, their long-con- 
tinued foes, Isa. xi. 14. ; Zeph. ii. 7. ; and though 
the Philistines seem to be alluded to as still 
existing at that future time, yet it is probably 
only according to the usage of prophetic lan- 
guage, by which their name and that of other 
persecutors of Israel, is applied in a general way 
to all the enemies of God's truth and people. 

PHILISTINES, SEA OF THE, that portion 
of the Mediterranean which washes the S. 
coast of the Holy Land, and was so named 
from the people inhabiting its shores. It may 
perhaps have been applied to the whole bay in 
that angle between the two continents of Asia 
and Africa which unites Canaan with Egypt. 
It was appointed to be one of the limits of the 
Promised Land in this direction, Ex. xxiii. 31. 

PHISOX, THE RIVER, Ecclus. xxiv. 25. 

See Pisox 

PHCENICE. See Phexice. 

PHCEXICIA. See Phenicia. 

PHRYGIA, the second in size amongst the 
provinces of Asia Minor, occupied the central 
part of the peninsula, on the common borders of 
the modern Turkish provinces Anadolia and 
Karamania. Its limits varied greatly at differ- 
ent periods of its history ; and the name is some- 
times applied to distinguish the whole country 
colonised by the Phrygians, as well as to the 
kingdom and province within whose bounds 
they were eventually confined. As a province 
of the Roman empire, it was bounded on the E. 
by Galatia and Cappadocia ; on the S. by Cilicia, 
Pisidia, and Lycia ; on the W. by Caria, Lydia, 
and Mysia; on the X. by Bithjmia and Galatia : 
thus touching upon all the other -provinces of 
Asia Minor, excepting Paphlagonia and Pontus. 
The name is fancied by the Greeks to have 
been derived from a word in their language 
signifying to burn, owing to the volcanic and 
burnt-up appearance of the coxmtry; but it is 
more likely to have been given to it from the 
people who colonised it, the Phryges or Bryges, 
who are said by profane authors to have wandered 
from Macedonia into this peninsula many years 
before the Trojan war. Indeed, according to 
their own absurd traditions, as well as those of 
the Egyptians, they accounted themselves the 
most ancient race of men in the world. They 
were certainly remarkable in an early age for 
the high state of civilisation to which they had 
attained. They are said to have invented the 
u 2 



292 



PHUD. 



PI-HAHIROTH. 



pipe of reeds and all sorts of needle-work, and 
to have brought music and dancing to ^such 
perfection, that they were copied even by the 
Greeks. They were, however, accounted luxu- 
rious, effeminate, and very superstitious, being 
the reputed inventors of augury and other 
kinds of divination : their chief idol was Cybele. 

The Phrygians are thought to have first 
entered the peninsula across the Hellespont, 
the shores of which were hence called Phrygia 
IMinor; the name of Phrygia Major being more 
especially applied to the above territory within 
which the Phrj-gians were eventually conlined. 
Like most of the other countries of Asia Minor, 
Plirygia was at first governed by its o-^^n 
sovereigns ; but it afterwards constituted a pro- 
vince of the great Lydian monarchy, until, 
through the ambition of Croesus, it fell under 
the dominion of the Persians, and so became 
successively subject to the Greeks, the Syrians, 
and the Romans. According to the apocryplial 
writer in 2 Mace. v. 22., the governor set over 
Jerusalem by Antiochus Epiphanes after he had 
plundered the Temple, was a Phrygian, " a man 
for manners more barbarous than he that set 
him there." 

The gospel spread over Phrygia at a very 
early date; some devout Jews from it having 
been present in Jerusalem at the great Day of 
Pentecost, Acts ii. 10, It was visited twice, 
and probablj' oftener, by the great Apostle of 
the Gentiles, Acts svi. 6., xviii. 23. ; through 
whose labours man}- churches were founded 
here, which flourished for some time, tliougli 
now extinct ; Laodicea, Colosse, and Hierapolis, 
were all three in this province. 

PHUD, a people mentioned, together with Lud, 
by the apocryphal writer in JudiUi ii. 23., as 
having been attaclced and destroyed b}' Holo- 
fernes, the Assj'-rian general. Thoy were pro- 
bably the same with Phut or Put, a nation 
descended from Phut, the third son or Ham, 
Gen. X. 6.; 1 Chron. i. 8., and so called after 
him. Their situation cannot be fixed Avith any 
certainty; though, from their being so often 
mentioned in connection with Mizraim and 
Cush, it is plain they must have dwelt near 
them. According to some, they settled in the 
S. of Egypt, where the names of Phtempha, 
Phtembute, and Phtenotes, are to be met with 
in the profane authors. Others, however, place 
them much further off in the N.W. part of the 
continent of Africa, where Ave afterwards meet 
with the regions of N"umidia and Mauretania. 
Josephus expressly states that they dwelt in the 



latter country, and that their name was still 
preserved in the R. Phut, the same probably 
with that now called Tensift, which flows down 
from Mt. Atlas into the Atlantic Ocean. The 
name is sometimes rendered Libyans in our 
version of the Bible, as in Jer. xlvi. 9. ; Ezek. 
XXX. 5., xxxviii. 5., and is likewise commonly 
given so in the Septuagint and Vulgate. The 
prophet Nahum, iii. 9., describes them as great 
Avarriors, the allies of Populous No (i. e. Thebes 
on the Nile) ; and Jeremiah, xlvi. 9., more than 
a liundred years afterwards, mentions them as 
expert archers, then confederate Avith Pharaoh- 
Nechoh, king of Egypt. Still later, the prophet 
Ezekiel liliCAvise calls them men of war, Avho 
were then in the pay of Tyre, xxvii. 10., as well 
as in league with Egypt, xxx. 5. ; and he 
further foretells, that they shall be numbered 
Avith the armies of Gog and Magog, when 
maliciousl}'- coming up against the land of Israel, 
xxxviii. 5. This . warlike character of the 
nations of Phut agrees very well Avith that of 
the Mauretanians, who Avere excellent troops in 
tlie pay of Carthage ; and the present inhabitants 
of that country, the Moors of Barbary, are Avell 
knoAvn for their fierceness and cruelty. 

" PIBESETII, a city of Egypt, concerning 
which the prophet Ezekiel, xxx. 17., foretells 
that its young men shall fiill by the SAA'ord, as 
should also be the case Avith the neighbouring 
city of AA-en (or Heliopolis). It is written 
Pubastuni in the margin, and is believed to have 
been the same place called Bubastus by profane 
authors, and is so translated in the Septuagint 
and Vulgate. Bubastus Avas a large and im- 
portant city in the E. part of LoAver Egypt, 
upon the Pclnsiac arm of the R. Nile. It was 
celebrated for its temple of the idol Bubastis or 
Diana, in honour of whom one of the largest 
Egyptian festiA^als was annually held, when it 
is said nearly the whole population attended. 
This false goddess is fabled to haA^e transformed 
herself into a cat, when the gods fled into Egj'-pt, 
and hence she Avas often represented with the 
head of a cat; wherefore these animals were 
here held in the greatest veneration, and em- 
balmed after their death. Bubastus Avas taken 
and dismantled by the Persians, but it was 
afterwards restored and strengthened, and Avas 
in existence during the SAvay of the Romans in 
Egypt; it is noAV a mere heap of ruins called 
Tel-Basta. 

PI-HAHIROTH (i.e. the Opening of Lihertij), 
the third encampment of th« Israelites Avhen 
they departed from Egypt. It was to the S. of 



PIEA. 



PITHOM. 



293 



Etham, bet-ween Migdol and tlie Sea, and over 
against Baal-Zephon, Ex. xiv. 2. 9. ; Num. 
xxxiii. 7, 8. ; and so, probably, on the W. side 
of the ^lanitic Gulf of the Red Sea, a few miles 
to the S. of the modern town of Suez. Here 
Pharaoh and his host overtook the Israelites, 
fancying that they were entangled in the land ; 
and hence the latter people passed safely over 
this arm of the Red Sea, by the miracvilous in- 
tervention of Almighty God, whilst the Egyp- 
tians were overtaken in the returning flood, and 
were drowned. 

PIRA, a place in Judtea, whither, according 
to 1 Esd. V. 19,, some of the Jews returned home 
after the Babylonian captivity. 

PIRATHON, a city of the tribe of Ephraim, 
in the Mt. of the Amalekites, the birth-place of 
Abdon, who judged Israel for eight years, and 
was at length buried here. Hence he is called 
a Pirathonite, Judg. xii. 13. 15. ; as was also 
Benaiah, one of Da\-id's mighty men, who 
appears to have sprung from the same city, 
2 Sam. xxiii. 30. ; 1 Chron. xi. 31., xxvii. 14. 
Some have supposed that Pirathon was the same 
place with the Pharathoni mentioned by the 
apocryphal writer of 1 Mace. ix. 50. ; but this 
latter city seems to have been in Judtea. 

PISGAI-I, MT. (i.e. the 11111), now called At- 
tdrus, one of the highest peaks of Mt. Nebo, as 
this again was one of the \oity summits of the 
chain of Abarim. It lay beyond Jordan, in the 
land of Moab, IST. of the R. Arnon, over against 
Jericho, about 5 miles to the E. of the head of 
the Salt Sea. It looked also towards Jeshimon, 
or the Wilderness, and was one of the last 
stations of the Israelites under Moses previous 
to their battle with Sihon, Idiig of the Amorites, 
Num. xxi. 20. It is further described as being 
in the Field of Zophim, and was one of the 
places whither Balak brought Balaam to curse 
Israel, Num. xxiii. 14. It appears to have once 
formed the boundary of Sihon's kingdom in this 
direction, and afterwards that of the tribe of 
Reuben ; and was the head of some remarkable 
springs called Ashdoth-Pisgah, or the Springs of 
Pisgah, near which was an old Amorite to^wn of 
the same name, eventually assigned to the 
Reubenites, Deut. iii. 17., iv. 49.; Josh. xii. 3., 
xiii. 20. It was to the summit of this lofty 
eminence that Moses ascended at the command 
of God, to take a view of the Promised Land 
when his prayer to cross Jordan was refused ; 
and hither he ascended in the closing period of 
his life, when the Lord was pleased to show him 
the whole laud, from Dau to Zoar, even to the 



utmost sea; here, too, he died, Deut. iii. 27., 
xxxii. 49., xxxiv. 1. See Nebo. 

PISIDIA, a province in the S. part of the 
peninsula of Asia Minor. Its shores were 
better known by the name of Pamphylia; a 
name which was eventually communicated 
to the whole country, though the Pisidians still 
kept their own ethnographical distinction, being 
separated in a general way from the Pamphy- 
liaus (who were Greek colonists) by Mt. Taurus 
The two districts taken as one province, touched 
to the E. on Cilicia and Phrygia, to the N. and 
W. on the latter province and on Lycia, to the S. 
on the Mediterranean Sea ; thus forming a con- 
siderable district on the common borders of the 
modern Turkish provinces of AnadoUa and Ka- 
ramania. The Pisidians appear to have origi- 
nally belonged to the Cilician nation, and at an 
early period to have taken possession of the 
defiles of Mt. Taurus, the fastnesses of which, 
defended by their o'wn bravery, enabled them for 
many centuries not only to maintain their inde- 
pendence against all invasion, but to seize on a 
large portion of the neighbouring country of the 
Phrygians. The Persians, and afterwards Alex- 
ander the Great, endeavoured to subdue them, 
but never really succeeded ; any more than did 
the Syrian kings, on the decline of whese power 
they increased their territory still further. It 
was not until the reign of Augustus that they 
were mastered, when Antioch, their chief city, 
was made a Roman colony. Long before the times 
of the New Testament, there were many Jews 
dwelling in this province, as in most of those of 
Asia Lliuor. When it was visited by Paul and 
Barnabas, these raised a persecution against 
them, though the gospel appears to have taken 
root there for many generations, Acts xiii. 14., 
xiv. 24. 

PISON, one of the four rivers mentioned in 
Gen. ii. 11., as issuing from the river which 
watered the Garden of Eden. It is written 
Phison by the apocryphal writer in Ecclus. 
xxiv. 25,, who mentions it in connection with 
the Tigris, describing both as " filled in the 
time of new fruits," i.e, perhaps, swollen in 
summer from the melting of the mountain-snows. 
See Eden. 

PITHOM, one of the treasure-cities, which 
the children of Israel were compelled to build 
for Pharaoh, Ex. i. 11. It was most probably 
in the N.E. part of Egypt adjacent to the Land 
of Goshen ; and is, probably, the same with the 
placed called Patamos by the profane historians, 
which many identify with the city Heroopolis, 
u 3 



294 



PLAIN, THE. 



PONTUS. 



about midway between the Red Sea and the 
Mediterranean. Its name seems, likewise, pre- 
served in that of the Phatnitic or Phatmotic 
mouth of the R. Nile, which was also called the 
Bucolic, and is noAV known as the Damietta 
mouth ; being the termination of the more E. 
of those two great streams of this mighty river, 
now forming the Delta of Egypt. So that 
Pithom may, perhaps, have been further to the 
W. than Heroopolis, and somewhere on the 
banks of this E. arm of the Delta ; but nothing 
seems to be kuoAvn concerning its situation. 

PLAIN, THE, a name which was applied in 
the earliest times to that portion of the Plain 
of the R. Jordan, Gen. xiii. 10, 11. ; 1 Kgs. vii. 
46.; 2 Chron. iv. 17.; which was known also 
as the Vale of Siddim ; whence its five chief cities 
■were also termed the Cities of the Plain, and the 
Salt Sea beneath which they were submerged, 
the Sea of the Plain, Gen. xix. 17. 25. 28. It 
seems to have been eventually extended in its 
application to the whole valley traversed by the 
Jordan in its course to the Salt Sea; a valley 
the width and depressions of which are of very 
varying character (see Jordan), Deut. iii. 10. 
17., iv. 49. ; Josh. xi. 2. 16., xii. 1. ; 2 Sam. ii. 
29., iv. 7,, xviii. 23.; 2 Kgs. xxv. 4.; Jer. 
xvii. 26,, xxxix. 4., lii. 7. ; Zech. vii. 7. It ap- 
pears to have been likewise called the Plain 
of the Wilderness, 2 Sam. xv. 28., xvii. 16. 

PLAIN, THE, an appellation also given in a 
general way to the Plains of Moab, on the 
N. side of the R. Amon, where Moses numbered 
the children of Israel the second time. It appears 
to have extended northward to Heshbon, and 
thence westward to Bezer, the City of Refuge in 
the Wilderness, Deut. ii. 8., iv. 43., xxvi. 3. ; 
Josh. xiii. 17., xx. 8. 

PLAIN, THE, a designation given to the 
level country in the S.W. corner of Canaan, on 
the shores of the Great Sea, extending from the 
territory of the Philistines nearly to Ciesarea, 
Jer. xxxii. 44,, xxxiii. 13. ; Obad. 19. ; 1 Mace, 
iii. 40.; and apparently the same with that 
extensive tract of country not unfrequently 
called The Vale or The Valley. The name is 
likewise occasionally used to designate other 
important plains, as that of Mamre, of Je- 
richo, of Jezreel or Tabor, that about 
Jerusalem, &c. 

PLAIN, CITIES OF THE, Gen. xiii. 12., 
xix. 29., five cities governed by their own kings, 
which existed in the time of Abraham in the 
beautiful and fertile Vale of Siddim, Gen. xiv. 



3., which was well watered by the Jordan. Cf. 
Gen. xiii. 10. They were Sodom, Gomorrah, 
Admah, Zeboiim, and Bela or Zoar ; of which 
the first two seem to have been the chief. Gen. 
xiv. 2., xviii. 20,, xix. 24. ; Isa. i. 9. ; 2 Pet. 

ii. 6. ; J ude 7. On account of their great wicked- 
ness, four of them were miraculously destroyed 
by Almighty God by fire from heaven. Gen. 
xix. 25. ; Deut. xxix. 23. ; Bela being spared 
at the special intercession of Abraham and Lot. 
Then, likewise, by some violent catastrophe, 
possibly of a volcanic character, the whole 
region to the S. of them appears to have been 
violently shaken, so that the course of the Jordan, 
which is thought to have before found an outlet 
at the head of the Red Sea (see Jordan), be- 
came dammed up near Zoai-, at the S. end of 
the Vale; thus forming a large inland lake, 
henceforward called the Sea of the Plain, or 
otherwise the Salt Sea. 

PLAIN, SEAIOF THE, Deut. iii. 17., iv. 49. ; 
Josh. iii. 16., xii. 3. ; 2 Kgs. xiv. 25. See Salt 
Sea. 

PLEASANT LAND, THE, Ps. cvi. 24.; Jer. 

iii. 19.; Dan. viii. 9. ; Zech. vii. 14.; a prophe- 
tical name for the land of Canaan ; which see. 

POCHERETH OF ZEBAIM, THE CHIL- 
DREN OF, a family of Solomon's servants, who 
returned to Judaea with Zerubbabel at the end 
of the Babylonian captivity, Ezra ii. 57. ; Neh. 
vii. 59. 

PONTUS, a province of Asia Minor at its 
N.E. extremity, bounded on the W. by Paphla- 
gonia and Galatia, on the S. by Cappadocia, on 
the E. by Armenia and Colchis, on the N. by 
the Euxine or Black Sea ; and corresponding in 
a general way with the N. part of the modern 
Ttirkish proAance of Roum. The name of Pontus 
was first applied by the early Greeks to the 
whole tract of country along the S. shores of the 
Euxine ; and thus included territories to which 
the subsequent kingdom of Pontus did not 
extend, and which were all commonly described 
as " in Ponto." The appellation was afterwards 
confined to the region lying E. of the R. Halys ; 
and which after having been dismembered from 
Cappadocia, was erected into a satrapy under 
the Persian kings, and finally into a separate 
kingdom, about 300 b.c. The most remark- 
able of its sovereigns was Mithridates the 
Great, whose ambition plunged him into a war 
with the Romans, the longest and most difiicult 
in which the latter had ever been engaged with 
a foreign power. During the struggle Mithri- 



POOL, THE OLD. 

dates became master of the greater part of Asia 
and of the Hellespont, subdued nearly all the 
islands of the ^gjean Sea, and compelled the 
whole of Greece to par him tribute ; but his 
career -vras saddenlv checked bv S}'lla in the 
battles of Chteronea and Orchomenus, after 
•which peace "vras made between the contending 
parties. But on the death of the Bithvnian 
jSicomedes, Mithridates disputed the right of 
the Romans to his possessions, and again de- 
clared -war against them; upon this, he was 
attacked and defeated by Lucullus, and after- 
wards by Pompey, when he was compelled 
to fly for safety into Scythia, where he died by 
his own hands. 

There were many Jews settled in Pontus, as 
in most of the provinces of Asia Minor, long 
before the Xew Testament times. Some of them 
were present in Jerusalem on the great Day of 
Pentecost, Acts ii. 9. Aquila, whom Paul met 
at Corinth, and with whom he wrought, being 
of the same trade, was born in this country, 
sviii. 2. The first Epistle of Peter is addressed 
to the strangers scattered throughout Pontus 
and the neighbouring provinces, 1 Pet. i. 1. ; 
from which it has been concluded, that he once 
preached the gospel here ; but this is doubtful. 

POOL, THE OLD, Isa. sxii. 11., and the 
Lower Pool, Isa. xxii. 9., and Hezekiah's Pool, 
2 Kgs. XX, 20. ; 2 Chron. xxxii. 30. ; Xeh. iii. 
16. ; and the Upper Pool, 2 Kgs. xviii. 17. ;^sa. 
vii. 3., xxxvi. 2. ; large cisterns built for the 
purpose of collecting the streams of Gihon and 
the rain, and thus supplying Arith water, by 
means of a conduit, the northern and western 
portions of Jerusalem and Zion. See GiH02f. 

• POTTER'S FIELD, THE, Matt, xxvii. 7. 
10. See AcELDAiiA. 

PRIESTS, CITIES OF THE, 2 Chron. xxxi. 
15. 19. See LE■s^TES. 

PRISOX, COURT OF THE. See Duxgeox. 

PRISOX GATE, one of the gates of Jeru- 
salem, so called probably from its contiguity to 
the chief state prison, in which the prophet 
Jeremiah was so long confined by Zedekiah. 
The situation of this gate, as of most of the 
other gates of the city, is very doubtful; 
though it appears to have been towards 
the S.E. corner, near the edge of the city of 
David. It was restored by Xehemiah, Xeh. xii. 
39. 

PROMISE, THE LAXD OF, an appellation 



PEOVIXCE, CHILDREN OF THE. 295 

given by St. Paul, Heb. xi. 9., to the country 
which God was pleased to promise to Abraham 
and his descendants for a possession for ever, 
Gen. xii. 7., xiii. 15. 17., xv. 18 — 21., xvii. 8., 
sxiv. 7., xxvi. 4., xxviii. 13. ; Deut. i. 7, 8. 
xxxiv. 4. ; 2 Chron. xx. 7. ; Xeh. ix. 8. ; Ps. cv. 
9 — 11. ; Ezek. xx. 28., xh-ii. 14, ; Acts 5. 
Its bounds are described as extending from the 
Red Sea, the Torrent of Egypt, and the Sea of 
the Philistines on the S., to Mt. Lebanon, 2It. 
Hor, and the entrance of Hamath on the X. ; 
and from the Great Sea on the TV., to the R, 
Euphrates on the E,, Gen, xv, 18, ; Ex. xxiii. 
31. ; Xum. xxxiv. 7, 8. ; Deut. i, 7,, xi. 24. ; 
Josh, i. 4. This promise God was pleased to 
ftdfil to His chosen people Israel in due season, 
as is manifest from the whole course of their 
history, Ps. cv. 9 — 11. ; and though but few of 
their kings were able to maintain possession of 
the whole territory included within the above 
limits, doiibtless because of their sins, yet David 
was permitted to do so, 2 Sam, viii. 3. 14, ; 

1 Kgs. xi, 15. ; 1 Chron. x^iii. 3. 13. ; as was 
Solomon like-^-ise, 1 Kgs. iv. 21. 24,, ix. 26. ; 

2 Chron. xiii. 17., ix. 26. ; Ps, Ixxii. 8. 

And though now, as they were forewarned 
should be the case, Lev. xviii. 28., they have 
been cast out of their land because of their 
manifold sins, consummated as they were by the 
rejection of Messiah; yet it is still their inhe- 
ritance ; the original grant does not appear to 
have been in any way revoked, or the land 
given to others. On the contrary, it is still 
called their land, which the Gentiles are treading 
do-^vn, but to which, in process of time, God has 
been pleased to promise by the mouth of many 
of His prophets, and in passages far too nume- 
rous to be quoted here, He will restore them, 
Isa. xi. 11 — 16.. xxvii. 12. ; Jer. xvi. 14, 15. ; 
Ezek. XX. 42, 43., xxxvi. 24., xsxvii. 21—28., 
xxsix, 25—28., xlvii. 14. 22,; Zeph, iii. 20,; 
Lu. xxi. 24. And the future division of the 
land as recorded by Ezekiel, xlviii., in which 
the portion of each tribe is made to be a paral- 
lelogram of 25,000 reeds by 10,000, is so noto- 
riously diff"erent from any division of it which 
has yet obtained, that it is plainly one of those 
wonderful events of an Almighty Providence 
which remain to be accomplished. See Cax'AAN 
1 and Israel. 

PROYIXCE, CHILDREX OF THE, a name 
applied to those Jews who returned home with 
Zerubbabel and Ezra after the edict of C}tus, 
Ezra ii. 1. ; Xeh. vii. 6. ; owing, probably, to 

^ Judtea being still accounted a portion of the 

' u 4 



296 



PTOLEMAIS. 



QUICKSANDS, THE. 



Persian empire, as indeed it seems to be desig- 
nated in Nell, i. 3., xi. 3. 

PTOLEMAIS, Acts xxi. 7. See Accho. 

PUBASTUM, Ezek. xxx. 17. marg. See Pi- 

BESETH. 

PUL, tlie name of a warlike nation, noted for 
tlieir archery, mentioned by the prophet Isaiah, 
Ixvi. 19,, in connection with Tarshisli and Lvid 
as remote from Palestine ; whither in the latter 
days, God wovild send some of the Jews to declare 
His glory among the Gentiles, and apparently to 
stir them up to send His people home to their own 
land. The Septuagint translates it Phud or Phut 
(which see) ; and the Vulgate, Africa. Some 
are of opinion that they dwelled round the city 
of Philaj on the R, Nile, near the common borders 
of Egypt and Ethiopia, and that this last-men- 
tioned place has derived its name from them. 
But it does not at all appear from any of the 
names mentioned with it, that we should look 
for Pul among the possessions of Ham, but 
rather on the confines of those of /apheth and 
Shem. Cf. Gen. x. 2. 22. 

PUNITES, a family of the tribe of Issachar, 
numbered by Closes, together with all Israel, in 
the 'Plains of Moab, Num. xxvi. 23. They were 
so called after Pua or Phuvah, the second son of 
Issachar, Gen. xlvi. 13. 

PUNON, a station of the Israelites in the 
Wilderness between Mt, Hor and the borders of 
Moab, Nam, xxxiii. 42, 43. Eusebius describes 
it as lying between Petra and Zoar ; and there 
is a place mentioned in the early writers, under 
the name of Phseno, or Metallo-phasnon, as exist- 
ing hereabouts, in the mines of which criminals 



were condemned to work, and which were so un- 
wholesome that they lived but a short time. 

PUT, 1 Chron. i. 8. ; Jer. xlvi. 9, marg, ; Neh. 
iii, 9, See Phut. 

PUTEOLI, a maritime city in the S. of Italy 
on the coast of Campania, about 100 miles in 
direct distance to the S.E. of Home. It is said 
to have been originally a colony of Samians, and 
to have been called Dica3archia ; but it fell into 
the hands of the Romans at a very early period, 
and received the name of Puteoli from the many 
wells, or, as others state, from the stench arising 
from the numerous sulphureous springs in its 
neighbourhood. The haven was commodious, and 
was defended by a mole, the remains of which may 
still be seen. It was one of the most bustling and 
best frequented in all Italy ; for there being none 
of any character nearer to Pome, ships from 
Egypt and the Levant were saved doubling the 
dangerous cape of Circei, and here landed both 
their passengers and their cargoes for Rome. 
This was the case with the ship of Alexandria 
which conveyed Paul hither from Melita, Acts 
xxviii. 11. 13. Owing to its excellent mineral 
waters, and the beauty of its situation, Puteoli 
was a favourite place of resort for the Romans ; 
and together with Baite and Misenum, which lay 
a short distance to the W. of it, contributed to 
make one extensive watering-place in this part 
of Campania. In the time of Augustus, the port 
of Idisenum became one of the great naval 
stations of the empire, and was the rendezvous 
for the fleet which guarded the Tuscan Sea. St. 
Paul landed at Puteoli when on his way to Rome 
as a prisoner, and here he tan-ied seven days with 
the brethren who came to meet him, before he 
set off to Appii Forum ; it is now called PozzuolL 



QUARRIES, THE, a place by Gilgal, near 
which Ehud turned back, after having brought 
the present to Eglon, king of 'Moab, and slew 
him, Judg, iii. 19. 26, It is very doubtful what 
is meant by the word used in the original ; some 
understand a place where stones were dug ; others 
the twelve stones Avhich Joshua set up in Gilgal 
after the Israelites had safely crossed the R, 
Jordan, Josh , iv, 20, ; and others again, as in the 
margin of our translation, graven images, or large 
standing idols, which the Moabites may perhaps 
have set up there, and the sight of which, it is 
thought, may have stirred up Ehud to turn and 
revenge the affront thus offered to his God, 



QUICKSANDS, THE, mentioned by St. 
Luke in his account of the tempestuous voyage 
of the Apostle Paul through the Sea of Adria, 
Acts xxvii, 17. In the original Greek the 
word is in the singular number, the Syrtis; 
and refers, probably, to a large gulf or inlet 
on the N, coast of the modern provinces Tripoli 
and Barca in the continent of Africa, This 
gulf, now knoAvn as the Gulf of Sidra, was 
called the Syrtis Major ; and was much dreaded 
by the ancient mariners, on account of its 
perilous navigation, arising from its sandbanks 
and currents. It appears to have been into 
this that they feared they should be driven, 



EAAMAH. 



EACHEL'S SEPULCHRE. 297 



by the furious winJ Euroclyclon wliich burst j 
upon them after they left Crete. The Syrtis : 
Minor lay further to the Vv^. to the S. of j 
Carthage, and is now called the Gnlf of Cahes. 
They both obtained their name of Syrtis, from 
its being fancied that vessels were there drawn 



in by the winds and currents, and engulfed; 
or, as others say, from the winds and waves 
drawing in tlxere vast quantities of mud and 
sand, which formed the shoals so terrible to the 
early sailors. 



RAA]\IAH, a tribe of Cushitcs, so called 
after Raamah, the fourth son of Cush, the 
son of Ham, Gen. x. 7. ; 1 Chron. i. 9. ; vvlio 
is thought to have settled in tie S.E. pai't of ^ 
Arabia. His descendants are mentioned by \ 
the prophet Ezekicl, ssvii. 22., as trading in ! 
the markets of Tp-e Avith chief of all spices, 
precious stones, and gold. According to the j 
old geographers, there was a place called i 
Ehegama on the S.W. shore of the Persian I 
Gulf, which may perhaps have derived its 
name from Raamah : the Septuagint writes 
Ehcgma in the first two quotations. 

EA^mSES, Ex. i. 11. See Rameses. 

RABBAH or Rabbath C/f the Ammonites, 
the capital city of tliis nation near the source 
of the R. Jabbok, and not many miles from the 
E. frontier of the tribe of Gad, Josh. xiii. 25. 
It must have been an important city in the 
time of the Amorites ; as we read in Dent. iii. 
11., that the iron bedstead of Og, the king of 
Bashan, was brought hither. When David's 
ambassadors had been disgracefully treated 
by the Ammonites, he sent Joab against 
Rabbah, by whom it was besieged and taken ; 
a siege in which the brave Uriah lost his life. 
But the citadel, which appears to have been a 
strong position called " the City of Waters," 
was reserved by Joab to be attacked by David, 
who accordingly came fro)n Jerusalem for that 
purpos^ and took it as well as all the other 
cities of the Ammonites, and either slew the 
inhabitants, or reduced them to subjection, 
2 Sam. xi. 1., xii. 26, 27. 29. ; 1 Chron. xx. 1. 
The city of Rabbali, however, does not appear 
to have been itself wholly destroyed, but to 
have been in some measure restored, and 
perhaps put under the government of Shobi, 
another son of its old king Nahash; as we 
read of his coming, about ten years afterwards, 
to furnish David with provisions and neces- 
saries whilst he lay at ]Mahanaim, a fugitive 
from Absalom's rebellion, 2 Sam. xvii. 27. 

The Israelites probably retained possession 
of Rabbah, and of the whole neighbouring | 



territory, for some years ; but the Ammonites 
eventually gained their independence, when 
they committed great atrocities in Gilead, for 
which th&j are threatened v/itli captivity, and 
their city Rabbah -with destruction by the 
prophet Amos, i. 14. But after the trans-Jor- 
danic tribes had l)een led captive to Assyria 
by Tiglath-Pilcser, 2 Kgs. xv. 29., 1 Chron. 
V. 26., the Ammonites seized upon a large part 
of their old territory, and treated those who 
had been left behind, or who had escaped, with 
great cruelty. For this they are threatened 
with ruin, and Rabbah and their other cities 
with destruction, by the prophets Jeremiah, 
xlix. 2, 3., and Ezekiel, xxi. 20., xxv. 5. ; 
a doom Avhich had its fulfilment probably 
about five j^ears after the desolation of Jerusa- 
lem by Nebuchadnezzar. But Rabbali was 
again restored, and became a place of consider- 
able consequence during the era of the Seleu- 
cidcG, between whom and the Ptolemies it 
was often the scene of contest. One of the 
latter, Ptolemy Philadelphus, called it Phila- 
delphia; under which appellation it is often 
noticed by the profane authors, as well as upon 
coins, as one of the cities of the Decapolis, or 
Arabia, or Coelesyria, vnth a district round 
it called Philadelphene. It is probable, however, 
that the natives still called it by its old name ; 
as the small stream, near the head of which 
it stood, still goes by the name of Amman. The 
city itself is, as was foretold, now nothing but 
a heap of ruins, " a stable for camels and a 
couching place for flocks." 

RABBAH, a city in the hill country of the 
tribe of Judah, Jo.ih. xv. 60. 

RABBITH, a city belonging to the tribe of 
Issachar, Josh. xix. 20. 

RACHAL, a city of Judah, to his friends in 
which David sent some of the spoils he had 
taken from the Amalekites, after he had chastised 
them for the burning of Ziklag, 1 Sam. xxx. 29. 

RACHEL'S SEPULCHRE, a place in the 
borJer of Benjamin, by Zelzah, where Samuel, 



298 



RAGAU. 



EAMAH. 



after he had anointed Saul, king of Israel, fore- 
told he should meet two men, who would bring 
him the tidings that his father's asses were 
found, 1 Sam. x. 2. It was no doubt the ancient 
burial-place of Rachel, the yvife of Jacob, which 
the patriarch mentions as beyond Bethel, on the 
way between it and Ephrath or Bethlehem, where 
he erected a pillar over her tomb. Gen. xxxv. 
19, 20., xlviii. 7. The locality is shown to the 
present day, though the pretended tomb is 
evidently modern. 

EAGAU and the MOUXTAIXS OF EAGAU, 
places on the E. of Assyria, Bientioned by the 
apocrj'phal writer of the book of Judith, i. 5. 15., 
in his account of the contest between Xabucho- 
donosor and Arphaxad ; the latter of whom was 
taken and slain in the Mountains of Ragau, 
Eagau appears to be the same with Eages of 
Media, a city often mentioned in the book of 
Tobit; the mountains refer probably to that 
lofty chain lying to the S. of the Caspian Sea, 
which the profane historians call the Caspian 
Mountains, and which are now known as the 
Elburz. There was a celebrated defile in a spur 
of this range, called the Caspian Gates, near 
which Darius was basely murdered by Bessus, 
when flying towads Bactria, after the fatal battle 
of Arbela. 

EAGES, a large and important city in the 
N.E. angle of the province of Media, close upon 
the borders of Parthia. It was built at a very 
early period, according to the Persian accounts ; 
but it was either rebuilt or much enlarged and 
beautified by Seleucus Xicator, who called it 
Europos. It was destroyed in the wars with the 
Parthians ; and being rebuilt by the Arsacidas, 
it took the name of Arsacia, but appears to have 
preserved it only for a short time. It is often 
spoken of by the old historians under the name 
of Ehagse; and its extensive ruins, which are 
only a mile or two from the modern city Teheran, 
the capital of the Persian province Irak, are 
still called Rha. After the captivity of the nine 
tribes and a half, many of the Israelites appear 
to have been settled in this neighbourhood ; to 
some of whom the story in the book of Tobit is 
said to relate, Tobit i. 14., iv. 1. 20., v. 5., vi. 
9., ix. 2. 

EAHAB, a prophetical name, signifying pride 
or strength, which is applied to Egypt in Ps. 
Ixxxvii. 4., Ixxxix. 10. ; Isa. li. 9., and in the 
original of Isa. xxx. 7., from the insolence and 
fancied security of its rulers and people. That 
part of Lower Egypt usually designated the 



Delta, is said to be still called Rib or Rief by 
the natives. 

EAKKATH, a fenced city of the tribe of 
Xaphtali, Josh. xix. 35. 

EAKKOX, a town belonging to the tribe of 
Dan, probably in the neighbourhood of Joppa, 
Josh. xix. 46. 

EAMA, Matt. ii. 18. ; or 

EAMAH (i.e. a Height), a city of the tribe of 
Benjamin, Josh, xviii. 25., which according to 
Josephus was 5 miles, and according to Jerome 
6 miles, to the jST. of Jerusalem; its ruins are 
said to be now called Er-Ram. It appears to 
have been somewhere in the neighbourhood of 
Gibeah, and to have given the name of Eamah 
to the surrounding district, Judg. xix. 13.; 
1 Sam, xxii. 6. ; and to have been an important 
post on the road to Jerusalem. The prophet 
Hosea, v. 8., mentions it as one of the cities of 
Benjamin on the borders of Ephraim, where 
the trumpet was to be sounded, proclaiming the 
coming captivity of the kingdom of Israel, that 
so Judah might also take warning. It is men- 
tioned by Isaiah, x. 29., when predicting the 
invasion of Hezekiah's dominions by Senna- 
cherib's host, as one of the places where they 
would halt. The prophet Jeremiah, likewise, 
describes it as the place where Xebuzaradan, the 
Chaldean general, set him at liberty, though 
the rest of the Jewish captives collected here 
after the destruction of Jerusalem, were taken to 
Babylon, Jer. xl. 1. ; and as Eachel's sepulchre 
was in this neighbourhood {cf. Gen. xxxv. 19, 
20. ; 1 Sam. x. 2.), she is represented by the 
prophet as now moiu-ning for her children thus 
led into captivity, Jer. xxxi. 15. ; a prophecy 
which Matthew mentions as completed at the 
murder of the Innocents, Matt. ii. 18. It was 
restored after the seventy years' captivity, when 
some of the children of Benjamin again dwelled 
in it, Ezra ii. 26. ; Xeh. vii. 30., xi. 33* It is 
thought to be the same with the Cirama of 
1 Esd. V. 20. 

EAMAH, a city of the tribe of Ephraim, situ- 
ated upon a part of Mt. Ephraim, Judg. iv. 5., 
in the land of Zuph, 1 Sam. i. 1., ix. 5., and 
hence, probably, called likewise Eamathaim- 
zophim. It stood in a district of the same 
name, 1 Sam. xix. 19. 22, 23., xx. 1»; and was 
the abode of Elkanah, 1 Sam. i. 1. 19., ii. 11.; 
as also the birth-place of the prophet Samuel, 
and the city where he usually dwelt, vii. 17., 
viii. 4., XV. 34., xvi. 13. Hither David fled to 
him to avoid the persecution of Saul, who sent 



RAMAH. 



RAMOTH-GILEAD. 299 



messeugers to take him, and afterwards himself 
followed ; but both he and his messengers were 
miraculously caused to prophesy in the presence 
of Samuel and David, 1 Sam. xix. 18, 19. 22, 
23., xs. 1. Samuel died, and w^as buried, at 
Kamah, xxv. 1., xxviii. 3. 

In the reign of Asa, king of Judah, Baasha, 
king of Israel, enlarged and fortified Eamah, 
that he might hinder any from going to or 
coming from Judah ; but Asa bribed Benhadad, 
king of Syria, to attack his dominions, which 
diverted Baasha from his purpose ; whereupon 
Asa demolished the new works, and with the 
materials built Geba of Benjamin and Mizpeh, 
1 Kgs. XV. 17. 21, 22. ; 2 Chron. x\d. 1. 5, 6. 
Some critics have supposed that this Eamah 
•was the same with the city called Arimathsea in 
the Xew Testament ; but this does not seem very 
probable, though its district may perhaps cor- 
respond with the government of Eamathem 
mentioned by the apocryphal writer of 1 Mace, 
xi. 34., as having been taken from Samaria, 
and added to Jwdsea daring the Maccabajan 
wars. The site of Eamah is fixed by some tra- 
vellers at a spot now called Neby Samwil, from 
a tradition amongst the natives, that an edifice 
there covers the tomb of the ancient prophet ; 
but the situation of the place does not seem to 
accord Avith that of the city where Samuel 
dwelt. 

EA:MAH, a town of the tribe of Asher, Josh, 
xix. 29. 

EAMAH, a town of the tribe of ISTaphtali, 
Josh. xix. 36. 

EAMAH, 2 Kgs. viii. 29., 2 Chron. xxii. 5., 
another name for Eamoth-gilead ; which see. 

EAMATHAIM-ZOPHIM, 1 Sam. i. 1. -See 

EAilAH OF EpHRAIM. 

EAMATHEM, a district or government men- 
tioned in 1 Mace. xi. 34., as one of three which 
were taken from Samaria, and added to Judaea. 
Cf. 1 Mace. X. 39., xi. 57. Its locality is un- 
known ; but some suppose it the same with the 
Eamah of Samuel, 1 Sam. vii. 17. ; others with 
the Arimathgea of the Xew Testament. See 
Aphere:ma. 

EAMATH-LEHI (i.e. the Casting away of the 
Jazvbone), the name given by Samson to the place 
where he slew a thousand of the Philistines with 
the jawbone of an ass, Judg. xv. 17. It was in 
the neighbourhood of Lehi, xv. 9. 14. 19. ; a 
locality within the territory of the tribe of 
Judah, whither the Philistines had come up in 
great force to take vengeance for Samson's 



having previously smitten so many of their 
nation after .they bad burnt his wife and her 
father with fire, xv. 8. 

EAMATH-MIZPEH, a city of Israel beyond 
Jordan, belonging to the tribe of Gad, Josh, xiii. 
26., which appears to have been formerly possessed 
by the Amorites. Some identify it with Eamoth- 
gilead ; but this seems doubtful. 

EAMATH OF THE SOUTH, Josh. xix. 8., 
or South Eamoth, 1 Sam. xxx. 27., so called 
probably in contradistinction from Eamoth in 
Gilead. It belonged to the tribe of Simeon, and 
was close upon the borders of the Wilderness of 
Shur. David had friends here, to whom he sent 
presents after his victory over the Amalekites 
who had ravaged Ziklag. 

EAMATHITE, a patronjonic of one of David's 
officers, who was over the vineyards, 1 Chron. 
xxvii. 27. ; but, whether derived from Eama or 
Eamath does not appear. 

EAMESES, LAND OF, a country in the KE. 
part of Egypt, on the borders of the Arabian 
Desert, where Phai-aoh gave Jacob and his sons 
a possession, when they came down to Joseph, 
Gen. xlvii. 11.; so that it was either a part of 
the land of Goshen, or correspondent with it. 
After the death of Joseph, the Israelites were 
compelled by the Pharaoh then on the throne to 
build him a treasure-city here, called Eaamses, 
Ex. i. 11. ; which was probably a strongly for- 
tified place in the midst of their own possessions 
in the land, since they began the Exodus from 
Eameses, Ex. xii. 37. ; Num. xxxiii. 3. 5. Its 
site is not known, though it was probably some- 
where near the ancient Heroopolis, in the narrow 
isthmus connecting the continents of Africa and 
Asia, about midway between the INIediterranean 
and Eed Seas. There are extensive ruins of 
several places in this neighbourhood, and a 
village is stated to be still found there, which is 
called Ramsis. Eamesse is one of the places 
mentioned in the book of Judith, i. 9,, to which 
Nabucbodonosor sent his demand for assistance. 

RAMESSE, Judith i. 9. See Eameses. 

EAMOTH, a Levitical city of the tribe of 
Issachar, which was eventually given to the sons 
of Gershom, 1 Chron. vi. 73. : it is called Jarmuth 
in Josh. xxi. 29. 

EAMOTH, SOUTH, 1 Sam. xxx. 27. See 
Eaiviath of the South. 

EAMOTBL-GILEAD or Eamoth in Gilead, 
a famous city in the mountainous district of 
Gilead, assigned by Moses to the tribe of Gad, 



300 



RAPHOX. 



LED SEA, THE. 



and by him appointed to be one of the six Cities 
of Refuge, Deut. iv. 43. ; Josh. xx. 8. It was 
eventually made a Levitical city, and given 
to the Merarites, Josh. xxi. 38. ; 1 Chron. vi. 
80. It and its neighbovirhood formed one of 
Solomon's twelve purveyorships for supplying 
him and his household with victuals, 1 Kgs. iv. 

13. On the division of the kingdom, it fell to the 
party of the Ten Tribes, and probably soon after- 
wards was taken by the kings of Syria; at 
all events, Ahab endeavoured to wrest it from 
them, and perished in the battle, 1 Kgs. xxii. 3, 

4. 6. 12. 15. 20. 29. ; 2 Chron. xviii. 2, 3. 5. 11. 

14. 19. 28. But it appears to have been after- 
wards recovered from Hazael by Joram, the son 
of Ahab, who, however, was severely w^ounded 
before it, 2 Kgs. viii. 28, 29., ix. 14. ; 2 Chron. 
xxii. 5, 6. Jehu, one of his generals, seems to 
have been left by him to defend it, and at God's 
direction was here anointed king of Israel by one 
of the children of the prophets whom Elisha 
sent for that purpose, 2 Kgs. ix. 1. 4. 

Ramoth-gilead was also called Eamah, 2 Kgs. 
viii. 29. ; 2 Chron. xxii. 6. Its situation is not 
agreed upon, though many travellers place it at 
a village now known as Ramya, about 12 miles 

5. W. of Jerasli, which agrees pretty well with 
the locality assigned to it by Eusebius and 
Jerome ; the former placing it 15 miles from Phi- 
ladeli^hia (i.e. Rabbath-Ammon), and the latter 
near the R. Jabbok. According to some, the 
Ramath-Mizpeh of Josh. xiii. 26., is the same 
with Ramoth-gilead. 

RAPHOX BEYOND THE BROOK, men- 
tioned in 1 Mace. v. 37., as a place where Judas 
Maccabajus got a victor}'' over Timotheus, whose 
routed forces fled to the neighbouring city of 
Carnaim. It is identified by some with a town 
called Raphana by Plinj^, which he places in the 
Decapolis. The brook may perhaps have been 
the R. Jarmouk or Hieromax, now known 
as Sheriat el Maiidliour, which runs down from 
the district Hauran westward into the Jordan; 
the Jabbok, however, may possibly be the stream 
referred to. 

RASSES, CHILDREN OF, a people de- 
sci'ibed by the apocryphal writer in Judith ii. 
23,, as having been destroyed by Holofernes, the 
Assyrian general. They are mentioned together 
with Phud and Lud, and the Ishmaelites ; and 
so, were probably a nation or tribe in the N. of 
Africa ; but where, does not appear. The Latin 
copy writes Tharsis. 

REAIAH, CHILDREN OF, a family of the 
Nethinims, that returned with Zerubbabel to 



Jerusalem on the edict of Cyrus, Ezra ii. 47. ; 
Neh. vii. 60. 

RECTIABITES, a remarkable tribe who lived 
a nomadic life iii the midst of the Jews, at any 
rate after the time of Jehu. They are thought 
to have been originally Kenites, and to have 
derived their name from Rechab, one of their 
very early progenitors, 1 Chron. ii. 55. (see 
Kf.nites), who, in the opinion of some, was the 
same with Ilobab or Jethro,the father-in-law of 
Moses. But however this may be, one of their 
ancestors was that Jonadab, the son of Re- 
chab, whom Jehu took with him when he 
destroyed the v/orshippers of Baal, 2 Kgs. x. 15_ 
23. ; and he is supposed to have been the person, 
Jer. XXXV. 6, 8. 10. 14. 16., who gave them the 
command not to drink wine, not to have houses 
or land, but to dwell in tents. This command 
they obeyed for nearly 300 years, until the 
invasion of the country by the Chaldeans 
under Nebuchadnezzar, when they fled to Jerusa- 
lem, and had that trial of their obedience made 
which is recorded by the prophet Jeremiah, 
XXXV. 2, 3. 5. 18. From the gracious promises 
made to them by God, as written by Jeremiah, 
XXXV, 18, 19,, they were no doubt preserved 
from destruction during the desolation of Judah 
and Jerusalem at that time ; but whether they 
were carried captive with the Jews, or were pro- 
mised to go free into another land, does not 
seem known. They are stated, however, to have 
been met wnth by various travellers for the last 
600 years in Yemen, a province of Arabia, and 
are described under the modern names of Berd- 
Kheiber or Beni-llechah, as still worshipping the 
God of Israel, as having Jewish usages, and as 
living unmixed with the surrounding people, who 
consider them to be descendants from the old 
stock of the Rechabites. 

RED SEA, TPIE, is a vast inlet of the Indian 
Ocean, running from S, to N, between the 
coasts of Ai'abia and Africa, about 1200 miles 
long and 170 miles across in its broadest part, 
though its width is of a very varying character. 
It is called in the Hebrew Jam Suph or Zupli, 
i e. the Weedy Sea {cf. Num, xxi. 14., marg. ; 
Deut. i. 1., marg. ; Jer, xlix. 21., marg.) or Sea of 
Rushes; a name which it is thought to have de- 
rived from the quantity of sea-weed therein met 
with, as well as from its numerous coral reefs. 
It formed a part of what the ancient authors 
called the Erj'thrjean Sea, an appellation which 
included the Indian Ocean and the Persian Gulf ; 
and which their mythologists pretended to have 
been derived from a king of Arabia, called Ery- 



EED SEA, TIIE. 



REFUGE, THE CITIES OF. 301 



tliros, "wlio was drowned in it, and whose tomb 
was show n in the island Ogyris, near the entrance 
of the Persian Gulf. Whether this king has any 
reference to Ssau or EdtuB, may be doubted ; but 
it seems probable that the name Er^'thrsean 
(the Greek for red), as well as the Latin Ruhrum 
or Rubens, and our conunon one of the Eed Sea, 
all owe their origin to the territcsry of Esau 
(or Edom, i. e. Eed, Geu. xxv. 80.) having 
stretched along its jS!". shores. Hence the fall of 
Edoni is represented by the prophet Jeremiali, 
xlix. 21., as being hsard at the R'id Sea. 

Tlie Eed Sea was likewise called by th2 an- 
cients, as it still is by ourselves, the Arabian 
Gulf, from its washing the W. shores of that 
countiy, and it appears to lie named the Egyp- 
tian Sea b}' the prophet Isaiah, xi. 15. It unites 
on the 8. with the Indian Oceau at the Strait of 
Babelmandch ; its iST. part is divided into two 
arms or heads, encompas-ing the peninsula of 
Mt. Sinai. Of these, tlie E. on.j was l)y the pro- 
fime authors called the ^Elanitic Gulf, from the 
town aElana, which stood at its head, near the 
ports of Ezion-gcber and Elath, 1 Kgs. ix. 26., 
two famous ports of Edom mentioned in Holy 
Writ. It is now known as the Gulf of Akabali. 
The W. arm bordered upon Egypt, and was 
called the Ileroopolitic Gulf, from the Egyptian 
city Iloroopolis, near its N. end. It is named 
now the Sea of Suez, though the natives are 
reported to call it the Sea of Kolsura, i.e. the Sea 
of TJrna-niruj. It was over this "W. ami of tlie 
Eed Sea, probably some few miles below the 
modern town of Suez, that it pleased iilmighty 
God to cause the children of Israel to pass 
when He delivered them out of the pcnrer of 
their persecuting enemies the Egj-ptians, v.'-ho 
had hemraod them in on its borders, Ex. xiii. 
18. ; Num. xxxiii. 10, 11, ; Xeh. ix. 9. Then 
it ^.vas that by His miraculous agency in theii" 
belialf, the waters themselves were divided, so 
as to be a wall on the riglit hand and on the 
left, AV'hilst His people passed through the midst 
of tlie sea upon dry ground ; after which they 
returned again to their strength, over-\vhelming 
Pharaoh and all his host, Ex. xiv. 22., xv. 4. 
22. ; Ps. cxxxvi. 15. This wondrous deliverance 
is often called to remembrance in Holy Writ, 
though in many of the passages the Eed Sea 
is merely designated The Sea, Xum. xxi. 14. ; 
Deut. xi. 4. ; Josh. ii. 10., iv. 23., xxiv. 6. ; 
Judg. xi. 16. ; Ps. cvi. 9. 22., cxxxvi. 13. 15. ; 
Acts vii. 36. ; Heb. xi. 29. 

The AVilderness of Shur, into which the 
Israelites entered after they had thus passed 
over, is also called the Wilderness of the 



Eed Sea, Ex. xiii. 18. ; and in it they are men- 
tioned as wandeiing in many directions, Num. 
xiv. 25., xxi. 4. 14.; Deut. i. 40., ii. 1.; Ps. 

cvi. 7. ; and as receiving some of the statutes 
and laws by which they were to be governed, 
Deut. i. 1. It was into tlie Eed Sea that the 
locusts were cast when the plague of them was 
taken from the Egyptians, Ex. x. 19. Its 
shores were promised to be the boundary of the 
land of Israel in this direction, Ex. xxiii. 31. ; 
and so they eventually became during the 
reigns of David, Solomon, and others of the 
kings of Judah. The prophet Isaiah, xi. 15., 
foretells that at the future restoration of the 
Jews, the Lord will destroy the Tongue of the 
Egyptian Sea, and make men go over dryshod. 
Cf. Zech. X. 11. 

EEEDS, BEOOK OF THE, Josh. xvii. 9., 
marg. See Kakaii. 

REFUGE, THE CITIES OF, were six Levi- 
tical cities in the land of Israel, which God 
commanded to be set apart to pro^dde security 
for such as might kill any person nnaioares, 
that the manslayer might flee to tliem, in order 
to escape the avenger of blood. Here he was 
to be protected by the congregation ; and if on 
trial he was found innocent of intentional 
murder or injury, he was to remain in the city 
of refuge whither he had fled, and to be de- 
fended against the avenger of blood until the 
death of the high priest, when he was per- 
mitted to return to his own city. If, however 
on the trial by the j udges, he had been found 
to have slain his neighbour purposely, then he 
was not to be protected by the City of Ecfuge, 
but was to bo put to death : and on the other 
hand, if, after the manslayer had been declared 
innocent, he on any plea loft the City of Refuge 
whither he had tied before the death of the 
high priest, then he might be shiin by the 
avenger wheresoever he was found, Ex. xxi. 13. ; 
Num. XXXV. 6. 1 1. 12, 13, 14, 15. 25, 26, 27, 28. 
32. ; Deut. xix. 1—13. Three of these cities 
were on each side of the R. Jordan, conveniently 
appointed in the N., the centre, and the S, of 
the land. On the W. side were, 

1. Kedesh in Galilee, in Mt. Naphtali (in 
Naphtali.) 

2. Shechem'in Mt. Ephraim (in Ephraim.) 

3. Karjath-arba or Hebron, in the Moimtain of 
Judah (in Judah.) 

On the E. side were 

1. Bezer in the Wilderness (in Reuben.) 

2. Ranioth in Gilead (in Gad.) 

3. Golan in Bashan (in Manasseh.) ; 



302 



EEHOB. 



REUBEN. 



Cf. Deut. iv. 41—43. : Josh. xx. 2, 3. 7, 8., xxi. 
13. 21. 27. 32. 38.; 1 Cliron. vi. 57. 67. The 

roads to these cities were to be well kept, Deut. 
xix. 3. See Levitical Cities. 

EEHOB, an old Canaanite city, which on the 
conquest of the country by the Israelites, was 
assigned by Joshua to the tribe of Asher. There 
are two places of the same name mentioned (or 
else the same city is given twice), Josh, xix. 28. 

30. ; one of which was eventually made Levitical, 
and given to the family of Gershon, Josh. xxi. 

31. ; 1 Chron. vi. 75. ; though the old inhabitants 
were not yet driven out when Joshua died, Judg. 
i. 31. It appears to be the same place with 
Beth-rehob, mentioned in Judg. xviii. 28., as at 
some distance from Zidon, but near the valley 
wherein was the old city Laish, which the 
Danites seized on, and called Dan after their own 
tribe. It may have been formerly in the king- 
dom of Rehob. 

EEHOB, a kingdom which appears to have 
been to the l!^". of Israel, on the borders of the 
region of Hamath and of the kingdoms of Zoba 
and Maacah. It is mentioned as the furthest 
limit in this direction reached by the twelve 
spies whom Moses sent out from the Wilderness 
of Zin, Num. xiii. 21. It is called Beth-rehob 
in 2 Sam. x. 6., but simply Eehob in x. 8., 
in which passages its inhabitants are styled 
Syrians, and enumerated among those nations 
whom the Ammonites hired to assist them 
against the army of David, when he was about 
to chastise them for their ill-treatment of his 
ambassadors. 

EEHOBOTH (or City of Streets), a very 
ancient city of Assyria, founded by Asshur, or 
perhaps by Ximrod, Gen. x. 11. Nothing what- 
ever is known of its situation, though it was pro- 
bably someAvhere on the banks of the E. Tigris. 
According to some, it was the same with the city 
of Birtha mentioned by the profane authors, on 
the banks of the Tigris, and now called Tekrit ; 
others place it in Sittacene, and others in Adia- 
bene, both Assyrian districts in the same neigh- 
bourhood. 

EEHOBOTH BY THE EIVEE, a city which 
gave birth to one of the very ancient kings of 
Edom, Gen. xxxvi. 37. ; 1 Chron. i. 48. Whether 
it was the same with the Eehoboth in Ass^nia 
is doubtful; it was more probably somewhere 
on the Euphrates, and is placed by many critics 
between Circesium and Anatho, on the borders 
of Syria, Arabia, and Mesopotamia. 

EEHOBOTH (i.e. Roorn), one of the wells 
digged by Isaac in the neighbourhood of Beer- 



sheba ; and so named by him because the herd- 
men of Gerar did not strive with him for its 
possession. Gen. xxvi. 22. 

EEKEM, a city belonging t(f the tribe of 
Benjamin, Josh, xviii. 27. 

EEMETH, a city of the tribe of Issachar, Josh, 
xix. 21. 

EEMMON", a city assigned to the tribe of 
Simeon, Josh, xix, 7., though originally given to 
the children of Judah ; it is written Eimmon at 
Josh. XV. 32. ; 1 Chron. iv. 32. 

EEMMON-METHOAE, a city of Zebulun, 
near its borders. Josh. xix. 13., probably the same 
with the Eimmon of 1 Chron. vi. 77. 

EEPHAIM, Gen. xiv. 5., xv. 20. 5 Josh. xvii. 
15. See Giants. 

EEPHAIM, VALLEY OF, 2 Sam. v. 18. 22., 
xxiii. 13.; 1 Chron. xi. 15., xiv. 9. 13.; Isa. 
xvii. 5. See Giants. 

EEPHIDIM, an encampment of the Israelites 
in the Wilderness, where they pitched on leaving 
the Desert of Sin, and whence they removed to 
the Desert of Sinai, Ex. xvii. 1., xix. 2. ; Num. 
xxxiii. 14, 15. ; so that probably it was some- 
what to the N.W. of the Mts. Sinai and Horeb. 
Here the people murmured for water, and were 
miraculously supplied by God, who commanded 
Moses to go to Mt. Horeb and smite the rock, 
when there should come forth water that the 
people might drink ; and because of the chiding 
of the children of Israel, and their tempting of 
God, the place was called Massah and Meribah, 
Ex. xvii. 7. Here, also, the Amalekites came 
and fought with Israel when they were faint 
and weary, smiting the hindmost of them and 
all that were feeble. But they were signally 
defeated by Joshua, Moses standing on the 
mount with the rod of God in his hand, whilst 
Aaron and Hur stayed up his hands; and for 
this treacherous and cruel conduct, God com- 
manded the Israelites, as soon as they were 
settled in their possessions in Canaan, to blot 
out the remembrance of Amalek from under 
heaven, Ex. xvii. 8. ; Deut. xxv. 17 — 19. ; 
1 Sam. XV. 2. 

EESEN, a very ancient city of Assyria, built 
by Asshur, or perhaps Nimrod, between Nineveh 
and Calah, Gen. x. 12. Its situation is wholly 
unknown; though it has been conjectured by 
some to have been the same with the Larissa of 
the Greek authors, which lay on the E. Tigris, 
and is now called Nimriid or Asighiir. 

EEUBEN (i.e. See, a Son), one of the twelve 



EEUBEK. 



303 



tribes of Israel, which derived its name from 
Eeuben, the ehlest son of Jacob by his wife Leah, 
Gen. sxix. 32.; 1 Chron. v. 3. To him be- 
longed the birthright and all the privileges of 
primogeniture; but these he forfeited, because 
of his defiling Bilhah, his father's concubine, 
Gen. xxsv. 22.; 1 Chron. v. 1. This trans- 
gression was called to his remembrance by the 
dying Jacob, who foretold that he should not 
excel. Gen. xlix. 3. ; and it probably led Moses, 
when blessing the tribes shortly before his death, 
to prophesy that his men should be few, Deut. 
xxxiii. 6. Hence, as it would appear, the 
Reubenites are not mentioned as having ever 
distinguished themselves in Israel, or having 
had the pre-eminence in any one respect. In the 
subsequent history, we do not meet with the 
name of either judge, king, prophet, or renowned 
person, descended from Eeuben; except of 
Dathan, Abiram, and On, who, according to the 
proud and licentious character of their father, 
rebelled against Moses and against God, Xum. 
xvi. 1. ; and of Adina, one of David's captains. 
When the tribe came out of Egypt, about 260 
years after the birth of Eeuben, it contained 
46,500 fighting men, Xum. i. 5, 20, 21., ii. 11. 
When they were again numbered in the Plains 
of J\Ioab, about thirty-eight years afterwards, 
their numbers had decreased to 43,730, Num. 
xxvi. 5. 7. They marched under their own 
standard, being the fourth tribe as ranged in 
the order of their journeyings, followed by 
Simeon and Gad; and when encamped, they 
pitched on the S. side of the Tabernacle. The 
total number of the whole camp of Eeuben 
(which included Simeon and Gad) was 151,450 
fighting men, Num. ii. 10. 16., x. 18. The 
offerings of the tribe of Eeuben for the service of 
God on the occasion of the dedication of the 
Tabernacle in the W^ilderness, were made on the 
fourth day, Num. vii. 30. One of their number 
was chosen by Moses, together with a man out 
of every other tribe, to go and spy out the land 
of Canaan, whilst the host lay encamped in 
Kadesh-barnea, Num. xiii. 4. 

After the conquest of the kingdoms of Sihon 
and Og, the Eeubenites, in conjunction with 
the children of Gad, and, as would appear, with 
the half-tribe of Manasseh, applied to Moses, to 
have their inheritance allotted to them at once 
on the E. of Jordan, where they then were, on 
the plea, that they had a great multitude of 
cattle, and that the newly acquired territory 
was suitable to their wants, Num. xxxii. 1, 2. 
This request was eventually granted by the 
great lawgiver, on the condition that, when 



they had built folds for their cattle and cities 
for their little ones, they would pass over Jordan, 
ready armed, before the children of Israel, and 
would not return until all their brethren had 
likewise received their inheritance. Num. xxxii. 
6. 25. 29. 31. 33. 37., xxxiv. 14. ; Deut. xxix. 8. ; 
Josh. xii. 6., xiii. 8., xviii. 7. The Eeubenites 
were accordingly settled in the southernmost 
part of the trans-Jordanic territory and of the 
old kingdom of Sihon; on the S. they were 
bounded by the E. Arnon, Deut. iii. 12. 16., 
which parted them from the Moabites, Josh, 
xiii. 15 — 21. ; on the E. they touched upon the 
Ammonites and Arabians, 1 Chron. v. 18, 19. ; 
on the N. they were bounded by the tribe of 
Gad; and on the W. they were separated by 
the Salt Sea and the E. Jordan, Josh. xiii. 23., 
from the tribes of Judah, Benjamin, and Ephraim. 
Their territory contained four Levitical cities, 
given to the Merarites, viz. Bezer in the Wilder- 
ness, Jahazah, Kedemoth, and Mephaath, the 
first of which was constituted a City of Eefuge 
for the manslayer, Deut. iv. 43.; Josh. xx. 8., 
xxi. 7. 36. ; 1 Chron. vi. 63. 78. 

W^hen the Israelites under Joshua crossed 
over Jordan to take possession of Canaan, the 
Eeubenites passed over armed before their 
brethren, in company with the Gadites and the 
half-tribe of Manasseh, in all about 40,000 
fighting men. Josh. i. 12., iv. 12, 13. ; and they 
remained with them there about seven years, 
assisting them to take possession of their pro- 
mised inheritance. They were one of the six 
tribes appointed by Moses and Joshua to stand 
on Mt. Ebal, to pronounce the curses against 
the breakers of God's law, Deut. xxvii. 13. ; 
Josh. viii. 33. But at length being summoned 
by Joshua, and told that they had obe^-ed him 
in all things, and kept their promise in the 
matter of helping their brethren against their 
enemies, he sent them and their trans-Jordanic 
companions home with a blessing. Josh. xxii. 
1. 9. Having crossed the Jordan into their own 
territory, they built on the banks of the river a 
great altar, which they named Ed, i. e. a Witness 
in token that in years to come, the other Israel- 
ites should not say the tribes on the other side 
Jordan had no part in the service of God at 
Jerusalem; a proceeding which, until it was 
explained, gave great offence to the nine tribes 
and a half, and threatened to plunge the whole 
nation into war, Josh. xxii. 10, 11. 13. 15. 21. 
25. 30, 31, 32, 33, 34. 

The tribe of Eeuben appears to have taken no 
part in the struggle with the Canaanites in the 
time of Deborah and Barak, Judg. v. 15, 16. ; 



304 EEUBEN, GATE OF. 



RHODES. 



and with the exception of the expulsion of the 
Hagarites, who had iuvaded their possessions, 
and whom they utterly subdued and spoiled, 
1 Chron. V. 18 — 22., they are seldom mentioned as 
having quitted their fertile pasture lands for the 
dangers of war. One of David's mighty men 
v/as a Reubenite, 1 Chron. xi. 42,; and one of 
their princes was appointed by him to be ruler 
over the whole tribe, probably for civil purposes, 
1 Chron. xxvii. 16., and lilce the rest of the 
tribes they were governed by their own officers, 

1 Chron. xxvi. 32. On the division of the king- 
dom, they took part with Jeroboam, as had 
been foretold ; but they were amongst the first of 
the Ten Tribes to svilfer for the idolatrous sins 
of their nation ; for first Hazael, king of Syria, 
began to cut them short and to treat them with 
great cruelty, 2 Kgs. viii. 12., x. SB. ; and about 
120 years afterwards Tiglath-Pileser, king of 
Assyria, carried them captive, together with the 
other trans-Jordanic tribes, and the more jST. 
tribes in Galilee, B.C. 740, about twenty years 
before the rest of the kingdom of Israel, 2 Kgs. 
XV. 29. ; 1 Chron. v, 6. 26. 

In the prophetical division of the land by 
the prophet Ezokiel, the portion of Reuben is 
placed the sixth in order from the N., be- 
tween those of Ephraim and Judah, and one of 
the twelve gates of the ISTew City on the N. 
is to be called the Gate of Reuben, Ezek. xlviii. 
6, 7. 31. In his apocalyptic vision at Patmos, 
St. John beheld twelve thousand sealed of the 
tribe of Reuben, Rev. vii. 5. 

REUBE^^ GATE OF, one of the three gates 
mentioned by the prophet Ezekiel, xlviii. 31., 
as being on the K side of the New City, which 
is to be built in the Land of Promise at the final 
restoration of Israel. 

REZEPH, a city taken by one of the kings of 
Assyria, about Avhich Sennacherib tauntingly 
boasted to Hezekiah, when he came with his 
mighty host against Judah and Jerusalem, 

2 Kgs. xix. 12, ; Isa. xxxvii. 12. Its situation 
is not known ; but it is conjectured to have been 
the same place with Resafa, mentioned by the 
profane historians, in the N.E. part of Syria, a 
few miles from the R. Euphrates, in the neigh- 
bourhood of the Desert of Palmyra. It was 
afterwards called Sergiopolis, but its ruins are 
said to preserve the old name of Resafa. 

REZIN, CHILDREN OF, a family of the 
Nethinims, who returned home with Zerubbabel 
at the end of the Babylonian captivity, Ezra. ii. 
48. ; Neh. vii. 50. 

RHEGIUM, Acts xxviii. 13., now called 



Reggio, a small city passed by St. Paul when 
sailing as a prisoner to Rome, after his having 
quitted Syracuse. It was situated near the 
S.W. extremity of Italy in the Bruitian terri- 
tory, towards the entrance of the Strait of 
Messina, which separates Sicily from the main- 
land. It was built by a Greek colony from 
Chalcis, and was pretended to have obtained its 
name from the violent bursting asunder of the 
two lands. 

RHODES, still called Rhodes, an important 
island lying off the coast of Caria, a province of 
Asia Minor, at the S.E. entrance of the iEga^an 
Sea, of which it is the largest island after Crete 
and Eul oea. It bore several other names, and is 
said to have derived that of Rhodus from the 
profusion of roses with which it abounded ; but 
others derive it from the Dodanim or Rodanira, 
Gen. X. 4., marg., who were the youngest sons of 
Javan, and hence the Sevent}^ Interpreters 
render the Hebrew word Rhodii. The island 
was especially sacred to the Sun, and its cli- 
mate was so beautiful that the sky was said 
never to be so overcast but that he might be 
seen. The inhabitants were celebrated for their 
navigation, and their enterprising spirit in 
sending out colonics to so many parts of the 
world. They were long the most powerful nation 
by sea. They had their own form of govern- 
ment till Alexander overran Asia, though they 
regained their independence tinder his successors. 
They are mentioned by the apocryphal author 
of 1 Mace. XV. 23., as having been written to 
by the Romans in behalf of the Jews. They 
were induced to assist Pompey against Caesar ; 
and being defeated by Cassius, became depend- 
ent on the Romans. Their maritime laws 
were so universally respected that every country 
made use of them to decide disputes concerning 
such jnatters. They were adopted by other 
nations, and at last introduced into the Roman 
code, whence they have been extracted to form 
the basis of the maritime regulations of modern 
Europe. 

The capital of the island stood near its N, point, 
and was also named Rhodes ; a name it still 
keeps. It was famous for its immense brazen 
statue of Apollo or the Sun, called the Colossus, 
reckoned one of the seven wonders of the world. 
This enormous statue was executed by Chares, 
a pupil of Lysippus ; it took twelve years to com- 
plete, cost 300 talents, and contained 720,000 
pounds weight of brass. It was 70 cubits, or 
about 105 feet high ; few could grasp its thumb, 
and its fingers were longer than most statues. 



RIBLAH. 



EIPHATH. 



305 



Its feet rested upon the two moles of the 
harbour, so that ships sailed between its legs ; 
a winding staii'case ran to the top, whence the 
shores of Syria, and ships sailing by the coast of 
Egypt, were said to be visible. After having 
stood less than a hundred j'ears, it was over- 
thrown by an earthquake, 224 b.c. Many large 
sums of money were collected, and sent to the 
Rhodians to repair it, but they divided the con- 
tributions amongst themselves, on the pretence 
that the oracle of Delphi had forbidden them to 
rebuild it. It was sold A.D. 672, by the 
Saracens, when they obtained possession of the 
island, to a Jewish merchant, who broke it up 
and loaded 900 camels with the brass, which 
alone was estimated at 36,O0OZ. English money. 
The island was visited by the Apostle Paul in 
his voyage from Macedonia to Jerusalem, Acts 
xxi. 1. 

RIBLAH, a city of Syria, to the K of the 
Holy Land, but close upon its borders, being 
mentioned by Moses as lying between She- 
phan and Ain, Num. xxxiv. 11.; the latter 
place, according to some, being the source of 
the R. Orontes, and according to others of the 
Jordan. Pharaoh-Nechoh, king of Egypt, after 
his campaign against Carchemish, here for a 
time imprisoned Jehoahaz, the son and successor 
of Josiah; deposing him from the throne of 
Judah, and making Eliakim king in his stead, 
under the name of Jehoiakim, 2 Kgs. xxiii. 33. 
At Riblah, likewise, were the head-quarters 
of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, whilst 
the Chaldean armies were ravaging Judah and 
besieging Jerusalem ; and after the destruction 
of the Holy City, Zedekiah with his sons and the 
other chief prisoners were brought here, his 
own eyes were put out, whilst his sons and many 
of the priests and nobles were put to death, 
2 Kgs. XXV. 6. 20, 21. ; Jer. xxxix. 5, 6., lii. 
9, 10. 26, 27. Riblah is described in some of 
these passages as being in the land of Hamath, 
but whereabouts, seems uncertain. There is 
a place said to be still called Rehlah, not far 
from the source of the R. Orontes, and about 
30 miles to the S. of the ancient city Hamath, 
or Hamah as its ruins are now named, the old 
capital of the kingdom of Hamath: and this 
situation seems to correspond tolerably well 
with that of Riblah. Jerome and others have 
identified Riblah with Antioch, the capital of 
Syria, near the mouth of the Orontes, or else 
with its neighbouring grove Daphne ; but this 
situation seems altogether uj[isuitable. 

RIMMON, a city in the S. part of the land 



of Canaan, first given to the tribe of Judah, 
Josh. XV. 32., but afterwards assigned to the 
children of Simeon, Josh. xix. 7. (where it is 
written Remmon) ; 1 Chron. iv. 32. It is identi- 
fied by some with En-rimmon, mentioned by 
Nehemiah, xi. 29., as inhabited after the return 
from the Babylonian captivity; and some 
suppose it to be the Rimmon S. of Jerusalem, 
spoken of in Zech. xiv. 10., in the account of 
the wondrous alteration of the land at the final 
restoration of Jerusalem; though it is not 
unlikely that this last-mentioned Rimmon may, 
perhaps, refer to some place much nearer the 
capital. 

RIMMON, a city belonging to the tribe of 
Zebulun, but eventually made Levitical, and 
given to the Merarites, 1 Chron, vi. 77. It 
appears to be the same place called Remmon- 
methoar in Josh. xix. 13., and probably also, 
one of the four cities named in Josh. xxi. 34, 
35. 

RIMMON, ROCK OF, a strong elevated 
position in the land of Benjamin, described 
as being in the Wilderness. It was, probably, 
in the neighbourhood of Gibeah, and was the 
place whither 600 Benjamites retreated after 
the slaughter of their tribe by the nation ; and 
where they were permited to remain in safetj'' 
imtil, at the end of four months, they were 
invited to come down, and settle again in their 
own territory, Judg. xx. 45. 47., xxi. 13. Cf. 
1 Sam. xiv. 2. 

RIMMON-PAREZ, a station of the Israelites 
in the Wilderness ; apparently one where they 
encamped soon after they were made to turn 
southward from Kadesh-barnea, Num. xxxiii. 
19, 20. 

RIPHATH, a people descended from the 
second son of Gomer, the son of Japheth, Gen. 
X. 3, ; 1 Chron. i. 6. (where it is written 
Diphath in some copies) ; and conjectured to 
have settled in the neighbourhood of the 
Euxine Sea, from their being mentioned 'with 
Ashkenaz and Togarmah, who were their 
brethren. Their situation is a matter of great 
uncertainty: some place them in Bithynia, 
where is a small river called Rhebas, now Rivo, 
mentioned as early as the story of the Argo- 
nauts ; others locate them in Paphlagonia, near 
the city Tobata and the mountain Tibeion; 
and others, again, discover their name in the 
Riphaean or Rhipjean chain of mountains, placed 
by the ancient geographers in the N.E. part 
of Europe, on the borders of the continent of 
Asia, and so lofty as to be covered with snow. 
X 



308 



BISSA. 



EOME. 



PvISSA, a station of the Israelites in the 
Wilderness of Paran ; and, as it would appear, 
the third place where they encamped after 
having been made to tui*n southward from the 
borders of Canaan, upon their murmuring at 
the report of the twelve spies, Num. xxxiii, 21, 
22. There is a place called Easa, marked in 
Peutinger's Itinerary, as 32 Koman miles from 
iElana, and 203 miles to the S. of Jerusalem ; 
which, in some degree, accords with the situa- 
tion of Rissa. 

EITHMAH, mim. xxxiii. 18, 19., a station 
of the Israelites in the Wilderness of Paran, 
which on a comparison of the parallel passage 
at xii. 16., Tfould seem to have been close to 
the encampment at Kadesh-barnea. Cf. Num. 
xiii. 3. ; Deut. ix. 23. 

RIVER, THE, a term often used in Holy 
Writ without any addition, to describe the chief 
rivers with which the Israelites had to do; so 
that the context must determine the particular 
one referred to by such a general mode of 
writing. Thus, it is applied to the Nile, as at 
Gen. xli. 1. ; Ex. ii. 3. ; Isa. xi. 15., xix. 5. ; to 
the Euphrates, Gen. xxxi. 21. ; Ex. xxiii. 31. ; 
Num. xxii. 5. ; Deut. xi. 24. ; 2 Sam. x. 16. ; 
1 Kgs. iv. 24. ; 1 Chron. xix. 16. ; 2 Chron. ix. 
26. ; Ezra iv. 10., &c. ; Neh. ii. 7., &c. ; Isa. vii. 
20., viii. 7., xxvii. 12. ; to the Jordan, Josh. xv. 
7., &c. It is also used to note some of the 
smaller rivers of Canaan, as the Kanah, Josh, 
xvii. 9. ; the River of Egypt, Ezek. xlvii. 19., 
xlviii. 28. ; the Kishon, Josh. xix. 11, ; the 
Arnon, Josh. xiii. 9. 16. 

ROCK, THE, a name specially applied to 
the Edomite city of Selah, otherwise called 
Petra; as in the passages at Num. xxiv. 21.; 
Judg, i. 36. ; 2 Chron. xxv. 12. ; Isa. xvi. 1., 
marg., xiii. U. See Selah. 

ROCK OF THE PLAIN, a prophetical name 
for Mt. Zion, Jer. xxi. 13. Cf. xvii. 3. 

ROCKS OF THE WILD GOATS, 1 Sam. 
xxiv. 2., where Saul went to pursue David and 
his followers. The name refers, probably, to 
the high and craggy clitfs which skirt the W. 
shores of the Dead Sea, southwards from Engedi, 
in the wilderness of which place David at that 
time lay concealed. 

RODANIM, 1 Chron. i. 7., marg. See Do- 

DANIM. 

ROGELIM, a place beyond Jordan, in 
Gilead, mentioned as the abode of Barzillai, the 
friend of David, and one of those who ministered 



to him when he lay encamped at Mahanaim, 
2 Sam. xvii. 27., xix. 31. 

ROME, the metropolis of ancient Italy, and 
once the mistress of the greater part of the 
known world, was situated on the R. Tiber, 
18 miles from its mouth. It is said, in the 
language of tradition, to have been founded by 
Romulus on the Palatine Hill (at the foot of 
which he and his brother had been exposed) 
about 753 years B.C., and 431 years after the 
destniction of Troy: at which time, Jotham 
was reigning over the kingdom of Judah, and 
Pekah over that of Israel. It is, however, very 
doubtful whether Rome had not been built 
some time before by a colony of the Sicixli, 
Etruscans, or Tyrrheni-Pelasgi ; though Ro- 
mulus may have fortified the city, and in some 
way given laws and consequence to the in- 
habitants already settled there; and it is not 
unlikely that the mysterious name of Rome, 
which it was forbidden on pain of death for 
any one to utter, may have been the old name 
of the city as given by its first settlers. To the 
city of Romulus on the Palatine Hill, were 
afterwards added the Capitol, the Cselian, and 
Quirinal Hills; but in the reign of Serving 
Tullus, Rome included three others, the Vi- 
minal, Esquiline, and Aventine, in all seven, 
whence it obtained the epithet of Septicollis, or 
the City of the Seven Hills. These Avere all on 
the left bank of the Tiber; but latterly, the 
Janiculum on the opposite side of the river, 
was also included within the bounds of the 
city. 

The" elder Tarquin is said to have been the 
first sovereign who adorned Rome with some 
of its more splendid edifices ; though these, and 
such as were erected by his successors, were 
greatly thrown into the shade by Augustus, 
who boasted that he had found his metropolis 
brick, and had left it marble. Every succeeding 
emperor appears to have done something to 
add to the beauty or convenience of the city ; 
but it was probably, at all times, far inferior to 
Athens in architectural grandeur, though it 
may have excelled it in works of public utility. 
Rome had thirty-seven gates, and the circuit 
of its walls was about 60 stadia, or 7| Roman 
miles; an extent which was preserved until 
the time of Aurelian, who included the Campus 
Martins within its limits, and added to it in 
various quarters, till its circumference amounted 
to about 15 miles, though some accounts (pro- 
bably by including the suburbs) increase this 
to 21 or even to 50 miles. Rome was more 



Eo: 

distinguished for the ambition, military skill, 
and commercial enterprise of its people, who 
were the expert imitators of the rest of the 
world, rather than the inventors or discoverers 
of anything great in the arts or sciences. Then- 
pride and crafty policy, as well as their cnielty 
and oppression of the vanquished, were marked 
features in the national character. 

Eome is not expressly mentioned in the Old 
Testament Scriptures ; though the state of 
which it was the head is thought to be pointed 
out by Moses, Deut. xxviii. 49, 50., as the 
Divine instrument for the punishment of the 
Jews, under the description of "a nation from 
the end of the earth, as swift as the eagle, of 
fierce countenance, whose tongue they should 
not understand." But the Roman empire is 
more clearly described by the prophet Daniel, 
as the fourth great monarchy of the world, 
under various images, as the iron legs of the 
image seen by Xebuchaduezzar in his dream, 
ii. 33. 40.; and again, as the "fourth beast, 
dreadful and terrible, and strong exceedingly, 
with great iron teeth and ten horns," vii. 7. 
At this time Eome was only a petty kingdom, 
but it soon grew up into power and importance ; 
governed at first by sovereigns more or less 
despotic, then as a republic, and finally after a 
long train of inward murders and convulsions, 
by emperors of almost absolute authority; but 
during all these changes it was gradually con- 
quering the neighbouring nations, until it rose 
to that pitch of ascendancy over the greater 
part of the then known world, which had been 
foretold by prophecy. 

The Eomans appear to have come first into 
connection with the Jews during the great Mac- 
cabsean struggle; when they entered into treaties 
with Judas Maccabseus, about 161 B.C., to assist 
him against his Syrian oppressors, who had sold 
many of the captive Jews to pay their own 
tribute to the Eomans, 1 Mace. i. 10., vii. 1., 
viii. 1. 17. 19. 21. 23, 24. 26,27,28,29.; 2 Mace, 
viii. 10. 36., xi. 34. On the death of Judas, 
Jonathan, and afterwards Simeon renewed these 
treaties, 1 Mace. xii. 1. 3, 4. 16., xiv. 16. 24. 40., 
XV. 15, 16. ; 2 Mace. iv. 11. ; whereupon the 
Jews obtained the dangerous and ensnaring ho- 
nour of being called the friends and allies of the 
Eoman people. It was not, however, until the 
miserable disputes which arose after the Mac- 
cabtean struggles were ended, that the Eoraans 
had probably a sufficient pretext for mter- 
meddliug in the affairs of the Jews, and com- 
mencing that career of persecution against this 
devoted people vraich was completed by the ruin 



I^,IE. 307 

of their city and the destruction of their national 
polity. About 126 years after the Maccabtean 
princes had enjoyed their regal and sacerdotal 
dignities, the throne of Juda?a was disputed by 
Hyrcanus II. and Aristobulus II. ; whereupon 
both parties invited first the Eoman general 
Scaurus, and afterwards Pompey, to decide be- 
tween them. Pompey advanced against Jeru- 
salem, which he took by storm, and appointed 
Hyrcanus to the royal dignity, though at the 
same time narrowing his dominions, and order- 
ing him to pay a fixed tribute to the Eomans. 

From this time forward, the Jews were more 
or less under the control of the Eoman president 
of Syria, and began to suffer from the tyrannical 
and oppressive exactions of their new masters 
some of those wrongs which eventually brought 
on their revolt. Julius Caesar appointed Anti- 
pater, an Idumffian, as a kind of assessor to Hyr- 
canus; and at a still later period, about forty 
years b.c, the Soman senate declared Herod the 
Great to be king of Jud^a ; a dignity which he 
wore under their vassalage until at his death the 
sceptre finally and completely departed from 
Judah, and the whole of Palestine fell actually 
into their possession. See Jews. It was about 
the twenty-seventh year of the reign of Augustus 
Ctesar, the first of the imperial monarchs of 
Rome, that the adorable Eedeemer of the world 
was born in Bethlehem; and about the 
eighteenth year of his successor, Tiberius, that 
His sufferings were completed on the cross. The 
Eomans appear to have always kept a strong 
garrison in Palestine after they became its 
actual rulers; a large body of troops being 
quartered in the Tower of Antonia (see Castle), 
especially on occasion of the great festivals; 
though the Governor of Judaja, and the main 
body of the military force, resided at Csesarea. 
This was, no doubt, one of the many reasons 
which led the Jews to fear that their new masters 
would go on adding to their oppressions, until, 
upon some pretext or other, they came and took 
away both their place and nation, Jo. xi. 48. 

During the Maccabsean struggles and the 
times that followed, many Jews took up their 
residence at Eome ; others were sold thither as 
slaves by their Sp'ian and other oppressors ; and 
others were taken captive thither by Pompey 
and the Eoman generals. Notwithstanding they 
were \-ilified by the profane writers, they appear 
to have been iu general treated with equity, and 
left in the undisturbed possession of their religion ; 
though they were at times very cmelly treated 
by some of the Eoman emperors, prevented from 
exercising their religion, and even driven out of 
X 2 



308 



ROME. 



the city, Acts xviii. 2. Some of them were 
present in Jerusalem on the great Day of Pen- 
tecost, Acts ii. 10., and probably, on their return 
to Rome, carried the new doctrines with them, 
and laid the foundation of the Christian Church 
in that mighty city. 

St. Paul appears to have long purposed to 
visit Rome, Acts xix. 21., Rom. i. 7. 15., before 
he was taken thither as a prisoner, to plead his 
cause against his Jewish accusers at Caesar's 
judgment-seat ; an event Avhich occurred probably 
about two or three years after he had addressed 
to the Christians in that city his great " Epistle 
to the Romans." The Apostle had obtained this 
right of pleading his own cause before the im- 
perial tribunal, in consequence of his having 
been a native of Tarsus, which was one of those 
cities upon whose inhabitants the senate and 
people of Rome had bestowed the privileges of 
citizenship, from their having, in some way, done 
them eminent service. These privileges in- 
cluded, amongst other things, exemption from 
capital, and even corporal punishment, without 
a regular trial ; and also the right of appeal to 
the body of the people in the times of the re- 
public, and to the imperial tribunal under the 
Caesars. Great sums of money were frequently 
paid by foreigners for this envied distinction. 
Acts xxii. 28., on account of the comparative 
security it afforded them against the oppression 
and cruelty of the Roman officials ; but in other 
cases, as that of Tarsus, and perhaps Pliilippi, 
Acts xvi. 21., it was bestowed upon all the 
natives of an}' state or city which the Roman 
senate found it convenient thus to honour. St. 
Paiil availed himself of this privilege, not only 
at Philippi, Acts xvi. 37, 38., but when he was 
threatened with being examined by torture at 
Jerusalem, xxii. 25, 26, 27. 29., xxiii. 27. ; and 
likewise when he appealed from the unjust go- 
vernors Felix and Festus, to the emperor's own 
tribunal at Rome, xxv. 11, 12. 16., xxvi. 32. ; 
and thus was brought to pass the Lord's purpose 
xxiii. 11., that the Apostle should bear witness 
to the truth of the Gospel in the metropolis of 
the heathen world, Acts xxviii. 14. 16 17. ; 2 
Tim. i. 17., iv. 17. After two years' imprisonment 
St. Paul was set at liberty, but is believed to 
have returned to Rome about two or three years 
afterwards, when he was beheaded, on the oc- 
casion of a great conflagration which took place 
at Rome in the reign of Nero, and which was 
slanderously attributed to the Christians, though 
it was extensively reported that the emperor 
himself caused the city to be set on fire. Ac- 
cording to common tradition, especially in the 



Roman Catholic Church, St. Peter also was cru- 
cified there on the same occasion ; but it appears 
to be doubtful whether he ever was at Rome at 
all. 

Within two or three years more, Jerusalem 
was destroyed by the Romans; and not long 
afterwards, their empire rose to its greatest ex- 
tent under Trajan. It did not, however, long 
maintain the bounds this successful prince 
had given it ; but began after his death, rapidly 
to decay in grandeur and power, and to become 
the prey of numberless usurpers, who one after 
the other wasted its resources, and oppressed the 
nations, until at length, about a.d, 395, it was 
finally divided into the Eastern and Western 
Empires. In the fifth century the various 
savage hordes of the Huns, Goths, Vandals, 
&c., burst in like a sweeping torrent upon the 
Western Empire, and completely broke it up ; its 
fairest provinces being cruelly ravaged, and my- 
riads of the people inhumanly put to death ; Rome 
itself, likewise, being repeatedly taken and plun- 
dered. It was about this time that the Western 
Empire became gradually partitioned into those 
ten kingdoms or states, which, more than 
1000 years before, the prophet Daniel had fore- 
told under the figure of the ten toes of the 
image seen by Nebuchadnezzar in his dream, 
Dan. ii. 41 — 43., and also of the ten horns 
upon the head of the fourth beast, seen in 
vision by Daniel himself, vii. 7. 20. 24. 

Then, also, it was, that the Bishops of Rome, 
taking advantage of the seat of government 
being finally removed to Constantinople, and 
the bulk of the senators and better class of the 
inhabitants Avithdrawing from the city, gradually 
usurped and obtained the actual sovereignty of 
Rome and its immediate neighbourhood ; at the 
same time, claiming the anti-christian title 
of Universal Bishop. This bold, yet easy, 
usurpation, favoured by the gross spiritual dark- 
ness which existed on every side, was confirmed 
by the Emperor Phocas, who from being a 
common centurion in the Roman army on 
the Danube, rose to the dignity of the purple ; 
and who about the year a.d. 606, granted 
this title of Universal Bishop to the Pope 
of Rome. Thus arose that " Little Horn " of 
the anti-christian power predicted by the 
prophet Daniel, as that which should cast down 
three of the other ten horns; having eyes 
like the eyes of a man, with a mouth speaking 
great things ; which was also to make war with 
the saints, and to prevail against them, to speak 
great words against the Most High, to change 
times and laws, until at last the judgment 



ROMANS. 



SABEANS. 



3C9 



should sit, and his domiuion should be con- 
sumed and destroj-ed to the end, Dan. vii. 8. 20, 
21. 24, 25, 26. The same anti-christian power 
seems to be pourtrayed by St. Paul as " the 
Man of Sin," -who opposeth and exalteth 
himself above all that is called God or that 
is worshipped, so that he himself sitteth in the 
temple of God, showing himself that he is God ; " 
and again, as " that wicked," whom the Lord 
shaU consume with the spirit of His mouth, and 
destroy with the brightness of His coming, 
2 Thess. ii. 3. 8. The name of « Babylon " is 
also evidently applied to the anti-christian 
church and sj-stem of Papal Rome in the Reve- 
lation of St. John, xiv. 8., xvi. 19., xvii. o., 
xviii. 2. 10. 21. ; wherein she is described as 
a great harlot, drunken with the blood of 
the saints, sitting upon a scarlet-coloured beast 
having seven heads and ten horns. The name 
of *' mystery " written upon her forehead, may, 
perhaps, assist to assimilate her to Rome Pagan, 
whose mysterious name (as mentioned above) it 
was death to utter; and the fact of this 
mother of harlots and abominations of the 
earth " being represented as sitting " upon seven 
mountains," elsewhere called her seven heads, 
Rev. xxii. 9., and as "that great city which 
reigneth over the kings of the earth" xvii. 18., 
seems to place it beyond all doubt, that this 
mystical Babylon of the apocalypse is Rome 
Papal. The Babylon mentioned by St. Peter, 1 
Pet. V. 13., appears to be an allusion to some other 
city (possibly even Jerusalem), as it is very 
doubtful whether this apostle ever visited Rome, 
especially that he had already done so when this 
epistle was written. See Babylon. Whether 
Popery will outlive the destruction of its idola- 



trous metropolis, is matter of controversy ; 
though it would evidently appear, that the 
" man of sin " is not to be destroyed until the 
coming of the Lord, 2 Thess. ii. 8. ; but it seems 
as manifest that the great harlot city itself shall 
be destroyed by some sudden and awful confla- 
gration. Rev. xviii. 8, 9, 10. 17, 18. 21. 

ROMANS, the inhabitants of the city of Rome 
or otherwise the subjects of that mighty 
empire of which it was the metropolis. See 
Rome. 

ROSH, Ezek. xxxviii. 2., xxxix. 1. (marg. 
of some). See Gog. 

ROYAL CITIES, Josh. x. 2., certain cities in 
the land of Canaan, the residence of the ancient 
kings, destroyed by Joshua and the Israelites. 
The title is also applied to the Philistine city 
Gath, 1 Sam. xxvii. 5., and to Rabbah of the 
Ammonites, 2 Sam. xii. 26. See Ca^staajst. 

RUHAMAH (i.e. Having obtained mei-cy^, 
Hos. ii. 1., a prophetical name for the elect 
remnant of the Jewish church after the cap- 
tivity of the kingdom of Israel, and perhaps 
of Judah, had been completed. Others, how- 
ever, supported, as they think, the language 
of St. Paul, Rom. ix. 25., and of St. Peter, 1 Pet. 
ii 10., explain the term to allude to the calling 
of the Gentiles, as well as the dispersed Jews, 
into the Christian church. 

RUMAH, the birth-place of Zebudah, mother 
of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, 2 Kgs. xxiii. 36. 
It is supposed to have been the same with 
Arumah mentioned in Judg. ix. 41. (which see), 
though some identify it with a town in 
Galilee, called Ruma by Josephus, but otherwise 
unknown. 



SABEANS, Job i. 15. ; Isa. xlv. 14. ; Ezek. 
xxiii. 42. ; Joel iii. 8. There is much discussion 
and uncertainty as to what people are signified 
under this appellation and the kindred ones 
Seba and Sheba, as well as to the particular 
countries where they dwelt. There appear to 
be four distinct families or races of them men- 
tioned in Holy Scripture, and all sprung from 
different progenitors ; one of these, and probably 
the most ancient, has its name written with 
the initial letter S, and the remaining three 
with that of Sh, in the original Hebrew. 

I. One tribe descended from Seba, the son 
of Cush, and grandson of Ham, Gen. x. 7. ; 
1 Chron. i. 9. They are mentioned by David, 



Ps. Ixxii. 10., amongst those nations who shall 
offer gifts to his son, the typical IMessiah; by 
Isaiah, xliii. 3., in connection with Egypt and 
Ethiopia, as part of the ransom God gave 
for Elis church ; and again, xlv. 14., as men of 
large stature, and as, jointly with the same 
countries, coming over to the kingdom of 
Messiah with their labour and merchandise, 
and unitmg themselves to it; by Ezekiel, 
xxiii. 42. as coming from the Wilderness, 
with bracelets on their hands and beautiful 
crowns on their heads, and contributing to 
the idolatrous practices of the Jews. This race 
of the Sabeans is presumed to have settled to 
the S. of Egypt, on the frontiers of the African 
I X 3 



310 



SABEANS. 



Ethiopia, towards the^ upper course of the R. 
Nile. Here they are placed by the Jewish 
historian Josephus, who states that Meroe, an 
important city in that region, was originally 
called Saba; until the Persian monarch Cam- 
byses, when he overran the whole country, 
changed it to that of Meroe, in honour of his 
sister, who was thus called. The metropolis 
of Meroe stood upon an extensive island of 
the same name, formed by the R. Nile 
and two of its tributaries called Astaboras, now 
Tacazze, and Astapus, now Ahawi. It is said 
to have been exceedingly fertile, °and to have 
abounded in silver, gold, and other precious com- 
modities. The people were much commended 
for their social character and simplicity of 
manners, and are represented by some of the 
profane historians as having been men of noble 
stature. The surrounding kingdom of Merce 
was very powerful and extensive; it was a 
pretended theocracy, under the guidance of 
an oracle, and was governed by a college of 
priests, who were accustomed to elect one of 
their own number as sovereign. They are said 
to have been able to bring 250,000 armed men 
into the field ; and the extent of their wealth 
may be traced in the enormous masses of 
architecture with which they adorned their 
country, and the ruins of which, after the lapse 
of so many ages, time has not been able to 
destroy. By the means of their superstitious 
pretences, as well as by their political wisdom, 
and their skill in the arts and sciences, they 
obtained great influence over all the surrounding 
nomadic hordes ; and by their situation on 
the great road leading from the interior to 
Egypt and the Red Sea, they obtained very 
considerable commercial importance. After 
the Persians had conquered Egj^pt, they en- 
deavoured to subjugate Meroe; but they appear 
to have been able only to bring its N. part into 
temporary subjection. The ruins of the old 
metropolis are stated to be still very extensive, 
and are called by the natives Oibbainy. Ac- 
cording to Josephus, the queen of Sheba, who 
visited Solomon, came from this city and king- 
dom, and the tradition of the Abyssinians, who 
call her Maqueda, is pretty much to the same 
effect; but the whole tenor of history seems 
to be against them, and the dangers of a journey 
from Meroe to Jerusalem must have been so 
great and manifold, compared with those at- 
tending the route from Arabia to the Jewish 
capital, traversed as the latter was b}'' numerous 
caravans, that it seems unlikely any monarch 
would have made the attempt. It appears, 



therefore, more probable, that the famous 
" queen of the South," came from the S. part 
of Arabia Felix, whose inhabitants have a tra- 
dition to that effect. 

II. A second family or race of the Sabeans, 
sprimg from Sheba, the elder son of Raamah, 
and grandson of Cash, Gen. x. 7. ; 1 Chron, i. 9. 
Their country was rich in gold, precious stones, 
spices, incense, and many most valuable com- 
modities, in which they traded with the Jews, 
Tyrians, and other nations, 1 Kgs. x. 2. 10. ; 
2 Chron. ix. 1. 9. ; Ps. Ixxii. 15. ; Isa. Ix. 6. ; 
Jer. vi. 20.; Ezek. xxvii. 22. They are men- 
tioned by David among the nations who should 
bring offerings to his son Solomon, the typical 
Messiah, Ps. Ixxii. 10. 15., and by Isaiah, Ix. 6., 
amongst those Gentiles who in due season 
should contribute to the glory of the church. 
To them also, probably, Joel, iii. 8., alludes, 
when foretelling that the Jews should sell to the 
Sabeans far off many of the inhabitants of Tyre, 
Zidon, and Palestine for slaves, in recompence 
for these nations having sold the Jews to the 
Grecians; and the prophet Ezekiel, xxxviii, 
13., when foretelling the grand struggle of Gog 
with restored Israel in the latter days, speaks of 
Sheba as great traders coming into the camp of 
Gog, to buy either slaves or spoil. It appears, 
likewise, most probable, that from their country 
came that queen of Sheba who, with a very great 
retinue, visited Solomon in Jerusalem, on hearing 
the fame of his wisdom, 1 Kgs. x. 1. 4. 10. 13. ; 
2 Chron. ix. 1. 9. 12. She is called " the queen 
of the South," by our Blessed Redeemer, Matt, 
xii. 42. ; Lu. xi. 31. ; and is said by Him to bave 
come from the uttermost parts of the earth ; a 
description which, together with that supplied 
by the prophets in the preceding quotations, 
seems to harmonise with the situation usually 
assigned to these Sabeans. This was in the 
S.W. part of Arabia Felix, about the province of 
Yemen, as it is now called, bounded by the Red 
Sea on the W. and the Indian Ocean on the S. 
Here the profane authors place a powerful and 
extensive tribe called Sabsei, whose country 
they represent as teeming with those valuable 
productions for which in Holy Scripture Sheba 
is distinguished. Its capital they name Saba, 
Sabatha, Sabota, or Mariaba (the last word 
signifying metropolis), and which is still met 
with under the appellation Mareh. It was the 
great mart for the valuable productions of the 
surrounding country, which are said to have 
been chiefly collected by criminals and slaves 
(especially the frankincense), on account of the 
deleterious air of the places where they were 



SABTAH. 



SALEM, YALLEY OF. 311 



obtained. It is stated, also, to have been once 
besieged by the Roman general xElius Gallius, 
who was compelled to retire from before it. The 
Arabs have a very ancient tradition, that the 
queen of Sheba (^vhom they name Balkis) came 
from this part of the peninsula. 

III. A third race of Sabeans appears to have 
sprung from Sheba, a son of J oktan ; the latter 
being tbe third in descent from Shem, Gen. x. 
28. ; 1 Chron. i. 22. They are thought to have 
settled in the jST. part of Arabia, on the frontiers 
of Syria, Palestine, and Edom ; and may perhaps 
be identified with those Sabeans who carried 
otf the cattle of Job, and whom this patriarch 
connects with the troops of Teman in Edom, 
Job i. 15., vi. 19. To them also, possibly, 
Ezekiel alludes, xxvii. 23., in connection with 
Haran and Canneh, as merchants who traded 
with the Tyi-ians ; and it may have been from 
them that all the Arabians appear to have been 
sometimes styled Sabeans. 

IV. A fourth race of Sabeans sprung from 
Sheba, the elder son of Jokshan, who himself 
was a son of Abraham by his wife Keturah, 
Gen. XXV. 3. ; 1 Chron. i. 32. Concerning all 
these sons by his concubines, it is said that 
Abraham sent them away eastward unto the 
East country. Gen. xxv. 6. ; and, therefore, the 
abode of this fourth race of the Sabeans must, it 
would appear, be looked for in some of the 
countries E. of the R. Euphrates, possibly in 
Persia or India. Many commentators, however, 
place them in the E. part of Arabia, towards the 
shore of the Persian Gulf, where profane authors 
describe a race under the name of Sabse or 
Sabsei; and suppose that Jokshan and all his 
descendants settled in the wide-spread penmsula 
of Arabia. 

SABTAH and 

SABTECHAH, Gen. x. 7., 1 Chron. i. 9., 
two sons of Cush, the son of Ham, who are sup- 
posed to have settled in the S. parts of Arabia. 
Ptolemy mentions two cities in this direction, 
called Saphtha and Sabbata (or Saubatha), 
which are conjectured to carry traces of their 
names; but so little is known concerning the 
locality of these two families, that some authors 
place them near the N. W. promontory of Africa, 
where now is the modern Ceuta, and others on 
the E. coast of the same continent about the 
modem C. Guardafui. 

SALAMIS, the chief city of the isle of Cyprus, 
on its E. coasti possessing a convenient harbour, 
and once the residence of its sovereigns. It is 



reputed to have been built by Tcucer, about 
1270 B.C., when he was expelled from Salamis, 
j and to have been so called after his native 
island. It was at one time a very important 
and powerful place, and was especially sacred to 
the heathen idol Venus. It was visited by the 
Apostles Paul and Barnabas on their first 
missionary tour among the Gentiles, when John 
was with them; and here, in their synagogue, 
they preached to the Jews, Acts xiii. 5., who 
inhabited the city, and probably the whole 
island in great numbers. They made an in- 
surrection in the time of the Emperor Trajan, 
from which Salamis sufi^ered very much. But 
the city was completely destroyed by an earth- 
quake some years afterwards, in the reign of 
Constantius, when most of the inhabitants are 
said to have been killed. It was, however, 
restored by the Roman emperor, who named it, 
after himself, Constantia, an appellation still 
retained in that of Costanza, as its ruins are 
now called. 

SALCAH or Salchah, one of the royal cities 
of Og, king of Bashan, apparently on the S.E. 
frontiers of his kingdom. It was taken by the 
Israelites under Moses, Dent. iii. 10. ; Josh. xii. 
5. ; and assigned, as it would appear, together 
with all Bashan, to the half-tribe of Manasseh 
beyond Jordan, Deut. iii. 13. ; Josh. xiii. 11. ; 
though, from 1 Chron. v. 11., it was evidently 
on the borders of the tribe of Gad. Its ruins, 
whicff now lie on the edge of the Hauran and 
the great Syrian wilderness, are said to be still 
called Salkiiad or Sarkhad, and the hill on 
which they stand, to be defended by a modern 
castle. 

SALEM (i.e. Peace), a name applied in the 
Psalms, Ixxvi. 2., to Jerusalem, as the Taber- 
nacle of the Most High. Whether that Salem 
mentioned in Gen, xiv. 18., Heb. vii. 1, 2. (of 
which Melchizedek was king, and " the priest of 
the Most High God," in the time of Abraham, 
and to whom this patriarch gave the tenth of the 
spoils he had taken from Chedorlaomer and his 
confederates), referred to the earthly Jerusalem 
or to the Jerusalem which is above. Gal. iv. 25, 
26., is a point of much discussion. See Jeru- 
salem. 

SALEM, VALLEY OF, a place whither the 
Jews are said to have sent, to fortify the villages 
and the tops of the high mountains in its 
neighbourhood at the approach of Holofernes to 
ravage their country, Judith iv. 4. The name 
may, perhaps, be meant to refer to the A^allej^ of 
Jehoshaphat, on the E, side of Jerusalem, 
X 1 



312 



SALIM. 



SALT SEA, THE. 



(which see), though some refer it to that Salim 
which was near to Enon. 

SALTM, a place nigh unto which was Enon, 
on the E. Jordan, where John was at first bap- 
tizing, Jo. iii. 23. It was probably a city in the 
district of the Decapolis, of some importance in 
those days, judging from the way in which it is 
mentioned. Eusebius and Jerome place it 8 
miles S. of Bethsan or Scythopolis, and it is sup- 
posed by some to be the Salem alluded to 
in the apocryphal book of Judith, iv. 4. 

SALMON", a mountain in Canaan sufficiently 
lofty to retain the snow which fell there without 
melting, and so well known on this account as 
to furnish David Avith a strildng similitude in 
one of his sweet psalms, when describing God's 
wonderful mercies to the Jews, Ps. Ixviii. 14. 
Its situation is not at all agreed upon; but 
many identify it with Mt. Zalmon, whence 
Abimelech and his followers cut down the wood 
Avith which they fired the Tower of Shechera 
after they had taken the city, Judg. ix. 48. If 
this be so (which is doubtful), then it must have 
been close to Shechem, and was probably some 
lofty peak of Mt. Ephraim, in the centre of the 
inheritance of the tribe of Ephraim. 

• SALMONE, the E. promontory of the island of 
Crete, or Candia as it is now called, under 
which St. Paul sailed when on his voyage to 
Rome as a prisoner before the arrival of the ship 
at the Fair Havens, and its subsequent wreck 
on the island of Melita, Acts xxvii. 7. It was 
opposite the well-known city Cnidus in Asia 
Minor, and is known in profane authors as the 
Promontory of Samonium ; it is still called Sa- 
lamone. 

SALT, CITY OF, Josh. xv. 62., one of the 

six cities in the Wilderness of Judah, mentioned 
as having been assigned by Joshua to the tribe 
of Judah. It was probably on the W. shore of 
the Salt Sea; and may have derived its name 
from this circumstance; or from having been 
chiefly built with the mineral salt so abundant 
in that neighbourhood, and of which, according 
to the geographer Strabo, whole towns and cities 
were there entirely composed. 

SALT-PITS, Josh. xi. 8., marg. See Misre- 

PHOTH-MAm. 

SALT SEA, THE, Gen. xiv. 3. ; Num. xxxiv. 
3. 12. ; Deut. iii. 17. ; Josh. iii. 16., xii. 3., xv. 2 
6., xviii. 19. ; a very considerable lake at the 
S.E. extremity of Canaan, separating that 
country from Edom, Moab, and Arabia; it is 
larger than any other lake either in Syria 



or Asia Minor, being about 47 miles long and 
10 broad. It is thought to have obtained this 
name from the peculiar saltness and bitterness of 
its waters, which are of such an acrid and bitu- 
minous character that no fish appears to be able 
to live in them, or plant to grow around them. 
It is said no birds, reptiles, or animals are known 
to haunt them, nor are there any human 
dwellings upon their shores; hence, probably, 
from the death-like stillness on all sides, has 
arisen the name by which the sea was known to 
the profane authors, as it is still to ourselves, 
viz. the Pead Sea, though some fancy it alludes 
to the sinful dead engulfed beneath it. A thick 
mist constantly hovers over the lake ; its exha- 
lations are after a time extremely painful to the 
eyes, and, as it would seem, noxious to life; 
and the water, though so buoyant as to float 
even heavy bodies, will soon cover all that is ex- 
posed to it with a coating of salt, and excoriate 
the body when frequently dipped in it. 

It is also called in Holy Writ the Sea of 
THE Plain, Deut. iii. 17., iv. 49. ; Josh. iii. 16., 
xii. 3. ; 2 Kgs. xiv. 25. ; from Almighty God 
having caused its waters to overwhelm the Vale 
of Siddim, when He destroyed four out of the 
five Cities of the Plain, on account of their great 
wickedness, viz. Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, and 
Zeboiim ; Bela being spared at the intercession 
of Lot. See Cities of the Plain. It is like- 
wise called THE Eastern Sea, Ezek. xlvii. 
18. ; Joel ii. 20. ; Zech. xiv. 8. (marg,, but 
translated " the Former Sea " in the text), an 
appellation given it in reference to Judah and 
Jerusalem. In some places it is more than 1000 
feet deep ; the bottom consisting of an ofiensive 
mud, of a black and sulphureous character, often 
mixed with bitumen, lava, pumice stones, shells, 
and many petrifactions of an extraordinary kind. 
The water of the lake is in general very clear ; 
and never appears to be in the least altered as 
to its briny bitterness by the amazing volume 
of sweet water rolled into it daily by the J ordan 
(which now ends its course there, Josh. iii. 16., 
xviii. 19.), as Avell as by the Arnon and the 
smaller surrounding streams. This fact has 
induced many to believe that there is an under- 
ground communication with the ocean by the 
Mediterranean or the Eed Sea; though it is 
thought by others, that the daily evaporation is 
sufficiently great to account for the phenomenon. 
There is some reason to suppose, that the R. 
Jordan once found its way through the well- 
watered Vale of Siddim by a valley which still 
exists, into the Red Sea (see Jordan), but that 
its course was completely arrested or diverted 



SALT SEA, THE. 



SAMARIA. 



313 



underground bj the avduX conflagration of the : 
Cities of the Plain. It is, however, ou the other | 
hand, dedared bv many travellers that, owing t 
to the present ditference of level between the j 
Eed Sea and the mouth of the Jordan, they 
never could have been united. Bj this fearful 
overthrow, the neighbouring country, once of 
such great fertility as to be compared with " the 
garden of the Lord," Gen. xiii. 10., became so [ 
barren and desolate, that Moses describes the 
whole land as " brimstone and salt, and burning, 
that it is not sown, nor beareth, nor any grass 
groweth therein," Deut. xxis. 23. It was not 
the nlere work of any natural agency, such as 
volcanoes, or mines of bitiimen and sulphur acci- 
dentally ignited by lightning, as some sceptics 
fancy; but it was specially the work of God, 
who is declared to have "rained upon Sodom 
and Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the 
Lord out of heaven," and so to have overthrown 
the cities, and all the plain, and all the in- 
habitants. Gen. xix. 24. The traces of this 
ten-ible judgment are still seen in all the neigh- 
bouring countr}', which is covered with frag- 
ments of bitumen, sulphur, and vast incrustations 
of salt. Amongst these is an extraordinary pillar, 
believed by some who have seen it to be the 
Pillar of Salt mentioned in the Scripture ac- 
count of this tremendous visitation. 

The Vale of Siddim was the scene of the 
great battle of the four kings against five, when 
Chedorlaomer and his confederates routed the 
kings of these Cities of the Plain, and captured 
Lot, Gen. xiv. 3. 10. Subsequent to the over- 
throw of the cities, it became in this direction 
the frontier line between the Amorite kingdom 
of Sihon and the nations of Canaan ; but after 
the destruction of these devoted nations, it con- 
stituted the S.E. border of the Holy Land, Xum. 
xxxiv. 3. 12.; 2 Kgs. xiv. 25. It formed, 
likewise, the E. boundary of the tribe of Judah, 
Josh. XV. 2. 5., w^hich it separated from the 
tribe of Reuben, Deut. iii. 17., iv. 49., Josh. xii. 
3., and from the territory of the Moabites ; and 
also part of the E. limits of the tribe of Ben- 
jamin, Josh, xviii. 19. There is a small bay at 
each end of the lake, both of which are men- 
tioned in connection with the E. limits of Judah ; 
the northern one is called " the Bay of the Sea 
at the uttermost part of Jordan," Josh. xv. 5, ; 
the other is termed " the Bay that looketh 
southward," Josh. xv. 2. This sea is likewise 
to form a portion of the boundary line of the 
Jews at their final restoration, Ezek. xlvii. 18. ; 
when, probably, some of their enemies will be 
overthrown near it, Joel ii. 20. ; and one half of 



the living waters which shall go out from 
Jerusalem, shall go toward it," Zech. xiv. 8. ; 
and the waters of the sea itself are to be healed, 
Ezek. xlvii. 8. — The Dead Sea is generally called 
the Asphaltic Lake in the profane authors, from 
the quantity of asphaltus or bitumen found near 
it ; though sometimes they style it the Salt Sea. 
The modern Arabs call it Bahr Lout, i.e. the 
Sea of Lot, and sometimes Al-Motana, i.e. the 
Stinking Sea. 

SALT, VALLEY OF, a valley to the S. of the 
Dead Sea, near the limits of the tribe of Judah 
and the territory of the Edomites, which was 
the scene of many severe conflicts between the 
latter people and the Israelites. Da^-id, in one 
of his campaigns against the Syrians, smote 
18,000 of them in the Valley of Salt, 2 Sam. viii. 
13. InPs. Ix., title, Joab is stated to have there 
slain 12,000 Edomites ; in 1 Chron. xviii. 12., 
Abishai is mentioned as slapng 18,000 Edom- 
ites in the same place; in 2 Kgs. xiv. 7., 
2 Chron. xxv. 11., we read that Amaziah, king 
of Judah, there cut off" 10,000 of the children of 
Seir, and took their chief holds. This valley is 
commonly identified with that extraordinary 
ravine on the S. of the Dead Sea, now known as 
the Lower Ghor, which varies in breadth from 
2 to 10 miles, and rims S. towards the head 
of the Eed Sea. Its surface, especially towards 
the N. part, is covered with incrustations of salt, 
which in some places have the appearance of 
salt mountains, whence probably the valley 
may have derived its name. It is also thickly 
strewed wdth pieces of sulphur, bitumen, pumice 
stone, lava, and other volcanic matters, which 
plainly show that it underwent considerable 
changes during the awful judgment which fell 
upon the Cities of the "Plain. Indeed, it is not 
unlikely that through this valley the R. Jordan 
may once have found its way into the Eed Sea, 
notwithstanding the difference of level which is 
now said to exist. 

SAMAEIA, a hill, 1 Kgs. x^n. 24., or moun- 
tain, on the confines of Ephraim and Manasseh, 
but within the bounds of the former tribe, and 
about midway between the E. J ordan and the 
JMediterranean Sea. It probably formed part of 
the long chain of the Mountains of Israel, which 
ran N. and S. through the whole kingdom, being 
connected ynth. Mt. Ephraim on the S., and Mt. 
Gilboa on the l!^. The Hill of Samaria appears 
to have given name to the surrounding country, 
if not to the whole kingdom of the Ten Tribes, 
even before the city of Samaria itself was built, 
1 Kgs. xiii. 32.; and from many passages ia 



S14 SAM. 

Holy Scripture, it . would seem that there was 
recognised a district or region of Samaria im- 
mediately round the capital, until the city was 
destroyed by the Assyrians. 

SAMAEIA or Shosieron, the metropolis of 
the kingdom of Israel, and the residence of its 
sovereigns after they had abandoned Shechem 
and Tirza, until the final captivity of the Ten 
Tribes by Shalmaneser, in the reign of the last 
king Hoshea. It was built by Omri, the sixth 
king of Israel, who bought the Hill Samaria of 
Shemer for two talents of silver, and called the 
name of the new city Samaria, after the owner 
of the hill, 1 Kgs. xvi. 24. It begiin very soon 
to grow rapidly, both in extent and importance ; 
its natural strength, which was very great, was 
much increased by the fortifications raised by 
successive kings for its defence, until in the 
opinion of some, it was, perhaps, as capable of 
withstanding a siege as Jerusalem. Its position 
in the very centre of the whole of Canaan, ren- 
dered it, in many respects, most advantageous 
for the pu.rposes of commerce, as well as a 
residence for the chief magistrate and his court : 
and there is every reason to believe, that much 
effort was made to rival the Holy City in the 
number and splendour of its edifices. Besides 
the royal residence which had been built by 
Omri, Ahab, his son and successor, adorned 
Samaria with an " ivory house," and probably 
with many other expensive buildings, 1 Kgs. 

xxii. 39. ; Amos iii. 15. Ahab likewise made a 
" grove " in Samaria, 1 Kgs. xvi. 33. ; 2 Kgs. 
xiii. 6. ; and both himself and his successors 
built temples to Baal and other idols in this 
chief seat of their splendour and power, 1 Kgs. 
xvi. 32., one of which was utterly destroyed by 
Jehu, 2 Kgs. X. 21. 26, 27. 

The city gradually became pre-eminent for its 
luxury, effeminacy, idolatry, Isa. x. 11. ; Jer. 

xxiii. 13. ; Ezek. xvi. 46. 51. 53. 55. ; Hos. vii. 
1. ; Amos viii. 14. ; and the oppressive cruelty of 
its nobles over their poorer brethren, Amos ii. 
6 — 8., iv. 1 — 3. ; and is described by some of the 
prophets as sunk, at last, in debauchery and 
wickedness. Omri was buried in Samaria, 1 Kgs. 
xvi. 28. ; and owing to his having constituted 
it the capital of his dominions, all the succeeding 
kings of Israel are mentioned as having also 
made it their royal abode, and most of them, 
likewise, (except Joram and Hoshea) appear to 
have been buried there; as Ahab, 1 Kgs. xvi. 
29., XX. 43., xxi. 18., xxii. 10. 37. ; 2 Kgs. x. 1. 
17. ; 2 Chron. xviii. 2. 9. ; Ahaziah, 1 Kgs. xxii. 
51. ; 2 Kgs. i. 2. ; Jehoram or Joram, 2 Kgs. iii. 



ARIA. 

1. 6.; Jehu, 2 Kgs. x. 12. 35, 36.; Jehoahaz, 
2 Kgs. xiii. 1. 9. ; Jehoash or Joash, 2 Kgs. xiii. 
10. 13., xiv, 14. 16. ; 2 Chron. xxv. 13. 24. ; 
Jeroboam the Second, 2 Kgs. xiv. 23. 29. ; Zecha- 
riah, 2 Kgs. xv. 8. ; Shallum, 2 Kgs. xv. 13, 
14. ; Menahem, 2 Kgs. xv. 17. 22. ; Pekaiah, 
2 Kgs. XV. 23. 25. ; Pekah, 2 Kgs. xv. 27. ; 
2 Chron. xxviii. 8, 9. 15. ; and Hoshea, 2 Kgs. 
xvii. 1. Joram, the son of Ahab, was buried in 
the plot of ground belonging to ISTaboth, 2 Kgs. 
ix. 26. ; and Hoshea, the last king, was probably 
carried captive to Assyria by Shalmaneser, 
2 Kgs. xvii. 4. 

From its being the metropolis of the kingdom 
of Israel, Isa. vii. 9., Samaria is often brought 
into parallel with Jerusalem by the prophets 
when denouncing the wickedness of the nation, 
and the evils which should come upon it, Ezek. 
xvi. 1, 2. 46., xxiii. 4. ; Isa. x. 10, 11. ; Amos 
vi. 1. ; Mic. i. ^1. But these denunciations, as 
well as their partial accomplishment, seem for 
the most part to have been disregarded both by 
mlers and people, until at length the measure of 
their iniquity was full, and the city Avas reduced 
to ruins. The first assault upon Samaria seems to 
have been made by the elder Benhadad, Idng of 
Syria, who obtained the mastery of it, and built 
streets in it, 1 Kgs. xx. 34. ; probably for the set- 
tlement of his own people there, and to promote the 
commerce of Damascus with Jerusalem, Egypt, 
and the southern nations. It was again besieged 
by his son Benhadad during the reign of Ahab^ 
but he was miraculously defeated by a chosen 
band of young men, 1 Kgs. xx. 1. 10. 17. 21. ; 
and the following year, the king of Syria was 
himself taken, and his vast army worsted, when 
advancing to make a second attempt on the city, 
XX. 29. 33. About eight years afterwards, 
during the reign of Joram, Samaria was again 
besieged by Benhadad, when the famine in the 
city became so severe that a mother was in- 
duced to eat her own child ; but the Syrians were 
again compelled to retreat by a mii-aculous 
interference of God on its behalf, 2 Kgs. vi. 
24, 25. 29., vii. 6, 7. This deliverance had been 
foretold by the prophet Elisha, who seems to 
have long resided there, 2 Kgs. ii. 25., v. 3., vi. 
19, 20., vii. 1. 18. About 170 years afterwards, 
during the reign of Hoshea, the last king of the 
Ten Tribes, Samaria was once more attacked, 
when, after a severe siege of three years by 
Shalmaneser, king of Assyria, the city was taken 
and reduced to a heap of ruins, as had been 
foretold by the prophets, Isa. viii. 4., ix. 9. ; 
Hos. X. 7., xiii. 16. ; Amos iii. 9. 12., vi. 1. ; 
Mic. j. 1. 5, 6.; the people were treated with 



SAMAPvIA. 



SAMARIA, MOU^TTAINS OF. 315 



great cruelty, and carried away captive to 
Assyria; and the kingdom of Israel came to 
an end, b.c. 721, 2 Kgs. xvii. 5, 6. 23., 
xviii. 9, 10. 34., xxi. 13. ; Isa. x. 9, 10., xxxvi. 
19. ; Ezek. xxiii. 33. From the city of Samaria 
having been the metropolis of the Ten Tribes, 
the whole kingdom of Israel is frequently spoken 
of in Holy Writ as Samakia, or the Kingdoim 
OF Samaria, 1 Kgs. xviii. 2., xxi. 1. ; 2 Kgs. 
xvii. 24. 29„ xxiii. 18, 19. ; 2 Chron. xxii. 9. 
(compared with 2 Kgs. ix. 27.) ; Hos. viii. 5, 6. 
X. 5. 7., xiii. 16. ; Amos iii. 9., vi. 1., viii. 14. ; 
and hence the prophets frequently make ic the 
representative of the idolatry of Israel, as they 
do Jerasalem that of Judah. 

The city of Samaria appears, however, to 
have very soon begun gradually to recover 
from the desolation to which it had been reduced 
by Shalmaneser, Jer. xli. 5. ; and received, pro- 
bably, some of those heathen colonists who 
were sent over by Esar-haddon and other Assy- 
rian sovereigns to inhabit the cities of Israel, 
2 Kgs. xvii. 24. ; Ezra iv. 2. 10. ; though no 
doubt the adjacent city of Shechem was their 
chief resort in this neighbourhood. It was, 
however, evidently rebuilt in some way before 
the return of the Jews from Babylon, as both 
Ezra, iv. 17., and Nehemiah, iv. 2., seem to 
allude to it as a place of some consequence. Cf. 
1 Esd. ii. 16. Its fortifications also were restored 
and increased, until at length it became a very 
strong place, forming the great rallying place of 
the Samaritans in many of their conflicts with 
the Jews and Syrians. This was especially the 
case during the Maccabsean wars ; until, after a 
whole year's siege, it was taken by the Jews 
under John Hyrcanus, by whom it was com- 
pletely demolished, as well as the temple on Mt. 
Gerizim. But when the Romans under Pompey 
had got a sure footing in Palestine, the Roman 
general Gabinius again rebuilt and fortified the 
city of Samaria. It was afterwards presented 
by the Emperor Augustus to Herod the Great, 
who enlarged and beautified it, adding consider- 
ably to its strength, and settling a colony of 
veterans in it, after which he called it Sebaste, 
in honour of his patron. It was visited by 
Phihp the Evangelist, who appears to have been 
the first to preach the gospel there, after vv^hich 
Peter and John were sent down from Jerusalem 
by the Apostles, to confirm and enlarge the 
newly gathered church among the Samaritans, 
Acts viii. 5. 9. 14. Owing to the rising great- 
ness of the neighbouring city of Sichem or 
Sychar, the city of Samaria began to decline, 
and gradually fell into ruins ; in the midst of 



which now stands a small and unimportant 
village rudely defended by a Turkish castle, and 
called Sebaste or Kalaat Sanour. 

After the return of the Jews from the Baby- 
lonian captivity, and their taking possession 
of the S. portion of Palestine, the frontier line 
between them and the Samaritans became in 
process of time pretty well defined, which was 
also the case at a later period with the boun- 
dary of the Samaritans on the N. side, where 
they came in contact with the various tribes 
that had settled in Galilee. The name of 
Samaria, therefore, which had long been applied 
to these regions, Judith i. 9,, became now regu- 
larly applied to the whole central district of 
the Holy Land lying between the Jordan and the 
Mediterranean, and occupying pretty much the 
old territory of the two tribes Ephraim and 
Manasseh. The limits on the S. side underwent 
many alterations during the Maccabajan wars 
(see Aphekema), when they were repeatedly 
the scene of severe struggles, 1 Mace. iii. 10., v. 
66., X. 30., xi. 28. ; 2 Mace. xv. 1. ; and a large 
portion of the district fell into the hands of the 
Jews. Pompey, however, seems to have restored 
the old boundary, which probably was not 
afterwards materially altered by the Romans. 
The region of Samaria was annexed to the 
kingdom of Herod the Great, and that of his 
successor Archelaus, after whose deposition it 
became one of the divisions of the Roman pro- 
vince of Syria. Occupying the middle country 
between Judtea and Galilee, it was frequently 
traversed by the Blessed Redeemer and His 
disciples, and consequently the name of the pro- 
vince often occurs in the New Testament, Lu. 
xvii. 11. ; Jo. iv. 4, 5. 7. 9. ; Acts i. 8., viii. 1., 
ix. 31., XV. 3. Samaria now lies in a waste and 
desolate condition, like the rest of the Holy 
Land, but there are large promises of blessing 
made to it by the prophets in the latter days, 
when it shall more than ever yield abundance 
to the now " outcasts of Israel," Jer. xxxi. 5. ; 
Obad. 19. 

SAMARIA, POOL OF, 1 Kgs. xxii. 38., a 
piece of water in the city of Sam.aria, where the 
chariot of Ahab was washed, wherein he had 
been slain in the battle at Ramoth-gilead, and 
where the dogs licked up his blood, as Elijah 
had foretold. 

SAMARIA, MOUNTAINS OF, Jer. xxxi. 5., 
Amos iii. 9., apparently another name for the 
Mountains of Israel, or the two main ridges of 
high land on each side the Jordan, within the 
limits of the Ten Tribes. 

I 



316 



SAMAllITAKS. 



SAMARITANS. There appears to be only one 
passage in the Old Testament, 2 Kgs. xvii. 29., 
in which this word is mentioned, and it refers 
probably to the Ten Tribes generally. But in 
the New Testament and elsewhere, it is the 
name given to that mingled body of colonists 
from Babylon, Cuthah, Ava, Hamath, Sepliar- 
vaim, and other places, whom after the final 
captivity of the Ten Tribes, Esar-haddon and 
other Assyrian sovereigns sent into the cities of 
Samaria, 2 Kgs. xvii. 2-4. 30, 31. ; Ezra iv. 2. 9. 
These named were all gross idolaters, and be- 
gan practising their heathen rites in the Holy 
Land, until God sent lions amongst them, by 
which many of them were slain. Upon this, 
the king of Assyria sent them one of the captive 
Israelite priests to teach them the true religion, 
who took up his abode at Bethel ; but the new 
inhabitants continued their idolatry, mixing with 
it, according to their pleasure, the worship of 
Jehovah, 2 Kgs. xvii. 25. 32.41. These idolatrous 
nations gradually intermingled with one another, 
and with such of the Israelites as remained in 
the land, until all traces of their national 
identity being lost, there sprang up a hetero- 
geneous race, adopting publicly the law of 
Moses as their religious code, but corrupting it 
Viith. numerous heathen abominations. As the 
Christian era drew on, it is not unlikely that 
the Samaritans by frequent intermarriage with 
the Jews, and from dwelling in the midst of them, 
became more and more assimilated to them, 
and gradually threw aside much of their old 
idolatries ; they certainly looked forward in some 
wa}'- or other to the coming of Messias, Jo. iv. 
25. ; and the Apostles who at first stood aloof 
from the Gentiles in the preaching of the Gospel, 
seem to have had no such difficulties in the 
case of the Samaritans, Acts viii. 1. 5. 14. 25. 
Yet the Blessed Saviour, at the first, forbad 
the twelve to go into any city of the Samaritans, 
Matt. X. 5. ; and at a later period Himself told 
the woman at Jacob's Well that the Samaritans 
worshipped they knew not what, Jo. iv. 22. 

After the final captivity of the kingdom of 
Judah, and probably when they were the leading 
political race in Palestine, the Samaritans appear 
to have given out, though with a manifest false- 
hood, that they were descendants from Jacob; 
and hence, ivhen the J ews, after the return from 
Babylon, began to rebuild the Temple^ they 
were desirous of joining them in the work. 
Their assistance, however, was rejected by Ze- 
rubbabel; in revenge for which, they adopted 
crafty measures of intrigue and misrepresentation, 
so that at length they succeeded in putting a 



stop to the building, until the second year of 
Darius, king of Persia, Ezra iv. 1. 4. 24. Just 
so, likewise, about eighty years afterwards, they 
did what they could, in connection with the 
neighbouring tribes, to hinder Nehemiah from 
building the walls of Jerusalem, but in vain, 
Neh. iv. 1. 16—18. This feud between the Jews 
and Samaritans was still further increased by the 
latter building a temple of their own upon Mt. 
Gerizim, about the middle of the fifth century 
B. c, on the spot where they pretended Abraham 
had offered up Isaac ; and where also, by a cor- 
ruption of the sacred text in Deut. xxvii. 4., 
they endeavoured to prove Moses had com- 
manded an altar to be reared up. See Gerizim. 
This temple was much beautified about 100 
years afterwards, in the time of Alexander the 
Great ; but it was at length completely destroyed 
by the Maccabfean prince, John Hyrcanus, after 
it had stood about 200 years. 

After the ruin of the Babylonian empire, the 
Samaritans fell under the powder of Alexander 
the Great, and his successors the Seleucidae. 
They took part with the latter against the Jews 
during the Maccabajan wars, when their country 
frequently suffered severely from both parties; 
and after having been much diminished in 
various directions, it was at length annexed to 
the Asmonean kingdom. Pompey, however, set 
them free, but it was not for long, as they soon 
became subjects of Herod the Great ; until, after 
the deposition of Archelaus, they were finally 
included amongst the vassals of Pome, the 
Roman governor of Judaea usually residing at 
the city of Csesarea, which was in the province 
of Samaria. 

The old national grudge between the Jews 
and Samaritans continued to the New Testament 
times, when we read that the Jews had no 
dealings with the Samaritans, Jo. IV. y., and that 
the Samaritans refused to receive the Divine 
Redeemer when passing through their country, 
because He was going up to the feast at Jeru- 
salem, Lu. ix. 62. Each nation was wont to 
speak of the other with the greatest severity and 
contempt; and one of the reproachful epithets 
bestowed upon the Blessed Saviour by the Jews 
was, that he was a Samaritan, Jo. viii. 48. But 
though the Samaritans had, no doubt, continued 
to provoke the Jews all along, and, whenever 
they had opportunity, to receive into their con - 
gregation all fugitives who took refuge amongst 
them to escape the punishment of the laws in 
Judaea ; yet they do not appear to have been so 
bitter against the Jews, as the latter against 
them. Cf. Ecclus. 1. 26. At all events, the 



SAMOS. 



SAUDIS. 



317 



parable of the Good Samaritan, Lu. x. 33., the 
history of the thankful Samaritan leper, xvii. 
16., and the conversation with the woman of 
Samaria and her companions, Jo. iv. 9. 39, 40., 
seem to give us a far more favom-able estimate 
of their character than is commonly met with 
in Jewish writings. 

The Samaritan Pentateuch is one of the oldest 
and most valuable versions of the books of Moses ; 
but by no means of the antiquity man}^ suppose, 
though -written in a character which is thought 
by some scholars to be more ancient than the 
present Hebrew characters. Its fidelity, however, 
has been spoiled by manifest interpolations. 
There are still some Samaritans residing in Pa- 
lestine, especially about their old meti-opolis 
Sichem, or Nahloiis as it is now called. They 
have several synagogues of their own in 
other parts of Syria and Egypt, and are said 
to offer animal sacrifices on the ruins of what 
they believe to be their old temple on IMt. 
Gerizim. 

SAMOS, a very fertile island in the M- 
gaean Sea, lying ofi" the coast of Ionia in Asia 
Minor, opposite Ephesus, and divided from the 
promontory of Mycale only by a narrow channel. 
It is about 60 miles in circuit, and was famous 
for the worship of Juno, who was pretended 
to have been born in the island, and who had a 
temple here, which was a noted asylum for 
offenders. Samos was the birth-place of Pytha- 
goras, and the residence of one of the Sibyls ; its 
pottery was in great repute. The Romans are 
said to have written to its inhabitants in favour 
of the Jews, 1 Mace. xv. 23. St. Paul touched 
at Samos, when proceeding to Jerusalem, Acts 
XX. 15,, shortly before his arrest by the Jews. 
The island is still called Samo. 

SAMOTHRACIA, now Samothraki, an island 
in the N. of the Mgeean Sea, opposite the mouth 
of the R. Hebrus. It is stated to have been 
once called Leucosia, but afterwards Samos, from 
the Ionian isle of that name, and then to have 
received the epithet Thracia by way of distinc- 
tion ; but it is not unlikely that the first inha- 
bitants were Thracians, who were at a later 
period joined by a colony of Samians. Samo- 
thracia derived its chief celebrity from the 
heathen mysteries of Cybele and her Corybantes, 
as well as from the Cabiric worship, which 
was intimately connected with them. All mys- 
teries were supposed to have originated in this 
island, whence it received the epithet sacred, and 
became an inviolable as34um for criminals. St. 
Paul, when on his first voyage to Macedonia 



after leaving Troas, touched at Samothracia 
before he landed at Neapolis, Acts xvi. 
11. 

SAMPSAMES, a place to the people of which 
according to the apocryphal writer in 1 Mace. 
XV. 23., the Romans wrote in favour of the Jews 
during the time of Simon Maccabajus. In some 
versions, it is written Lampsacus, and thus seems 
to be identified with the famous city of this 
name on the Asiatic shore of the Hellespont; 
others, however, think it refers to the city 
Amisus, now called Samsoim, on the S. coast of 
the Euxine Sea, in the province of Pontus, 
both in Asia Minor. 

SANSANNAH, a city belonging to the 
tribe of Judah, in the S. part of their terri- 
tory towards the frontiers of Edom, Josh. 
XV. 31. 

SAPHIR, a place mentioned by the prophet 
Micah, i. 11., when foretelling the wrath of God 
against the Jews for their idolatrous practices. 
The word signifies /az> or elegant, and is thought 
by many to refer either to Jerusalem or Samaria ; 
though it may be the name of some other city 
not otherwise known. 

SARAMEL, a word found in 1 Mace. xiv. 28., 
and there, apparently, mentioned as a locality of 
some description, though no such name is met 
with in any author. The Vulgate writes it 
Asaramel, and the Syriac Israel. Some critics 
think that Jerusalem is signified, the letters 
having been transposed and corrupted ; others, 
that the name describes the Common Hall 
in Zion, where the Jews met to consult upon 
matters of state. 

SARDIS, a very ancient and wealthy city in 
the W. part of Asia Minor, the metropolis 
of Lydia, and the residence of its kings. It was 
on the famous R. Pactolus, not far from its 
junction with the Hermus, at the foot of Mt. 
Tmolus. It is noted for the many sieges it sus- 
tained against the Cimmerians, Persians, Medes, 
Macedonians, lonians, and Athenians. Its edi- 
fices were very splendid, but especially a temple 
of Cybele, renowned for its beauty and magnifi- 
cence ; and the offerings said to have been made, 
by the Lydian monarch Croesus to the oracle of 
Delphi, attest the great riches of the city. 
Sardis fell into the hands of Cyrus, B.C. 548, on 
which occasion Cro?.sus was made his prisoner ; 
it was burnt by the Athenians about forty years 
afterwards, which gave Darius his pretext 
for invading Attica, and burning all the Gi'eek 
temples that fell into his power. After the 



318 



SARDITES. 



SCYTHIAN. 



defeat of the Persians by Alexander the Great, 
Sardis surrendered to him, and was held by his 
successors in Asia until the overthrow of Anti- 
ochus, when it came into the possession of 
the Komans. It was almost completely de- 
stroyed by an earthquake, together with eleven 
other cities, in the time of the Emperor Tiberius, 
who caused it to be rebuilt and beautified ; but 
it never attained its former greatness, and is now 
a mean wretched Turkish village called Sart — 
Sardis is rendered interesting to the Christian 
from its having been one of the Seven Churches 
of Asia, to which St. John was commanded 
to write an epistle, full of warning and threat- 
ening for the sins of the church in it, Eev. i. 11., 
iii. 1. 4. Into those transgressions its members 
had, no doubt, fallen, from yielding to the 
luxury and dissoluteness of manners for which 
the inhabitants of Sardis were notorious ; but 
the Divine admonition seems to have been gene- 
rally unheeded, and now, travellers tell us, that 
not even a nominal Christian is found there. 

SARDITES, a family of the tribe of Zebulun, 
descended from Sered, one of his sons, who were 
numbered by Moses, together with all Israel, in 
the Plains of Moab, Num. xxvi. 26. 

SAREPTA, Lu. iv. 26. (called Zarephath 1 
Kgs. xvii. 9. 10. ; Obad. 20.), a city belonging 
to Sidon, about 10 miles to the S. of it, on the 
coast of the Mediterranean Sea. It was the 
place whither the prophet Elijah was com- 
manded by God to retire, after quitting the 
Brook Cherith ; and here he was miraculously 
sustained by a widow woman during the re- 
maining period of the famine in Israel, in the 
reign of the idolatrous Ahab, and raised her son 
to life. It is celebrated in the profane authors 
for its excellent wine, and was a place of some 
consideration during the middle ages ; and 
though now a miserable village, called Sarfend, 
its ruins attest its former greatness, and the 
slopes of the hills are still covered with neg- 
lected vineyards. The prophet Obadiah men- 
tions it as one of the boundary cities of the 
Jews in this direction at their future restoration. 

SAPID, a city belonging to the tribe of 
Zebulun, and lying on their frontier, J osh. xix. 
10. 12. 

SAROiT, a city in the W. part of Palestine, 
not far from Lydda, on the borders of Judaea 
and Samaria, but probably within the limits 
of the latter. It is mentioned in Acts ix. 35., 
as one of the places whose inhabitants, be- 
holding the miraculous cure that Peter had 



wrought on Eneas, were converted to Chris- 
tianity. Saron was, probably, a very ancient 
place, and is generally identified with the 
Lasharon of Joshua, xii. 18., the king of which 
was one of the thirty-one Canaanite sovereigns 
who were vanquished by this great leader of 
Israel. It gave name to an extensive plain, 
wherein it lay ; and which in Josephus and the 
ecclesiastical writers, is called Saronas, but in 
the Old Testament Scriptures it is named 
Sharon. It appears to have been a most 
beautiful and fertile plain, abounding in all the 
most delicious productions of the Promised 
Land. It extended from about Lydda on 
the S., to Cajsarea on the N., between the 
Mediterranean Sea on the W., and the great 
ridge of the Mountains of Israel on the E. Its 
roses are celebrated by Solomon in the Canticles, 
ii. 1. Its pastures were so famed that David 
here kept some of his flocks under the care of 
Shitrai, the Sharonite, 1 Chron. xxvii. 29.j and 
its excellencies are numbered with those of 
Lebanon, Bashan, and Carmel, by the prophet 
Isaiah, xxxiii. 9., xxxv. 2., Ixv. 10. 

SCYTHIAX, a most extensive term applied 
in a general way by the earlier profane authors 
to all the numerous tribes inhabiting the N. 
parts of Europe and Asia. The name does not 
occur anywhere in the Old Testament Scrip- 
tures. Some suppose that they were included 
by the Jews in the appellation Gog and Magog, 
and others, that they are alluded to by the 
prophets Joel, ii. 20., and Jereiniah, i. 14., iv. 6., 
vi. 1. 22. : but both these suppositions are very 
doubtful. Herodotus, however, states that 
during the reign of Psammetichus in Egypt, 
i.e. in about the seventh century before the 
Christian era, the Scythians overran the Hither 
Asia, penetrating even into the Philistine terri- 
tory, and into Egypt. If this be so, they may then 
perhaps have passed through a portion of the 
territory of the Ten Tribes after their captivity 
by Shalmaneser ; and (as it is commonly asserted 
that at some period they did) then, likewise, 
they may have communicated the name of 
Scythopolis to the old Canaanite city Bethshan. 
At all events, at a later date in the history of 
the world, vast hordes of them began to move 
downwards upon the civilised and more fertile 
regions of the S., where they committed all 
kinds of wicked cruelties; so that their name 
came to be looked upon both with abhorrence 
and fear, as that of a cruel and barbarian race, 
dwelling on the outskirts of the world. It 
appears to be in this sense that the name 



SCYTIIOPOLTS. 



SETE, MT. 



S19 



of Scythiau is used in 2 Mace. iv. 47,, and also 
by St. Paul, Col. iii. 11. 

SCYTHOPOLIS, Judith iii. 10. ; 2 Mace. xii. 
29.; and 

SCTTHOPOLITAXS, 2 Mace. xii. 30. See 
Bethsha^^. 

SEA, THE, a general term applied in Holy 
Writ, not merely to the ocean, but to many 
large collections of water, and occasionally to 
diiterent ones in the same verse ; so that the 
precise names of each can only be gathered from 
the context. It is most frequently found used 
for the Great Sea or 3Iediterranean ; as in Num. 
xxxiv. 5. ; Josh. xv. 4. 11. ; 1 Kgs. xviii. 43. ; 
Ps. Ixxii. 8., Ixxx. 11.; Isa. xxiii. 4., xxi\\ 
15. ; Jer. xlvi. 18, ; Jonah i. 4. ; Mic. vii. 12. ; 
Zech. ix. 10. ; Acts x. 6., and in many other 
places. It is also used to designate the Red 
Sea, as in Ex. xiv. 2. 9., xv. 1. ; 2 Chron. viii. 
17. ; Ps. Ixxii. 8. ; Mic. vii. 12. ; Zech. ix. 10. ; 
1 Cor. X. 1,, &c, ; likewise the Salt Sea, now 
commonly called the Dead Sea, as in Josh, xviii. 
14. ; 2 Chron. xx. 2. ; Ps. Ixxii. 8. ; Isa. xvi. 
8, ; Ezek. xlvii. 8. ; Mic. vii. 12. ; Zech. ix. 
10., &c. It is also used to describe the R. 
Nile, as in Isa. xix. 5. ; Nah. iii. 8,, &c. : the R. 
Euphrates, as in Isa. xxi. 1.; Jer. li. 36., &c. : 
the Sea of Gennesaret, as in Isa. ix. 1. ; Matt, 
iv. 15. ; Mk. iii. 7. ; Jo. vi. 16., &c, 

SEA-COAST, THE, an appellation sometimes 
used in the Bible to distinguish that portion 
of Canaan which was inhabited by the Phi- 
listines, Ezek, XXV. 16. ; Zeph. ii. 5, 6. 

SEBA, Gen. x. 7. ; 1 Chron. i. 9. ; Ps. Ixxii. 
10. ; Isa. xliii. 3. See Sabeans. 

SECACAH, a city of the tribe of Judah, 
one of the six mentioned as situated in the 
Wilderness, Josh. xv. 61. 

SECHU, a place near Ramah, probably in 
the tribe of Ephraim, but on the borders of 
Benjamin, whither *Saul came when pm'suing 
David, and near which he was miraculously 
compelled to prophesy, 1 Sam. xix. 22. 

SEIR, MT., still called Shehr, a long and 
irregular range of mountains, stretching from 
the S. extremity of the Salt or Bead Sea to 
the N. part of the iElanitic arm of the Red Sea, 
now called the G. of Akabah, Deut. i. 2., ii. 1., 
xxxiii. 2, It appears to have been connected 
on the KE. side with the ridge that traversed 
the trans -Jordanic country, and the region of 
Moab ; and on the N,W. with that of Acrabbim, 
to which apparently it was united by Mt. 



Plalak, Josh. xi. 17., xii. 7. Mt. Paran, Deut. 
xxxiii. 2., was probably a spur of it on the W., 
in that ridge which is called Melanes Montes 
in the profane authors ; and the lofty elevations 
of Horeb and Sinai may be considered as the 
W. termination of the whole chain of Seir in 
the peninsula of the Red Sea, though another 
branch of the main chain struck off S. E. into 
Arabia. Mt. Hor, where Aaron died and was 
buried, is one of the lofty elevations in this 
irregular chain, which is otherwise broken np 
into most wild and romantic strongholds, inter- 
spersed with evident traces of extinct volcanoes. 

The name of Seir was given to this mountain 
and its neighbourhood, from their having been at 
a very early period originally the dwelling- 
place of the patriarch Seir, Gen. xxxvi. 20. 30., 
1 Chron. i. 38,, and his posterity the Horims 
or Horites, Gen. xiv. 6,, xxxvi, 30. ; Deut. ii. 
12. 22. 29. ; until they were driven out by 
the children of Esau, Gen. xiv. 6, ; Deut. ii. 
12. 22. Hence, these descendants of Seir are 
sometimes designated the childbex of Seir, 
Gen. xxxvi. 21. ; though, after the conquest 
of the countiy by the Edomites, they too are 
called the children of Seir, 2 Chron. xx. 10. 22,, 
XXV. 11. 14. It was in these regions that 
Esau took up his abode long before the death 
of his father ; and hence his territory and that 
of all his posterity, the Edomites, is not un- 
frequently distinguished as the Land of Seir 
or Mt. Seir, Gen. xxxii. 3,, xxxiii. 14. 16., 
xxxvi. 8, 9. ; ISTum. xxiv. 18. ; Deut. i. 44,, 
ii. 4, 5. 8. 29. ; Josh. xxiv. 4. ; Judg. v. 
4,; 1 Chron. iv. 42.; 2 Chron. xx. 10. 22, 
23. ; Isa. xxi. 11. ; Ezek. xxv. 8., xxxv. 

2, 3. 7. 15. The name of Mt. Seir was evi- 
dently co-extensive with that of Edom, being 
applied to the whole ' region from Kadesh- 
barnea and Hormah on the S. limits of Canaan, 
to Ezion-geber on the Red Sea, Deut. i. 44., ii. 

3. 8, 

The Israelites during their v/andering in the 
Desert, spent many years in marching through 
the country on each side of Mt. Seir, as well 
as in its valleys ; and here they witnessed some 
of God's miraculous interpositions in their 
behalf, Deut. ii. 1. 3., xxxiii, 2, But they 
were forbidden to meddle with the inhabitants, 
or to seize on their land, because it had been 
already given to Esau and his descendants, 
Deut. ii. 6. ; 2 Chron. xx. 10. : yet Balaam 
afterwards foretold that Seir should be a pos- 
j session to Israel, Num. xxiv. 18. This pro- 
1 phecy appears to have begun to be accomplisLed 
soon after the settlement of the tribes in 



520 



SEIR, MT. 



SELA. 



Canaan, when some of the Simeonites took 
a part of the territory, 1 Chron. iv. 42, 43. ; 
but it was not wholly fulfilled until the reigns 
of David and Solomon, who, with a few of 
their successors, maintained the mastery over 
it, though not without many a struggle, 
2 Chron. xx. 10., which at length ended in the 
yoke of Israel being thrown off, 2 Kgs. viii. 22. 
See Edom. It now lies buried in that desola- 
tion which was foretold by the prophets Isaiah, 
xxi. 11., Ezekiel, xxxv. 2, 3. 7. 15., because of 
its hatred and persecution of Israel ; though 
it would appear, that on the final restoration 
of the Jews to their own land, Seir (at least 
its ISr. part) will again become fruitful and 
inhabited, as a portion of the Promised Land, 
Ezek. xlvii. 19., xlviii. 28. 

SEIR, MT., a hill on the N.W. border of the 
tribe of Judah, near the common confines of 
Dan, Benjamin, and Ephraim, Josh. xv. 10. ; 
it was connected, probably, with Mt. Jearim, 
and formed a spur of the main ridge of Ephraim, 
or the Mountains of Israel. 

SEIRATH, a place in the Mountain of 
Ephraim, whither Ehud escaped after he had 
slain Eglon, king of Moab, Judg. iii. 26. It 
seems to have been near the R. Jordan, between 
the Great Fords and Gilgal, on the borders of 
Ephraim and Benjamin. 

SELA or Selah (i.e. the Rock), a city of the 
Edomites, about midway between the S. ex- 
tremity of the Dead Sea and the head of the 
.^lanitic Gulf of the Red Sea, in a small but 
elevated valley of Mt. Seir, at the foot of 
Mt.' Hor. It was either in the Valley of Salt, 
or at no great distance to the S. of it, and is 
described by Isaiah as situated in the Wilder- 
ness. Its natural position is very strong, and it 
appears to have been made still more defensible 
by art. Though itself a beautiful and fertile spot, 
watered by a fine rivulet, it is surrounded on every 
side by almost inaccessible rocks, entered by along 
narrow gorge, capable of easy defence in those days 
hy a handful of men. Cf. Obad. 3, 4. It was 
further protected, especially on the side towards 
Canaan, and on the E., by the vast Desert of Shur, 
so dreaded for its drought and sterility. But 
besides being the royal residence of the kings of 
Edom, and a strong militar}- post for the defence 
of their territory, it was a most important depot 
and market for the merchandise of many far 
distant countries. Two opposite lines of road here 
crossed each other, so that traders were able to 
exchange and sell their commodities at Selah, or 
to rest and leave them in security until they 



pursued their journey. This was especially the 
case in later times, when the Greeks and Romans 
had begun to gain influence in the East, and 
to import some of its valuable productions- 
Selah is thought to be the same with the Rock, 
mentioned in Num. xxiv. 21., as the strong 
dwelling-place where the Kenites had put their 
nest, and which was probably a border city of 
the Amorites in this quarter, after the Israelites 
had taken possession of Canaan, Judg. i. 36. It 
is conjectured to be " the strong city " in Edom 
alluded to by the Psalmist, Ix. 9., cviii. 10. 
Selah was taken from the Edomites by Amaziah, 
king of Judah, who changed the name of 
the city to Joktheel, 2 Kgs. xiv. 7.; when 
10,000 of the captives whom they had taken, 
were led to the top of the Rock, and cast down 
headlong, 2 Chron, xxv. 12. It is conjectured, 
likewise, to have been the same with Gur-baal> 
mentioned in 2 Chron. xxvi. 7., as belonging 
to the Arabians whom Uzziah, the son of Ama- 
ziah, conquered ; for Selah was in that part of 
Ai-abia which was denominated'Arabia Petrgea. 

About a century later in ' the history, 
Selah appears to have been in the possession 
of the Moabites; whom the prophet Isaiah, xvi. 
1., warns to send the usual tribute of lambs to 
the king of Israel, lest in a few years its fina^ 
doom come upon it for its pride and idolatry' 
About 400 years afterwards, the Nabatha^an 
Arabs seem to have completely gained the as- 
cendancy over the Edomites, and either to have 
driven them out of their old capital, or to have 
been so incorporated with them that the 
Edomites, as a distinct race, quickly began to 
disappear; though the appellations IdumEeans 
and Idumaea continued for a long time to be ap- 
plied to this mixed race and to the country they 
inhabited. The name of Petra, Isa. xvi. L, 
marg., which is merely a Greek translation 
of the Hebrew word Selah, is henceforward the 
common name by which this ancient city of the 
Edomites is distinguished ia profane authors. It 
was twice attacked by the generals of Antigo- 
nus, the successor of Alexander the Great, 
who, though at first partially successful, were at 
length obliged to retreat. During the dominion 
of the Romans in Palestine, Petra is said to have 
still continued to be a royal city, and to have 
been constituted the capital of Arabia Petrfea ; a 
kingdom whose limits, in a general way, are 
conjectured to have been pretty much the same 
with those of ancient Edom. Trajan conquered 
Petra and the surrounding country, and sub- 
jected them to the Roman power; and Hadrian 
is thought to have called the city after himself. 



SELA-HAMMAHLEKOTH. 



SEPHAEAD. 321 



But soon aften\'ards Petra vanishes from the 
page of history, and but little is known of it, 
until its site was discovered by modern travellers 
in a small fertile valley now called Wad]/ 
Jlousa; the astonishing and beautiful ruins 
in which amply demonstrate the former splendour 
and magnificence of the now desolate city. 

According to Josephus, Petra was originally 
called Arce, or Arcem, as Eusebius writes 
it, identifying it with Eekem in Xum. xxxi. 8. ; 
mentioned as the name of one of the Midianite 
kings, confederate with Balaam, and slain by 
the Israelites. Others fancy that S-elah was 
the same place which in Gen. xvi. 14., xx. 
1., is called Kadesh ; but this is very doubt- 
ful. 

SELA-HAMMAHLEKOTH (i.e. the Rock 
of Divisions'), a place in the Wilderness of Maon, 
on the W. side of the Salt Sea, where Da^-id lay 
concealed from the treachery of the Ziphites 
and the persecution of Saul. The latter fol- 
lowed him hither, but was checked in his pursuit, 
owing to the Philistines invading Judah ; a cir- 
cumstance fi'om which this spot obtained its name, 
1 Sam. xxiii. 28. 

SELEUCIA, a maritime city in the X. part of 
Syria, whence Paul and Barnabas, with their 
companion Mark, embarked for Cyprus, after 
having been sent by the church at Antioch on 
their first missionary tour into Asia, Acts xiii. 4. 
It was about 15 miles to the S.W. of Antioch, and 
4 or 5 X. of the mouth of the E. Orontes, or Aaszi/ 
as it is now called ; it lay at the foot of Mt. Pieria, 
which was a spur of the more X. ridge of Ama- 
nus, that parted Syria from Asia Minor ; hence 
Seleucia was likewise called Pieria. It was pro- 
bably a very ancient town, and always the na- 
tural landing-place or port of the neighbom-ing 
city Antioch: but as this great metropolis 
of Xorthern S\T.-ia grew in importance and wealth, 
Seleucia became of more consequence, and was 
better adapted to its pm'pose. It is said to have 
been built by Seleucus Xicanor ; but it is more 
likely that he greatly enlarged and beautified it, 
constructed its fine harbour, and defended it 
with some of those fortifications then deemed 
impregnable. He also gave it the name of Se- 
leucia, and was at length buried there. It is 
frequently called Seleucia ad Mare, 1 Mace, 
xi. 8., in the profane authors, to distinguish it 
from the cities of the same name; the sur- 
rounding district was called Seleucis. Pompey 
gave it its freedom, a privilege it afterwards en- 
joyed under the Roman dominion. Its ruins are 
about a mile from the little town which has suc- 



ceeded it, and which is nearer the present 
mouth of the river ; it is still a place of some 
trade, called Souvadia. 

SEXAAH, CHILDREX OF, some of whom 
returned home with Zerubbabel from the capti- 
vity in Babylon, Ezra ii. 35. ; Xeh. vii. 38. 
They are thought to have been so named from 
the city where they had formerly dwelt, and 
which was probably in the territory of Judah. 

SEXEH, 1 Sam. xiv. 4. See Bozez. 

SEXIR, a mountain on the X. frontier of 
Manasseh beyond Jordan, 1 Chron. v. 23. ; it 
was famous for its fir-trees, of which the prophet 
Ezekiel, xxvii. 5., in his denunciations against 
Tyre, states that all her ship-boards were made. 
It was a spur of the general range of Mt. 
Hermon, different from the elevated ridge spe- 
cially so called, as well as from Baal-hermon, 
1 Chron. v. 23. ; So. of Sol. iv. 8. ; and appears also 
to have been the name given by the Amorites to 
the main chain of the Hermon, Deut. iii. 9. In 
the two last references it is written Shenir. See 
Hermox. 

SEPHAR, a mountain of the East, mentioned 
in Gen. s. 30., as a frontier of the descendants 
of Joktan. It is identified by many with the 
lofty range of mountains, called Sariphi Mon- 
tes in profane geography, which traverse the 
whole country between the modern divisions of 
Cabul and Balkh, and are connected with the 
lofty ranges now known as the Hindoo Coosh 
and the Himalaya. Others, however, place 
them in a very different locality, viz. in the 
S.W. part of Arabia Felix, where Pliny and 
other authors speak of the royal cit}^ Sapliar, 
now DJiafar, and the tribe Saphaiitas, not far 
from the coasts of the Red Sea and Indian 
Ocean. 

SEPHARAD, a place mentioned in the pro- 
phecy of Obadiah, 20., in connection with the 
captivity of Jerusalem ; Avhether the translation 
should be " the captivity of J erusalem, which is 
in Sepharad," or "which shall possess that 
which is in Sepharad," is doubtful. According 
to the former, the name would refer to some 
place in the Babylonian territory, or on its 
borders ; but what place is meant, and in which 
direction it lay, is altogether unknown. Jerome 
considered it to allude to the country near the 
Bosphorus ; others to Sipphara, a city of Mesopo- 
tamia a little to the X. of Babylon, and others 
fancy it refers to Sparta. But the word may 
be taken as an appellati%^e, signifying the border ; 
and if so, then it refers, according to some 
critics, to the frontiers of Arabia and Judah, or 
Y 



322 



SEPIIARYAIM. 



SHALLECHETH, THE GATE. 



as the context seems to call them, the cities of 
the South. 

SEPHARVAIM, a country and nation with a 
metropolis and king, whom according to the 
boast of Sennacherib to Hezekiah, he or some 
of the preceding Assyrian monarchs had con- 
quered, and apparently removed to another 
region, 2 Kgs. xviii. 34., xix. 13. ; Isa. xxxvi. 
19., xxxvii. 13. Amongst the places to which 
the Sepharvites were taken, were the cities of 
Samaria, in which they were located by Esar- 
haddon and other kings of Assyria, 2 Kgs. 
xvii. 24. ; Ezra iv. 2. 10. Here they set up 
the worship of their own idols until, being 
plagued by God with lions, the Assyrian mo- 
narch sent them a Jewish priest from Babylon 
to teach them the true religion ; whereupon they 
made a mixture of both, 2 Kgs. xvii. 31. 33. 
The locality of Sepharvaim is unknown. By 
many it is placed a little to the N. of Babylon, 
where, near the Euphrates, once stood the city 
Sipphara, now Seisira, mentioned by the profane 
authors as an important and flourishing place, 
and apparently the same with the city of the 
Sippareni spoken of by Eusebius. 

SEPHARVITES, 2 Kgs. xvii. 31., otherwise 
Sepharvaim ; which see. 

SEPHELA, a low district in the N.W. of 
JudEea towards the Philistine territory men- 
tioned in 1 Mace. xii. 38., as including the city 
Adida, which Simon Maccabasus repaired and 
fortified. According to Jerome, the name was 
confined, in his days, to the whole plain towards 
the N. and E. of Eleutheropolis ; but it seems to 
have been used in the Maccabsean times to 
designate what had been previously called the 
Plain of Sharon ; if, indeed, it did not rather 
include that whole lowland on the coast of the 
Mediterranean from Gaza to the foot of Mt. 
Carmel, which in the Old Testament is so fre- 
quently spoken of as The Valley or The 
Plain. 

SEVENEH, TOWER OF, Ezek. xxix. 10., 
marg., the Hebrew form of Syene ; which see. 

SEVEN STREAMS, THE, over which the 
prophet Isaiah, xi. 15., foretells that, in the latter 
days, the Lord will shake His hand, so that 
men may go over dryshod, and His ancient 
people return to their own land. They are 
usually conjectured to signifv the seven rivers 
or channels, by which the Nile enters the 
Mediterranean. 

SHAALABBIN, a city of the tribe of Dan, 



apparently near to Ajalon, Josh. xix. 42. It 
was probably the same mth 

SHAALBIM, which was in that neighbour- 
hood, near Mt. Heres, and from which the Is- 
raelites could not drive out the Amorites, though 
they put them to tribute, Judg. i. 35. It appears 
to have afterwards become an important place, 
and to have been in a productive country ; as it 
is mentioned in 1 Kgs. iv. 9., amongst the 
places and districts in the purveyorships of 
Solomon, for supplying the king and his house- 
hold with victuals. 

SHAALBONITE, a patronymic of Eliahba, 
one of David's thirtj^-seven mighty men, given 
him probably from having been born in Shaal- 
abbin or Shaalbim, 2 Sam. xxiii. 32. ; 1 Chron. 
xi. 33. 

SHAARAIM, a city on the borders of the 
Philistine territory, towards the districts of 
Judah and Simeon, past which the Israelites 
chased the routed Phitii^es after David's 
conquest of Goliath, 1 Sam. xvii. 52. It is as- 
signed to the tribe of Simeon in 1 Chron. iv. 31., 
and is probably the same place with the 
Sharaim of Josh. xv. 36. ; which was a city in 
the Great Valley, given by Joshua to the tribe 
of Judah, but afterwards, no doubt, included in 
the lot of Simeon. Cf. Josh. xix. 1. 

SHAHAZIMAH, a border city of the tribe of 
Issachar, Josh. xix. 22. 

SHALEM, a city of Shechem, in the land of 
Canaan, before which Jacob pitched his tent, 
when he came from Padan-Aram, Gen. xxxiii. 
18, Here he bought a parcel of a field where he 
had encamped from the children of Hamor, 
Shechem's father ; erecting an altar in it, which 
he called El-elohe-Israel, and dwelling here 
until he removed to Bethel, after the slaughter 
of the Shechemites by Dinah's brethren. Shalem 
was close to Shechem, or, as many think, the 
same place with it, the former being the more 
ancient name ; hence Stephen seems in Acts vii. 
16., to call it Sychem, See Shechem. 

SHALIM, LAND OF, 1 Sam. ix. 4., and 

SHALISHA, LAND OF, 1 Sam. ix. 4. ; two 

districts in the neighbourhood of Mt. Ephi-aim, 
on the Benjamite borders, traversed by Saul and 
his servant when seeking the asses of his father. 
It appears to have given name to Baal-shalisha, 
whence came the men with that offering of first- 
fruits to Elijah, wherewith he miraculously fed 
a hundred men at Gilgal, 2 Kgs. iv. 42. 

SHALLECHETH, THE GATE, one of the 



SHALLUM, CHILDREIT OF. 



SHECHEM. 



323 



principal gates of the Temple of Solomon, on the 
E. side, near the causeway of the Going-up, 
1 Chron. xxri. 16., -which, with the other three, 
were put each under a separate division of the 
porters of the Temple. The word signifies 
Casting-up; a name which it is thought this 
gate may have derived from its being near that 
ascent which Solomon made to go up to the 
House of the Lord, 1 Kgs. x. 5. 

SHALLUM, CHILDREN OF, a family of 
the porters, who came home with Zerubbabel 
after the edict of Cyrus, Ezra ii. 42.; Neh. 
vii. 45. 

SHALMAI or Shamlai, another family of 
the porters, who returned to Judseawith Zerub- 
babel, Ezra ii. 46. ; Neh. vii. 48. 

SHAMIR, a city of the tribe of Judah, in the 
hill country. Josh. xv. 48. 

SHAMIR, a city of Mt. Ephraim, and ap- 
parently in the tribe of Ephraim; it was the 
dwelling-place of Tola, who judged Israel for 
twenty-three years, and was at length buried 
here, Judg. x. 1, 2. 

SHAPHER, MT., an encampment of the Is- 
raelites in the Great Wilderness, after they had 
been made to turn S. from the borders of 
Canaan, on their murmuring at the report of the 
.spies. Num. xxxiii. 23, 24. 

SHARAIM, Josh. xv. 36., a city of Judah, in 
the Valley, the same with Shaaraim ; which see. 

SHARON, a city of the tribe of Gad, in 
Gilead in Bashan, 1 Chron. v. 16. It is thought 
by some to be the same with that Sharon which 
is mentioned in 1 Chron. xxvii. 29., where some 
of David's herds were pastured ; but this latter 
may refer to the famous Sharon on the shore of 
the Mediterranean. 

SHARON, YALE or PLAIN OF, 1 Chron. 
xxvii. 29. ; So. of Sol. ii. 1. ; Isa. xxxiii. 9., 
XXXV. 2., Ixv. 10. See Saron. 

SHARONITE, a patronymic of Shitrai, 
David's chief herdsman, 1 Chron. xxvii. 29. ; 
but from which Sharon it was derived is un- 
certain. 

SHARUHEN, a city assigned to the tribe of 
Simeon, Josh. xix. 6. 

SHAVEH, YALLEY OF, otherwise the 
King's Dale, where the Idng of Sodom went 
out to meet Abraham when he returned from 
the slaughter of Chedorlaomer and his con- 
federates; and where also Melchizedek, king of 



Salem, came to bless him, Gen. xiv. 17. See 
King's Dale. 

SHAYEH-KIRIATHAIM the Plain of 
Kiriathawi), a territory or district beyond Jor- 
dan, to the E. of the Yale of Siddim, belonging 
to the ancient nation of the Emims ; and where 
they were smitten by Chedorlaomer, king of 
Elam, and his confederates, about 1913 years 
before the Christian era, Gen. xiv. 5. See 
Kikjathaim. 

SHAULITES, a family of the tribe of Simeon, 
descended from his son Shaul, and numbered 
with all Israel in the Plains of Moab by Sloses, 
Num. xxvi. 13. 

SELEBA, Gen. x. 7. 28., xxv. 3. ; 1 Kgs. x. 
1. 4. 10. 13. ; 1 Chron. i. 9. 22. 32. ; 2 Chron. 
ix. 1. 9. 12.; Job vi. 19.; Ps. Ixxii. 10. 15.; 
Isa. Ix. 6. ; Jer. vi. 20. ; Ezek. xxvii. 22, 23., 
xxxviii. 13. See Sabeans. 

SHEBA, a city belonging to the tribe of 
Simeon, not far from the Edomite borders, and 
near Beersheba, Josh. xix. 2. 

SHEBAH (i. e. an Oath,) the name given by 
Isaac to a well digged by his servants in the 
S. part of Canaan, near the frontiers of Edoni 
and those of the Philistines, Gen. xxvi, 33. 
Round it, in later times, grew up the well- 
known city Beersheba ; which see. 

SHEBAM, an old city of the Amorites 
beyond Jordan, which, on the conquest of the 
land, was assigned by Moses to the Reuben- 
ites, who rebuilt and enlarged it, changing its 
name to Shibmah, Num. xxxii, 38. 

SHEBARIM, a place near Ai, probably 
between it and Bethel, whither the men of Ai 
chased the Israelites on their first assaulting 
the city. Josh. vii. 5. 

SHECHEM, an ancient and important city 
of Canaan, in the central part of the country, 
and about midway between the R. Jordan and 
the Mediterranean Sea. It is first mentioned in 
Gen. xii. 6., under the name of Sichem, as 
being in the Plain of Moreh, where Abraham 
is described as for the first time building an 
altar to the Lord in the Land of Promise ; but 
it appears uncertain from the expression there 
employed, whether the city was at that time 
actually built, or not. It was, however, evidently 
a place of some consideration, when about 180 
years afterwards, Jacob returned with his family 
from Padan-Aram, and here took up his abode. 
At that time the city was the royal residence 
of Hamor, the prince of the Hivites, Gen. xxxiv. 
Y 2 



324 



SHECHEM. 



2., and was called Shalem, Gen. xxxiii. 18., 
■which was in all probability its original name, 
though from its being also styled "a city of She- 
chem," it is not unlikely it bore also this name 
from some previous ruler who may have founded i 
it. At all events, it is soon designated Shechem^ 
in Holy Writ, Gen. xxxv. 4., and was, probably,' 
always thus distinguished by the Israelites,' 
though the old inhabitants may have continued 
to call it Shalem. | 
The narrow valley in which it was built lay 
between Mt. Ebal and Mt. Gerizim ; a parcel 
of a field in it, where he had pitched his tent, 
was bought by Jacob of the children of Hamor, 
and here he erected an altar which he called 
El-elohe-Israel. Upon the occasion of the 
slaughter of the Shechemites, and the spoiling 
of their city by Dinah's brethren, Jacob removed 
to Bethel, first burying under " the oak which 
was by Shechem," probably in his parcel of 
ground, the strange gods and the ear-rings he 
found upon his family. Gen. xxxv. 4. He is 
not said to have ever returned to it afterwards, 
though some of his sons went thither to feed 
their father's flock. Gen. xxxvii. 12, 13, 14. : 
though it has been conjectured from the lan- 
guage in Gen. xlviii. 22., that after the slaughter 
of the Shechemites, the Amorites seized on this 
parcel of ground, which Jacob recovered from 
them by force of arms at a time and in a way 
of which we are not informed. This parcel of 
ground was given by Jacob on his death-bed 
to Joseph, as one portion above his brethren 
(the birth-right having then become Joseph's, 
1 Chron. v. 2.) ; and is described by the vene- 
rable patriarch as having been taken by him 
out of the hand of the Amorite with his sword 
and with his bow, Gen. xlviii. 22. ; Jo. iv. 5. ; 
and here, when the Israelites took possession 
of Canaan, they buried the bones of Joseph, 
which they had brought up out of Egypt, and 
Shechem became the inheritance of the children 
of Joseph, Josh, xxiv. 32. Hence, perhaps, as 
well as from the Law being first promulgated 
from the neighbouring mountains, Josh, viii, 33., 
arose the consideration it held amongst the 
Israehtes as a great place of assembly for their 
nation, and more especially after the division of 
the kingdom : a distinction which Joshua 
himself seems to have put upon it, when, shortly 
before his death, he gathered all Israel to 
Shechem, rehearsed their history, renewed the 
covenant between them and God, and set up a 
great stone " under an oak," by the sanctuaiy 
there, as a witness of what had been done. Josh, 
xxiv. 1. 25. This sanctuary had probably been 



built upon the spot where, nearly 500 years 
before, Abraham had erected his altar to the 
Lord, as did Jacob also at a later period; and 
the oak of memorial, which is mentioned, both 
in the history of the latter patriarch and of 
Joshua, seems still to have been succeeded by 
another in the days of ^the judges, when the 
men of Shechem gathered round it, and made 
Abimelech their king, Judg. ix. 6., marg. 

On the division of the land of Canaan by 
Joshua, Shechem (or Shechem in Mt. Ephraim, 
as it was also designated, from its situation in 
that region, and to distinguish it, possibly, from 
the territory of Shechem in Gilead) fell within 
the limits of the tribe of Ephraim, though close 
on the borders of Manasseh, Josh. xvi. 6,, xvii. 
7. ; 1 Chron. vii. 28. It was eventually made a 
Levitical city for the Kohathites, and one of the 
three cities of refuge on this side Jordan, Josh. 
XX. 7., xxi. 21. ; 1 Chron. vi. 67. It appears also 
to have been strongly fortified either then, or at 
a later period, and to have been one of the many 
cities which, upon the death of Joshua, turned 
to idolatry. (The Sychemites are mentioned by 
the apociyphal writer of the book of Judith v. 
16., amongst the Canaanite nations cast out by 
the Israelites.) During the rule of the judges, 
Abimelech, the son of Gideon by his concubine 
in Shechem, Judg. viii. 31., persuaded the She- 
> chemites to make him their king, in preference 
to any of the seventy other sons of Gideon, and 
to assist him in putting them to death. Ac- 
cordingly, they were all barbarously slain, with 
the exception of Jotham, the youngest son, 
who, after Abimelech had been made king, Avent 
to the top of Mt. Gerizim, and there, in the 
hearing of the men of Shechem, invoked a 
curse upon them and Abimelech, and foretold 
their ruin, Judg. ix. 1, 2, 3. 6, 7. 18. 20. After 
three years this curse was fulfilled by intestine 
divisions, when the Shechemites were conquered 
by Abimelech, their city beaten down and sown 
with salt, and the stronghold of their false god 
Baal-Berith, burnt with fire, Judg. ix. 23, 24, 
25, 26. 28. 31. 41. 49. 57. It was, however, no 
doubt soon rebuilt; for as it stood upon the 
highway that traversed the whole land, Judg. 
xxi. 19., it must have been a very important 
station for travellers and merchants, as well as in 
a military and national point of view. Accord- 
ingly, it appears, on the death of Saul, to have 
been in such a flourishing condition as to be 
enumerated by David amongst those places 
which, though then hostile to him, yet should 
eventually be subject to his sway, Ps. Ix. 6., 
cviii. 7. 



SHECHEM. 



SHEM. 



325 



^VTien Eehoboam succeeded his fiitlier Solo- 
mon, we find that all Israel assembled at Shechem 
to make him king, 1 Kgs. xii. 1. ; 2 Chron. x. 1. ; 
and vi-hen the Ten Tribes had revolted from him, 
Jeroboam enlarged and strengthened it, and 
dwelt therein, 1 Kgs. xii. 25. It was probably, 
also, the capital in which his successor Nadab 
reigned. But Baasha, the third king, removed 
the roval residence to Tirzah (where Jeroboam 
also had dwelt), which seems to have enjoyed 
this distinction until Omri built Samaria, which 
thenceforth became the great metropolis of the 
Ten Tribes. It survived the destruction of Jeru- 
salem, and some of its inhabitants who were 
coming to lament its ruin, were treacherously 
murdered by Ishmael, Jer. xii. 5. It was no 
doubt one of the places peopled jointly by the 
colonists of Esar-haddon, and by the Israelites 
who had escaped from the captivity of Shalma- 
neser ; and at length became the head-quarters 
of that mixed Samaritan worship which was 
more idolatrous than anything else, Jo. iv. 22. ; 
especially after the erection of the temple on Mt. 
Gerizim. Hence the apocryphal writer in Ecclus. 
1. 26., styles the Samaritans " that foolish people 
that dwell in Sichem." It was conquered by 
John Hyrcanus when he destroyed the neigh- 
bouring temple : but it still existed in the I^ew 
Testament times ; for here the Blessed Saviour 
had that deeply interesting conversation by 
Jacob's Well with the woman of Samaria, which 
is recorded by the evangelist St, John, iv. 5., 
who writes the name Sychak. In the discourse 
of Stephen to the unbelieving Jews, just before 
his martyrdom, Stephen speaks of Sychem, 
Acts vii. 16., as the place where the Jewish 
fathers had been brought from Egypt and buried. 
The bones of Joseph, we know, were interred 
there, and according to tradition, so were the 
bodies of all Jacob's other sons. With respect 
to its being here said that Abraham purchased 
the land of the sons of Emmor, whereas Jacob 
is mentioned as having done so in Gen. xxxiii. 
19., it is thought that Stephen may have referred 
to some purchase of the land by Abraham when 
he built his altar there ; or else that, seeing the 
name of Abraham is not found in all the old 
manuscripts, some transcriber has introduced 
it into the text, which would be perfect without 
it, and the reading would then be " which he 
(i.e. Jacob) bought of the sons of Emmor." 
— A new suburb was added to Shechem some 
time about the beginning of the Christian era, 
though it is not known when or by whom. It is 
first spoken of by Josephus, though the name is 
frequently mentioned at a later date by some of 



the heathen and ecclesiastical writers. It ap- 
pears to have been close to the old city, and was 
called Neapolis, now corrupted into that of 
Napolose or Nablous, one of the largest and 
pleasantest cities in modern Palestine. 

SHECHEMITES, a family of the Gileadites, 
grandchildren of Manasseh, who were num- 
bered by Moses, with all Israel, in the Plains 
of Moab, Num. xxvi. 31. They were descended 
from Shechem, a son of Gilead, and had their 
inheritance assigned to them beyond Jordan, 
in part of Gilead and Bashan, Josh. xvii. 2. 
It is to these Shechemites David is thought 
by some critics to allude in Ps. Ix. 6., cviii. 7. : 
but this is doubtful. 

SHEEP-GATE, the name of one of the 
principal gates of Jerusalem, probably on the 
E. side, opposite the Mt. of Olives, and lead- 
ing from the Vale of Kidron to the Temple. 
It is thought to have obtained its name from 
the victims which were intended for sacrifice 
being taken thi'ough it. On the rebuilding 
of the wall of the city under Nehemiah, after 
the return of the Jews from Babylon, the 
Sheep -gate was repaired by the high priest 
Eliashib, and his brethren the priests; and 
is the point where Nehemiah commences and 
ends his account of the rebuilding of the walls, 
Neh. iii. 1. 32. It is also mentioned by him as 
one of the stations of himself and the Levites 
and princes when dedicating the wall, xii. 39. 
It is believed by many writers to have been 
the place referred to in Jo. v. 2., which in our 
translation is rendered " Sheep -market ;" the 
latter part of which word is wanting in the 
original. 

SHEEP-MARKET, THE, nigh unto which, 
on the N. side of the Temple of Jerusalem, 
was the Pool of Bethesda, where the Blessed 
Saviour healed the man who had been a cripple 
for thirty-eight years, Jo. v. 2. It was probably 
close to the Sheep-gate ; which see. 

SHELANITES, a family of the tribe of 
Judah, numbered by Moses in the Plains of 
Moab, They were descended from Shelah, a son 
of Judah, Gen, xxxviii. 5. ; Num. xxvi. 20, ; 
and on their settlement in Canaan, seem to have 
been anciently famous as weavers of fine linen, 
1 Chron. iv. 21. 

SHEM, one of the three sons of Noah, gene- 
rally believed to have been the second, though 
usually mentioned first in Holy Writ, Gen. 
V. 32,, vi, 10,, vii. 13., ix. 18,, 26, 27., x. 21. ; 
1 Chron, i. 4, 17, 24. On the occasion of the 
Y 3 



826 



SHEMA. 



SHEPHAM. 



■wicked conduct of Ham towards his father, 
I^'oah pronounced an especial blessing upon 
Shem, connecting his name in a mysterious 
way with that of Jehovah ; and, no doubt, thus 
intimating that the Lord would be his God 
in some particular manner, Gen, ix. 26. At 
the same time, it was foretold that Canaan 
should be his servant. Accordingly, we find 
that Abraham, and consequently the Jews, 
descended from him ; and of him^ as concerning 
the flesh, Christ came, who is over all, God 
blessed for evermore, Eom. ix. 5. It was like- 
wise by the descendants of Shem that, when the 



cup of their iniquity was full, the Canaanites 
were subjected, and rooted out of the Promised 
Land. The descendants of Shem appear to 
have spread over, and ultimately possessed, 
the whole continent of Asia, to the S. of what 
is now called Tartary, with the exception, in 
a general way, of Arabia and Asia Minor, but 
the prophecy that Japheth (who settled chiefly 
in Europe) should dwell in the tents of Shem, 
Gen. ix. 27., was fulfilled in due season, and 
is noAV iu these last times more tban ever seen to 
be accomplished. The descendants of Shem 
were as follows : 



SHE?J. 
I 



Elam. 



Arphaxad. 
I 

I Salah I 
I Eber. | 



Ldd. 



Aram. 
I 

I Ur. I 
Hul. 
Gether. 
Mash. 



Peleg. 

_J 

I Keu. I 

I Serug. I 

i Nahor. | 

i 'I'erah. | 



Ahrahain. 
I 



Nahor. 



Ishmael. 



Isaac. 
I 



Jacob. 
I 



Haran. 
I 

I Lut. I 

I Muab. I 
Amjnon. 



Joktan. 
I 

I Almodad. | 
Sheleph. 
Hazarmaveth. 
Jerah. 
Haderam. 
Uzal. 
Diklah. 
Obal. 
Abimael. 
Sheba. 
Opliir. 
Havilah. 
Jobab. 



I TheTwelveTribes. | 



1 Eliphaz. 1 
1 Amalek. \ 

SHEMA, a city in the S. territory of the 
tribe of Judah, towards the frontier of Edom, 
Josh. XV. 26. It is supposed to have been the 
abode of the Shumathites, 1 Chron. ii. 53, 

SHEMIDA, CHILDREN OF, a family of 
the Manassites, who had an inheritance as- 
signed to them beyond Jordan, in Bashan, Josh, 
xvii. 2. ; 1 Chron. vii. 19. They are called, 

SHEMIDAITES in Num. xxvi. 32., and 
Avere numbered by Moses in the Plains of Moab, 
together with all Israel. 

SHEN, a city of Judah, on the borders of the 
tribes of Benjamin and Dan. Between it and 
Mizpeh, Samuel set up the stone of remem- 
brance, which he named Ebenezer, in com- 
memoration of the signal victory there obtained 
by the Israelites over the Philistines, 1 Sam. vii, 
12., to whose frontier it was adjaceot. 



SHENIR, MT,, Deut. iii. 9. ; So, of Sol, iv, 8. 
See Senir. 

SHEPHAM, a place mentioned in Num. 
xxxiv. 10, 11., as being on the N.E. frontiers 
of the land of Israel. It lay between Hazar- 
enan and Riblah. It is supposed by some to 
have been the same with what was afterwards 
called Apamia, now Kalaat el Medyk, a city 
on the R. Orontes, said to have been founded 
by Antigonus, who called it Pella, after the 
famous city of that name in Macedonia. But 
when Seleucus afterwards enlarged^ this Pella, 
he named it Apamia, in honour of his consort. 
It was in so fruitful a country, that Seleucus 
made it the great depot of his army ; and he 
is stated to have kept there 500 elephants. 
This position, however, seems too far N. to 
suit that of Shepham, 



SHEPHATIAH, CHILDREN OF. 



SHILOAH. 



327 



SHEPHATIAH, CHILDREN OF. There 
were two families thus designated, -who returned 
after the Babylonian captivity to their posses- 
sions in Judah ; one probably so named after their 
city, Ezra ii. 4. ; Neh. vii. 9. ; and one numbered 
-vyith what are described as Solomon's servants, 
Ezra ii. 57. ; Neh. vii. 59. 

SHESHACH, an appellation given by the 
prophet Jeremiah, xxv. 26., li. 41., to the city of 
Babylon; but why, is not in the least known. 
Some suppose the name is merely a mystical 
transposition of the letters in the word Babylon ; 
others, that it is an epithet descriptive of its 
enormous gates ; others, that it alludes to the 
insolent pride of its sovereigns. But the most 
probable conjecture seems to be, that the epithet 
relates to a certain great idol worshipped there, 
the name of which, according to some accounts, 
was Shach. ilt is said, an annual festival was 
kept in its honour for five days, and that it was 
during one of these seasons of universal carousal 
that Cyrus took the city. Cf. Jer. li. 39. 57. 

SHETH, CHILDREN OF, whom Balaam 
foretold should be destroyed by the sceptre that 
should rise out of Israel, Num. xxiv. 17. The 
appellation is conjectured to be another one for 
the Moabites, derived, perhaps, from some famous 
ancestor or leading tribe. Others, however, 
think it is to be taken literally for the children 
of Sheth (or Seth), the son of Adam, and father 
of all the post-diluvian world ; and that the 
word here translated " destroy " should be ren- 
dered " build up." 

SHIBMAH, Num. xxxii. 38., another name 
for Shebam ; which see. 

SHICRON, a place on the N.W. frontier of the 
tribe of Judah, between Mt. Jearim and the sea, 
not far from Ekron, Josh. xv. 11. 

SHIHON, a city of the tribe of Issachar, Josh, 
xix. 19. 

SHIHOR-LIBNATH, Josh. xix. 26., a place 
on the borders of the tribe of Asher. It is con- 
jectured by some to signify the river of glass, 
and to have been the same with what in profane 
history is called the R. Belus, now Naamany ; 
and from the sands of which it is stated glass 
was first made. Cf. Deut. xsxiii. 19., where it 
is stated that Zebulun, which joined Asher, shall 
suck of the abundance of the seas, and of 
"treasures hid in the sand." 

SHIHOR OF EGYPT, 1 Chron. xiii. 5., 
another name for the River of Egypt ; which see. 
It is also written Sihor, Josh. xiii. 3., and was 



the frontier between Canaan and Egypt on the 
S.W. This little stream, which is a mere tor- 
rent of the Wilderness, must not be confounded 
with the Nile, which appears to be likewise 
called Sihor in Isa. xxiii. 3. ; Jer. ii. 18. 

SHILHIM, a city in the S. part of the tribe 
of Judah, reckoned amongst those which were 
on the borders of Edom, Josh. xv. 32. 

SHILLEMITES, a family of the tribe of 
Naphtali, so called after his son Shillem, Gen. 
xlvi. 24., and numbered by Moses in the Plains 
of Moab, Num. xxvi. 49. 

SHILOAH, a perennial and beautiful fountain 
on the S.E. of Jerusalem, at the foot of the walls 
of the city, and apparently springing from the 
very rock of Zion ; whence it flows Avithout a 
single murmur, as clear as crystal. It was near 
the King's Garden, having Mt. Moriah to the 
N.W., and on the E. the Brook Kidron, into 
which probably its waters eventually find their 
way. It is said to have been the nearest fountain 
to the Temple, which was supplied with water 
from it; and there is a tradition, that it was 
customary to draw water out of it, and to pour 
it out before the Lord in the Temple at the time 
of the evening sacrifice ; a custom thought to be 
alluded to in Jo. vii. 37., by the Blessed Re- 
deemer, before whose eyes it is conjectured 
this ceremony was being then carried on with 
much solemnity. The prophet Isaiah, viii. 6., 
speaks of these gently flowing waters of Shiloah ; 
and under them, as a type, represents the Israel- 
ites, and many of the Jews also, as rejecting the 
mild and equitable government of the posterity 
of David, and so, the still greater blessing 
which was to descend from them; and con- 
curring with Rezin, king of Syria, and Pekah, 
king of Israel, in their efforts to ruin Jerusalem. 
The pool of SiLOAH still existed in the time of 
Nehemiah, iii. 15., who speaks of it as lying 
under the new walls of the city which were 
erected by him. In Jo. ix. 7. 11.. it is called 
the Pool of SiLOAM (i.e. by interpretation Sent) ; 
and was the place in which the Divine Re- 
deemer, the Shiloh or Sent One, told the blind 
man to go and wash, in order to his cure, when 
He met him as He came forth from the Temple. 
There was a tower near it, probably on the great 
wall of the city, which is called the Tower in 
SiLOA3i in the Gospel of St. Luke, xiii. 4. ; 
alluded to by our Lord as having fallen upon 
and killed eighteen persons. This beautiful 
fountain is still flowing, and much resorted to 
for its clear and delicious water. It is now some- 
times called the Fountain of the Stairs, from the 
T 4 



328 



SHILOII. 



SHIMRON-MEROK. 



steps which lead down to it. Gf. Joel iii. 18. *, 
Zech. xiv. 8. 

SHILOH, a famous city of Israel, which, on 
the division of Canaan by Joshua, fell to the lot 
of the tribe of Ephraim. It lay to the N. of 
Bethel, Judg. xxi. 19. ; and according to 
Eusebius, 12 miles, though Jerome says 10 
miles, from Shechem, in a S.E. direction, about 
midway between Mt. Ephraim and the R. 
Jordan. It was the place where the Tabernacle 
was first set up in the Promised Land, b.c. about 
1444, Josh, xviii. 1. ; and here it remained for 
303 years, until it was captured by the Phi- 
listines, Judg. xviii. 31. ; 1 Sam. i. 3. 9. 24., il. 
14., iv. 3, 4. 12. At Shiloh, likewise, Joshua 
divided the rest of the land amongst those tribes 
which had not yet received their inheritance, 
casting lots for it before the Lord, Josh, xviii. 
8, 9, 10., xix. 51. ; and appointed by lot, also, 
the forty-eight cities of the Levites out of all 
the tribes of Israel, xxi. 2. During this time, 
and probably the whole interval of five or six 
years after their removal from Gilgal, the host 
of Israel appears to have remained at Shiloh ; 
and did not quit it until all departed to their in- 
heritance, and the two tribes and a half recrossed 
the Jordan, Josh, xviii. 9., xxii. 9. 12.; though 
it probably continued to be the great place of 
gathering for the whole nation as long as the 
ark of God was there, Josh. xxii. 12. ; Judg. 
xxi. 12. There was a yearly feast in Shiloh, 
which, by consent, was made the occasion of 
the remnant of the Benjamites surprising the 
virgins that danced there, and supplying them- 
selves with wives, Judg. xxi. 19. 21. 

At Shiloh the Lord was pleased to reveal 
Himself to Samuel, who had been brought 
hither as an offering to Him by his mother, 

1 Sam. i. 24., iii. 21. ; and here when he heard, 
that the ark of God had been taken by the 
Philistines, Eli fell backward and died, 1 Sam. 
iv. 12. 18., xiv. 3. ; 1 Kgs. ii. 27. It does not 
appear that the ark was ever again brought to 
Shiloh, Ps. Ixxviii. 60., though, possibly, the 
Tabernacle may have continued there for many 
years. It is not unlikely, too, that a school of 
the prophets still existed here; for it was the 
ordinary residence of the prophet Ahijah, hence 
surnamed the Shilonite, who foretold to Jero- 
boam his future dignity, and the punishment of 
Solomon's idolatry, 1 Kgs. xi. 29., xii. 15. ; 

2 Chron. ix. 29., x. 15.; and who was also 
afterwards consulted by the wife of Jeroboam 
concerning the sickness of their son Abijah, 
1 Kgs. xiv. 2. 4. It seems probable that, at a 



later date, Shiloh had become a centre of idolatry 
with the people of Israel; for the prophet 
Jeremiah describes it as having been signally 
visited with the vengeance of the Almighty; 
and by its example, the idolatrous inhabitants 
of Judah and Jerusalem were bidden to take 
warning, lest their Temple and city should be 
made like it, Jer. vii. 12. 14., xxvi. 6. 9. This 
calamity, which was finally accomplished on it, 
probably when the Ten Tribes were taken 
captive by Shalmaneser, had no doubt been 
gradu.ally falling on Shiloh ever since the death 
of Eli. The House of God which was there, 
Judg. xviii. 31., xix. 18., xx. 18. 26., or the 
Temple of the Lord, as it is also called, 1 Sam. 
i. 9., iii. 3., was no doubt then made a scene of 
utter desolation, in which the city also largely 
participated; but since Jeremiah speaks of the 
latter as existing when Jerusalem was destroyed, 
xli. 5., it would seem to have been partially 
restored in the interval between the two great 
captivities. On the return of the Jews from 
Babylon under Zerubbabel, Shiloh Avas one of 
the first cities which was re-inhabited, 1 Chron. 
ix. 5. ; after which it disappeai-s from all 
authentic history. Jerome fancied he had dis- 
covered the traces of the great altar ; and some 
modern travellers speak of its ruins as still 
existing under the name of Seilun. 

SHILOmTES, 1 Kgs. xi. 29., xii. 15.; 
1 Chron. ix. 5. ; 2 Chron. ix. 29., x. 15. ; the in- 
habitants of Shiloh ; which see. 

SHIMEATHITES, a family of the Kenites, 
who dwelt at Jabez, 1 Chron. ii. 55.; they 
appear to have been scribes. 

SHIMEI, PURVEYORSHIP OF, 1 Kgs. iv. 
18., one of Solomon's twelve divisions of his 
kingdom for supplying himself and his house- 
hold with victuals; it was in the lot of Ben- 
jamin. 

SHIMITES, Num. iii. 21., a family of the 
Gershonites, so called after Shimei, the son of 
Gershon, iii. 18. 

SHIMRON, an ancient royal city of the 
Canaanites in the N. part of the country, the 
king of which united with Jabin, king of Hazor, 
and many other confederate kings of Canaan, 
to attack Joshua and the Israelites ; but being 
beaten at the Waters of Merom, they were put 
to death, and their cities spoiled, Josh. xi. 1. 12., 
xii. 20. On the division of the land amongst 
the seven tribes and a half, it was allotted to 
Zebulun, Josh. xix. 15. It is called 

SHIMRON-MERON in Josh. xii. 20., possibly 



SHIMROXITES. 



SHITTBr. 



S29 



)m its neighbourhood to the little lake on the 
of it, through which the Jordan finds its way 
to the loAver Lake of Gennesaret. 

SHIMROXITES, a family of the tribe of 
sachar, numbered by Moses in the Plains of 
oab, Num. xxvi. 24. 

SHIXAE, LAND OF, a country of Asia, to 
e S. of Ararat and E. of Syria, generally 
lieved to correspond with that whole level 
untry between the R. Euphrates and Tigris, 
hich was afterwards known b}' the names of 
esopotamia and Babylonia, and now is called 
I Jezira and Irak-Arabi. It was in this region 
.at, about a hundred years after the Flood, 
hen the whole earth was of one language, 
men jom-neyed E., they found the Plain, 
here they began to build the Tower of Babel ; 
id Avhere God was pleased to confound their 
nguage, and to scatter them abroad upon the 
ce of all the earth. Gen, xi. 2. Xot many 
jars after this, about 2218 B.C., the land of 
biinar is again mentioned as having formed 
irt of the most ancient kingdom in the world, 
:z. the kingdom of Ximrod, the son of Gush, 
id grandson of Ham ; and as then containing 
le four cities of Babel, Erech, Accad, and 
alneh. Gen. x. 10. Hence it is called by the 
rophet Micah, v. 6., the land of Ximrod, when 
iretelling the desolation of Assyria, whereof it 
irmed a part. About 300 years after this period, 
le land of Shinar is again spoken of as having 
sen governed by its king, Amraphel, who was 
mfederate with Chedorlaomer, the king of 
ilam, and two other monarchs, when they made 
'ar with the Cities of the Plain, and were 
ventually conquered and slain by Abraham, 
ren. xiv. 1. 9. ; Heb. vii. 1. 
After this, the names of Assyria and Babylon 
3em, in Holy Scripture, to be always applied to 
tie whole of this region ; that of Shinar occurs 
nly three times more in the Bible. The prophet 
)aniel, i. 2., evidently identifies it with Babylon; 
)r he states that Nebuchadnezzar carried away 
rom the Temple of Jerusalem some of the holy 
essels, which he carried into the land of Shinar, 
ato the treasure-house of his god. The meaning 
f the name in Zechariah, v. 11., is not so 
pparent; though the passage pointedly de- 
lares, that the wickedness of the Jews will 
gain be the cause of their desolation and dis- 
lersion ; and that when the measure (or ephah) 
if their iniquity is full, it and their nation (the 
s^oman in the ephah) shall be sealed down 
mder the judgment of God, to bear the burden 
•f His wrath in a distant land. According to 



most critics, the land of Shinar, whither the 
two women bore the ephah, is to be literally but 
extensively interpreted, and thus signifies the 
whole country beyond the Euphrates, whither 
many of the Jews escaped, or were borne 
captives during the desolating dominion of the 
Seleucidse and Romans; but others conjecture, 
that as, in prophecy, Babylon mystically re- 
presents Rome Papal, so the land of Shinar may, 
in some way or other, here refer to that pagan 
and idolatrous power in the midst of which the 
remnant of the Jews has lived ever since the 
final destruction of their polity, and by which 
they have been so remorselessly persecuted. 
But in the third passage, alluded to above, the 
prophet Isaiah, xi. 11., foretells that in the latter 
days, the Jews shall be recovered from Shinar, 
as from the other places whither they have been 
scattered, and restored to their own land ; and 
here, again, the regions to the E. of the 
Euphrates seem to be pointed at. The name of 
Shinar is not met with in the profane authors, 
but they mention several places in that region, 
which bear evident traces of the old name ; as 
in the city Singara, now Sinjar, the mountain 
Singaras, and the region of Singar, the last of 
which seems in some measure retained in the 
appellation Shamar, still applied to a district on 
the W. side of the R. Tigris, near Bagdad. 

SHIPHMITE, a patronymic of Zabdi, one of 
David's officers, who was over the vineyards ; 
but whence derived is unknown, 1 Chron. 
xxvii. 27. 

SHITTIM, a valley in the Plains of Moab, on 
the E. of Jordan, opposite Gilgal, and not far 
from the entrance of that river into the Salt 
Sea. It was here that the Israelites under 
Moses encamped for the last time before they 
entered Canaan, their line extending from Beth- 
jesimoth to Abel-Shittim (i.e. the Plains of 
Shittim), Xum. xxxiii. 49. Whilst they were 
here Balaam was hired by Balak, king of Moab, 
to curse them, but the Lord was pleased to turn 
their purposed curse into a blessing, until He 
brought them safely through the bed of the 
Jordan unto Gilgal ; a circumstance of which more 
than 700 years afterwards. He reminded the 
rebellious Jews by His prophet Micah, vi. 5. 
Yet Balaam's wicked counsel to Balak so far 
succeeded against Israel, that whilst they abode 
here, they began to commit whoredom with the 
Moabites, and to copy their idolatry; for 
which sins, 24,000 of them perished by the 
plague, and all others that were joined to Baal- 
peor were slain, Xum. xxv. 1. After the death 



330 



SHOA. 



SHUMATHITES. 



of Moses, Joshua sent out the spies from Shittim 
to view Jericho; and when they returned he 
moved down to the banks of the Jordan, where- 
upon God was graciously pleased miraculously 
to divide the waters of the river for His people 
to pass over on dry ground, Josh. ii. 1., iii. 1.] 

The prophet Joel, iii. 18., when foretelling 
some of the glorious wonders of tlie latter days, 
declares that a fountain shall come forth of the 
House of the Lord, which shall water the 
Valley of Shittim; in which passage, it is 
generally conjectured some place on the W. 
side of the Jordan is signified, such as the 
Valley of the Brook Kidron ; and that the pro- 
per name should be rendered, as an appellative, 
the Valley of Acacias. The Valley of Shittim 
is supposed to have derived its name from its 
abounding in those trees from which the Shittim 
wood was obtained. This wood, which is fre- 
quently mentioned in the book of Exodus, is 
usually identified with one of the fragrant 
acacias, so valuable for its beauty and durability. 

SHOA, a country of the East mentioned by the 
prophet Ezekiel, xxiii. 23., as one of those 
which shall be confederate with Babylon when 
advancing to the coming destruction of Jeru- 
salem. It alludes, no doubt, to some dependency 
of the great Chaldean empire, possibly in the 
S.W. part of Persia, where afterwards, we meet 
with the city Shushan in Holy Writ; and in 
the profane authors, with the people called 
Cosssei, the district Cissia, and the province 
Susiana. 

SHOBAT, CHILDREJ^ OF, a family of the 
porters, who returned home with Zerubbabel 
after the Babylonian captivity, Ezra ii. 42. ; 
Neh. vii. 45. 

SHOCHOH, a city in the N.W. part of the tribe 
of Judah, near Azekah, and not far from the 
borders of the Philistines in Ephes-dammim. 
Here they lay encamped previous to the great 
battle in the Valley of Elah, where, after the 
slaughter of Goliath by David, they were so 
signally beaten by the Israelites, 1 Sam. xvii, 1. 
It was from its position an important place, and 
no doubt often contested in the constant wars of 
the Jews with the Philistines. Rehoboam re- 
built and fortified it at the beginning of his reign 
to strengthen himself against the Ten Tribes, 
as well as against the old enemies of his country, 
2 Chron. xi. 7., where it is written Shoco. But 
in the time of Ahaz, king of Judah, the Philis- 
tines again got possession of Shocho ; and on 
account of his wickedness were permitted sorely 
to trouble him in other quarters also, 2 Chron. 



xxviii. 18. It is conjectured to be the same 
with that SocoH mentioned in Josh. xv. 35., as 
a city of Judah, lying in the Valley, and it may 
possibly have been the Sochoh, Avhich consti- 
tuted a part of the district of Ben-hesed, one of 
Solomon's twelve divisions of the land of Israel 
for supplying the king and his household Avith 
victuals. Eusebius states that there were two 
cities of the name of Socho, the higher and 
the lower. This, however, may perhaps refer to 
the two mentioned in Josh. xv. 35. 48., one of 
which was in the mountains, and the other in 
the Valley. 

SHOMEROX, 1 Kgs. xvi. 24., marg., the 
Hebrew form of the name Samaria ; which see. 

SHOPHAX, a city of Gilead, either built or 
repaired by the children of Gad, when they 
took possession of their inheritance, Xum. 
xxxii. 35. It was, perhaps, the same with 
Zaphon, Josh. xiii. 27., an old city of the king- 
dom of Sihon. 

SHUAL, LAND OF, a region in the E. part 
of Canaan, in the neighbourhood of Ophrah ; 
and so, probably, in the E. part of the lot of 
Manasseh this side Jordan. It was pillaged by 
a band of the Philistine army in the days of 
Saul, 1 Sam. xiii. 17. 

SHUHAIVIITES, a family of the tribe of Dan, 
so called after his son Shuham. They were num- 
bered by Moses, together with the rest of the 
nation, in the Plains of Moab, Num. xxvi. 42, 

43. 

SHUHITE, a patronymic applied to Bildad ; 
the friend of Job, Job ii. 11., viii. 1., xviii. 1., 
XXV. 1., xiii. 9. -It is conjectured by some to 
have been derived from Sbuah, a son of Abraham 
by Keturah, Gen. xxv. 2.; but all these sons 
are stated to have been sent away by him east- 
ward, into the East country. There is, however, 
a district called Saccsea, placed by Ptolemy to 
the E. of Bashan, and so, in the neighbourhood 
of the land of Uz ; and this appellation, which 
betrays a trace of the old name Shuhites, may 
bave been given it from some of Shuah's family 
having settled there. 

SHUL AMITE, a name applied to the bride 
in the So. of Sol. vi. 13. It is conjectured to 
be derived from Solomon, the peaceable king, or 
rather from Salem, the City of Peace, and it 
seems to mean the peaceable or the reconciled 
one. 

SHUMATHITES, a family of the tribe of 
Judah, connected with Caleb, 1 Chron. ii. 53. ; 



SHUi^AMMITE. 



SHUSHAN. 331 



the)' are supposed to have inliabited Shema, a 
city in the S. of Judah, Josh. xv. 26. 

SHUNAMMITE, a patronymic applied to 
Abishag, "vvho had been selected from all Israel, 
and brought to David to comfort him in his old 
age, 1 Kgs. i. 3. 15., ii. 17. 21, 22. It was also 
used to designate that great woman who, with 
her husband, was so kind to Elisha ; and whose 
son that prophet restored to life, 2 Kgs. iv. 12. 
25, 36. Both of them are thought to be thus 
designated from 

SHUNEM, a city of the tribe of Issachar, 
Josh. xix. 18., where the Philistines pitched their 
camp previous to the fatal battle of Gilboa, 1 
Sam. xxviii. 4. Shunem was frequently passed 
through by Elisha, for whom at length a great 
woman of the city, together with her husband, 
prepared a suitable lodging, 2 Kgs. iv. 8. ; a 
good service, for which in many miraculous and 
providential ways, they received a prophet's 
reward. 

SHUNITES, a family of the tribe of Gad, 
numbered by Moses in the Plains of Moab, Num. 
xxvi. 15. They were so called after Shuni, a son 
of Gad, Gen. xlvi. 16. 

SHUPHAMITES, a family of the Benjamites 
so named after Shupham, a son of Benjamin, and 
numbered with all Israel just before they crossed 
the Jordan, Num. xxvi. 39. 

SHUK, the name applied to thatN.W. part of 
the Great Desert of Mt. Sinai, which lies be- 
tween the Mediterranean Sea and Canaan on the 
N. and the Red Sea on the S. ; extending from 
Egypt on the W. to Kadesh on the E. It was 
a portion of that barren and howling waste 
which was the scene of the wandering of the 
Israelites for the forty years ; and is commonly 
designated in Holy Writ as the Desert or the 
Wilderness. See Desert. It is first mentioned 
as the place near which the angel of the Lord 
found Hagar, Gen. xvi. 7., when she fled from 
her mistress, purposing probably to return to 
Egypt, her own native country, xvi. 1. ; and it 
was between Shur and Havilah that, in later 
times, the posterity of her son Ishmael settled, 
XXV. 18. After the destruction of the Cities of 
the Plain, Abraham sojourned for a time in the 
neighbourhood of Shur, xx. 1., where it bordered 
on the territory of Gerar, though he does not 
seem to have actually dwelt in the Desert. But 
about 400 years afterwards, when Moses had led 
the Israelites through the Red Sea, they at once 
entered upon this Wilderness, which they tra- 
versed for three days before they came to the 



bitter well of Marah, Ex. xv. 22. In the time 
of Saul, Shur was the W. frontier of the Ama- 
lekites, 1 Sam. xv. 7. ; and some of them who 
escaped from his attack, appear to have after- 
wards returned to their old haunts, where David 
fell upon them when he was at the court of 
Achish, king of Gath, 1 Sam. xxvii. 8. The 
Wilderness of Shur is said to be still called El 
Dschofar by the modern Arabs, though they 
usually give the name of El Tyh or the Wander- 
ing, to the vast extent of barren waste which 
lies to the W. of Mt. Seir. 

SHUSHAN, the metropolis of the Persian 
province Elam, on the banks of the clear and 
beautiful river Ulai, Dan. which runs 

into a branch of the R. Tigris. It is said to 
have dei'ived its name from the number of lilies 
which grew in its neighbourhood, Shushan sig- 
nifying in the Persian language a lily. It was 
an important and very ancient city ; and hence, 
in the mythology of the Greeks, it is said to have 
been founded by Tithonus, brother of Priam, 
king of Troy ; but afterwards to have been com- 
pleted by his son Memnon, for which reason the 
citadel is sometimes called Memnonium. It was 
enlarged and beautified by Darius Hystaspis; 
and became the winter, as Ecbatana was the 
summer, residence of the Persian monarchs. It 
is said to have been about 14 miles in circuit ; 
and to have been such a Avealthy place that 
when taken by Alexander the Great, he found 
in it 50,000 talents of uncoined gold, besides 
wedges of silver and jewels of inestimable value. 

Shushan was the residence of Belshazzar, in 
the time of the prophet Daniel, viii. 2., who had 
some of his wonderful visions in this city. It 
was, likewise, the scene of the great events de- 
scribed in the book of Esther, and the occasional 
dwelling-place of the king there named Ahasu- 
erus, Esth. i. 2. 5., ii. 3. 5. 8., iii. 15., iv. 8. 16., 
viii. 14, 15., ix. 6. 11, 12, 13, 14, 15. 18.; and 
here also many of the Jews who had been taken 
captive, had been located. Nebemiah likewise 
mentions Shushan as the city where he was cup- 
bearer to Artaxerxes, king of Babylon, Neh.i. 1., 
and whence he obtained leave to go and visit Je- 
rusalem twice, xiii. 6. — Shushan is called Susa 
in the apocryphal book of Esther, xi.3.,xvi. 18. ; 
and by the profane historians. The latter de- 
scribe it as a noble metropolis, full of splendid 
edifices, and the great treasure-city of the Persian 
kings. Its ruins are still called Siis, on the banks 
of the Ulai, now called Shdpur ; and near the Ker- 
khah (Choaspes), amongst them, the natives pre- 

' tend to point out the tomb of Daniel, but it is 

1 



332 SHUTHALHITES. 



SIDDIM, VALE OF. 



said to be evidently of modem date. The pro- 
vince of which it was the capital, is called Susiana 
by the later authors, and is now known by the 
name of KJiuzistan, the S.W. province of Persia, 
bordered by the K. Tigris and the Persian Gulf. 
This province may, perhaps, have been the ori- 
ginal dwelling-place of the Susanchites, Ezi-a 
iv. 9, who were one of the>ations brought over 
into Samaria by Esar-haddon, or some of his 
successoi's; and who joined together to hmder 
the rebuilding of the Temple of Jerusalem in 
the time of Zerubbabel. 

SHUTHALHITES, a family of the tribe of 
Ephraim, descended from his sou Shuthelah, and 
numbered by Moses in the Plains of Moab, Num. 
xxvi. 35. 

SI AHA, or SI A, CHILDREX OF, a family 
of the Nethinims, who returned to Jerusalem 
with Zerubbabel on the promulgation of the 
edict of C;>TUs, Ezra ii. 44. ; Xeh. vii. 47. 

SIBiMAH, a cit}' beyond Jordan in the old 
kingdom of Sihon, which was assigned by 
Moses to the tribe of Eeuben, Josh. xiii. 19. 
After the captivitj^ of the trans-Jordanic tribes 
by Tiglath-Pileser, it appears to have been 
seized upon by the IMoabites; and hence the 
prophets Isaiah, xvi. 8, 9., and Jeremiah, xlviii. 
32., when denouncing God's vengeance against 
Moab, predict its coming destruction. It seems 
to have been famous for its vines, and was 
• probably at no great distance from the Sea of 

Jazer. According to Jerome, it was only half 
a mile from Heshbon. 

SIBRAIM, a place mentioned by Ezekiel, 
xlvii. 16., as being between the border of 
Hamath and that of Damascus ; and which, 
on the final restoration of the Jews to their 
own land, is to form one of the points in 
their X. boundary. It cannot be yet identified. 

SICHEM, Gen. xii. 6.; Ecclus. 1. 26. See 
Shecheim. 

SICYOX, a famous Greek city, near the 
mouth of the R. Asopus, and on the S. shore 
of the Gulf of Corinth, in the Peloponnesus, 
or 3Iorea as it is now called. It was one of 
the most ancient places in the peninsula, and 
the metropolis of the small state Sicyonia : it 
was at one time subject to Mycena?, at another 
to Argos, but eventually it regained its inde- 
pendence. The inhabitants were famed for 
their talents in many branches of art and 
science, but they were luxurious and dissolute 
even to a proverb. The adjoining country was 
reputed for its olives, and for the games in 



honour of Apollo which were held on the banks 
of the R. Asopus. According to the apocryphal 
writer in 1 Mace. xv. 23., it was one of the 
places to which the Romans wrote in behalf 
of the Jews. Its ruins are near a place now 
called Basilico. 

SIDDBI, VALE OF, a remarkable plain 
in the southernmost part ofCanaan, adjacent 
to the Great Desert and Mt. Seir on the S., and 
to the land of the Amorites on the E. It is 
also designated " the Land of the Plain," Gen. 
xix. 28. ; and contained the five royal cities 
of Sodom, GomoiTah, Admah, Zeboiim, and 
Bela, hence called " the Cities of the Plain," 
Gen. xix. 29. At a very early period these cities 
were subjected by Chedorlaomer, king of Elam, 
who, on their throwing off his j'oke, came upon 
them with his allies, and re-conquered them, 
Gen. xiv. 3. 8. 10., though they themselves 
were afterwards overtaken and slain by Abra- 
ham and his men. At that time the Vale of 
Siddim was so fertile as to be compared to 
the Garden of the Lord, and so well watered 
everyrv^here that it was like the land of Egypt, 
Gen. xiii. 10. ; from which it has been gathered 
that the main stream of the R. Jordan, though 
perhaps divided into several channels, formerly 
ran through the plain southwards into the 
E. head of the Red Sea. This is, however, 
by some denied to have been so, on account 
of the present difference of levels. However 
this last point may be, we do not read that 
there was then any lake to receive the waters 
of this beautiful river; which are far too 
abundant, it is presumed, to have been exhaled 
in any way consistent with the luxurious 
fertility of the vale and its large population. 
The slime pits mentioned in Gen. xiv. 10.> 
as being so abiindant in the Vale of Siddim, 
are conjectured to refer to mines of some bitu- 
minous substance, such as is alluded to in the 
description of the building of Babel, Gen. xi. 3. 
But when it pleased Almighty God to destroy 
these cities for their wickedness, by raining 
upon them fire from the Lord out of heaven, 
this fruitful and beautiful plain was changed 
into the bitter and offensive collection of waters, 
afterwards distinguished in Holy Writ as the 
Salt Sea, Gen. xiv. 3., or Sea of the Plain-, 
Deut. iii. 17., now the Dead Sea, into which, 
ever since the R. Jordan has apparently dis- 
charged its waters. The "Plain of Jordan," 
mentioned in Gen. xiii. 10, 11., may possiby 
be meant to designate the Vale of Siddim, from 
its having been so well watered by this river. 



SIDE. 



333 



SIDE, a city mentioned by the apocr^-phal 
•writer in 1 Mace. sv. 23., as one of those to ^hich 
the Eomans -wrote in behalf of the Jews, It 
is generally identified with a city of this name 
in Asia Minor, on the coast of Pamphylia, 
which was founded by an ^olian colony from 
Cuma, and was especially dedicated to Blinerva ; 
in the latter ages it was made the metropolis 
of PamphyHa Prima, as the adjacent city Perga 
was of Pamphylia Secimda : it is now called Eski 
uddalia. 

SIDOX, Gen. x. 15. 19. ; Matt. xi. 21, 22., 
XY. 21.; Mk. iii. 8., vii.24. 31.; Lu. iv.26.,A'i. 
17., X. 13, 14.; Acts xii. 20., xxvii. 3.; Judith 
ii. 28. : 1 Mace. v. 15. See Zidox.- 



SIDONIAXS, Deut 
Judg. iii. 3. ; 1 Kgs. v. 
which see. 



iii. 9. ; Josh. xiii. 4. 6. ; 
6. ; other^vise Zidonians ; 



SIHON, Jer. xlviii 
or kingdom of Sihon, 
ii. 31., iv. 46.; Josh, 
iv. 19.; Xeh. ix. 22. 



45., otherwise the land 
Xum. xxxii. 33.; Deut. 
xii. 2., xiii. 21.; 1 Kgs. 
the S. part of the land 
of Israel beyond Jordan, between the rivers 
Ai-non and Jabbok, including Heshbon and 
half of Gilead. It is so called in Holy Writ 
from having been ruled by Sihon, king of the 
Amorites, at the time when it was invaded and 
conquered b}^ the Israelites under Moses. See 

AilORITES. 

SIHOX, CITY OF, Xum. xxi. 26, 27, 
28., i.e. Heshbon beyond Jordan ; which see. 

SIHOPt, THE WATERS OF, a name applied 
to the E. Xile in Isa. xxiii. 3. ; Jer. ii. 18. It 
is said to signify- black or troubled, as does also 
the word Nile itself ; and is thought to have 
been given it from the black slime or sand de- 
posited by the periodical ovei-flowing of this 
mighty river, and spoken of by Virgil in 
his Georgics. It must not be confounded 
with 

SIHOP, Josh. xiii. 3., written Shihor in 

1 Chron. xiii. 5., another name for the E. of 
Egypt ; which see. 

SILLA, a place in Jerusalem, in the going 
down to which was the House of I\Iillo, where 
Joash, king of Judah, was slain by his servants, 

2 Kgs. xii. 20. 



SILOAH, POOL OF, Xeh. 
the Pool of 

SILO AM, Jo. ix. 7. 11., 

Tower in Siloam, Lu. xiii. 4. 



iii. 15., otherwise 



adjacent to 
See Shiloah. 



the 



SIMEOX (i.e. Hearing), one of the twelve 
tribes of Israel, originally the most numerous 
after those of Judah and Dan. It derived its 
name from Simeon, the second son of Jacob by 
Leah, Gen. xxix. 33., xxxv. 23. ; 1 Chron. ii. 1. ; 
and hence Jacob, when blessing Joseph's 
two sons, declares they shall be counted his as 
much as Eeuben and Simeon, and so, be num- 
bered with Israel, Gen. xlviii. 5. Simeon had 
six sons, which may partly account for the 
large number of 59,300 fighting men contained 
in this tribe when they came out of Egypt, 
Xum. i. 22, 23., ii. 12., though only about 261 
years subsequent to his birth. But this number 
decreased to 22,200, when they were numbered 
the second time, about thirty-eight years after- 
wards, in the Plains of Moab, Xum. xxvi. 12. 14. ; 
a diminution owing, not only to the share which 
this tribe had in the general murmuring on 
the return of the twelve spies, but, probably, 
to their transgression in the matter of the 
Midianitish fornication and idolatry, Xum. xxv. 
14. The Simeonites marched under the standard 
of the camp of Eeuben, being the fifth tribe as 
ranged in the order of their journeyings, pre- 
ceded by Eeuben and followed by Gad ; these 
three tribes immediately preceding the Ko- 
hathites with the sanctuary; and when en- 
camped, they pitched their tents on the S. side 
of the Tabernacle, Xum. ii. 10. 12., x. 19. Their 
offerings for the service of God, when the Ta- 
bernacle was first set up in the Wilderness, 
were made on the fifth day, Xum, vii. 36. One 
of their princes was chosen by Moses, together 
with a man out of every other tribe, to go and spy 
out the land of Canaan, while the host lay en- 
camped at Kadesh ; and another of them was 
appointed by him to assist Eleazar and Joshua in 
dividing the land amongst the nine tribes and a 
half to whom it pertained, Xum, xiii. 5., xxxiv. 
20. In consequence of the treacherous cruelty 
of Simeon and Le\d towards the Shechemites in 
the matter of Dinah, Jacob, when blessing all 
his sons, foretold that these two should be 
" divided in Jacob and scattered in Israel," Gen. 
xlix. 5., which in due time came to pass ; and it 
is remarkable that the tribe of Simeon is 
the only one not mentioned by Moses in his 
blessing of them shortly before his death. 
When the Israelites crossed the E, Jordan, the 
tribe of Simeon was one of the six appointed to 
stand upon Mt. Gerizim to bless the people, 
Deut. xxvii. 12. 

Upon the division of Canaan by Joshua, 
the lot of Simeon was taken out of the territory 
which at first had been assigned to Judah, Josh. 



334 



SIMEOK 



xix. 1. 8, 9. ; and so occupied the S.W. corner 
of the land of Israel. It was bounded on 
the E. by Judah, on the S. by the Desert of 
Shur, on the W. by the Great Sea, and on 
the N. by Dan. But their territory seems 
to have been always much intermixed with that 
of Judah, and hence, perhaps, the Levitical cities 
in the two tribes are not mentioned separately, 
Josh. xxi. 4. 9. ; 1 Chron. vi. 65. ; though onl}^ 
one of these, viz. Ain or Ashan, appears to have 
been assigned to them out of Simeon. Hence, 
also, it may be that Simeon is specially called the 
brother of J udah, and that they are mentioned 
as having assisted one another against the Ca- 
naanites after the death of Joshua, Judg. i. 3. 17. 
It would further appear, on a comparison of 
Josh. xix. 1 — 9., with 1 Sam. xxvii. 6., xxx, 
30. ; 1 Kgs. xix. 3., that several of their cities 
as Beersheba, Ziklag, Hormah, &c., had been 
taken from them, and given to Judah ; whence, 
perhaps, it was that a detachment of the 
Simeonites broke away from their brethren, and 
smiting the remnant of the Amalekites in 
Mt. Seir, dwelt there in their room, 1 Chron. iv. 
42, 43. Moreover, there is a generally received 
tradition amongst the Jews, that numbers 
of this tribe were dispersed among the other 
tribes as instru.ctors of children for their 
support ; and thus, in several ways, the dying 
prophecy of Jacob was fulfilled in respect 
of Simeon, as it was also in respect of Levi ; 
though the former tribe, having been deeply 
guilty in the ti'ansgression of Baal-peor, was less 
honourably and profitably scattered in Israel than 
the latter, who there showed themselves zealous 
for the honour of God. But in the case of Levi, 
the curse seems to have been removed many 
years before, when they all fell upon the wor- 
shippers of the golden calf, and so consecrated 
themselves to the Lord, Ex. xxxii. 26. 29. Like 
all the other tribes, the Simeonites enjoj'^ed the 
privilege of self-government under the chief ma- 
gistrate; and David is mentioned, 1 Chron. 
xxvii. 16., as having appointed one of their own 
princes to be ruler over them, probably in all 
civil matters, as he did likewise over every other 
tribe, Asher and Gad excepted, for which no 
reason is alleged. 

On the division of the kingdom, the Simeon- 
ites took part with the Ten Ti-ibes ; though, from 
their being so much mixed up with Judah they 
probably were somewhat divided in their politi- 
cal sympathies. At all events, we read of many 
going over to Asa, king of Judah, when endea- 
vouring to purge his kingdom from idolatry^ 
2 Chron. xv. 9. They were led captive to 



Assyria by Shalmaneser on the overthrow of 
Samaria, b.c. 721, from which they have never 
■ since returned; though it would seem "that 
some few of them escaped, and still clung 
to their idolatry, until Josiah, king of Judah, 
endeavoured to root it out of their cities, 2 
Chron. xxxiv. 6. One of their tribe is men- 
tioned by the apocryphal writer in the book of 
Judith vi. 15., as having been a governor of the 
city Bethulia at the time of the invasion of the 
land by Holofernes. 

From the history of the Simeonites, it would 
appear that they were a brave but unsettled 
people, who did not in any way distinguish 
themselves amongst their countrymen, though 
originally one of the most numerous and power- 
ful of the tribes. From the current tradition 
that they principally were the schoolmasters 
of the nation, it is not unlikely that they culti- 
vated learning to some extent, and enjoyed an 
honourable confidence amongst their brethren. 
Their country was of a rich, pastoral character, 
especially towards the N". ; and in it, Abraham, 
Isaac, and Jacob, had at various times occasion- 
ally pitched their tents. But lying on the high 
road to Egypt, from Canaan, Syria, and Phoenice, 
and being adjacent to the warlike and remorse- 
less race of the Philistines, they must have 
constantly suffered from the depredations of the 
common enemies of Israel : and some of the 
vast armies that came up against Jerusalem 
must have often been encamped in their fertile 
plains. 

The Apostle John, in his apocalyptic vision, 
beheld twelve thousand sealed out of this tribe, 
Rev. vii. 7. In the prophetical division of the 
whole land, foretold by Ezekiel, xlviii. 24, 25., 
Simeon is placed the ninth tribe in order from 
the N., having Benjamin above it, and Issachar 
on the S. : and one of the three gates on the S. 
side of the New City is to be called the Gate 
of Simeon, xlviii. 33, 

SIMEON, GATE OF, one of the three gates 
which are to be erected at the S. side of the New 
City of Jerusalem, when its name shall be called 
Jehovah- shammah, Ezek. xlviii. 33. 

SIN, a famous city of Egypt, situated at the 
mouth of the easternmost arm of the Nile, in the 
midst of lakes and marshes ; whence its name, 
which denotes its mh-y situation. Owing to its 
position and its great natural strength^ it was 
reckoned the key of Egypt on this side ; for 
which i-eason it was strongly fortified, and kept 
well garrisoned. Every enemy who invaded 
Egypt from the E., felt it necessary to reduce 



SII^, WILDERNESS OF. 



SINAI. 



335 



this fortress before advancing further, and hence 
the many sieges it at different times underwent. 
The prophet Ezekiel, xxx. 15, 16., calls it the 
" strength of Egypt," and denounces war against 
it, and other leading cities of Egypt, for their 
wickedness. In the ancient authors it is usually 
called Pelusium, which is merely a Greek trans- 
lation of the older and true name ; though the 
Greeks pretended it w^as so designated after 
Peleus, the father of Achilles, who was fabled 
to have purified himself from his transgressions 
in the neighbouring pools. Pelusium gave the 
name of Pelusiac to the most E. mouth of the 
Nile. The city has long since lost all its im- 
portance, owing to the waters of that arm of the 
great river on which it stood, finding their 
way to the sea by another channel ; and it is 
now merely a heap of rubbish near Tineh. 

SIN, WILDERNESS OF, a portion of that 
great waste which covers the peninsula of Mt. 
Sinai, extending in a general way to the W. 
and N.W, of this mountain, as far as Elim and 
the Red Sea, Ex. xvi. 1. The Israelites first 
came to it after they had passed through Elim, 
and had encamped by the Red Sea ; and they 
seem to have again quitted it at Rephidim, or 
perhaps Dophkah, Ex. xvi. 1., xvii. 1. ; Num. 
xxxiii. 11, 12. It was the scene of their mur- 
muring for bread, whereupon the quails and 
manna were first given them ; and also of their 
murmuring for water, which led to the smiting 
of the rock in Horeb. The origin of the name 
Sin is not known : it can have nothing to do 
with the Great Egyptian city of Sin, which 
is about 150 miles to the N.W., and is separated 
from this by the Great Desert of Shur. It must 
not be confounded with the Wilderness of Zin ; 
which see. 

SINAI or SiNA, the name of a lofty mountain 
in that N.W. part of Arabia, Gal. iv. 25., which 
lies in the peninsula between the two arms of the 
Red Sea. There is often a great difficulty in 
drawing a distinction between Mt. Sinai and Mt. 
Horeb ; the events by which one was so wonder- 
fully hallowed being, apparently, assigned in a 
few passages to the other. The probability is, 
that the whole clustejj^ of these lofty hills went 
by the general name of Horeb ; thus including 
all the valleys and smaller elevations where the 
Israelites stood at the giving of the law ; though 
it is likewise conjectured, that one of the more 
S. peaks, now called Jebel Musa, was in a more 
especial way designated Mt. Horeb. Mt. Sinai, 
on the other hand, seems always described as 



that holy and lofty eminence where it pleased 
Almighty God so wonderfully and fearfully to 
manifest some of His glory to the assembled 
nation of Israel. Mt. St, Catherine (so called 
from a convent of this name lying at its base), 
and several other mountains, including J. Serial, 
have been identified b}'' different authors as being 
the mountain in question ; but it seems impos- 
sible for us to identify that particular mountain 
where the Law was given with any certainty, 
although J. Musa seems to be the most probable. 

Mt. Sinai rises from the desert of wdld and 
precipitous rocks by which it is surrounded to 
the height of about 8000 feet, in the midst of 
a region almost unparalleled for its terrific gran- 
deur and awful solitude, which travellers describe 
as a perfect sea of desolation. The rude and 
gloomy grandeur of the countless valleys which 
are interspersed amidst the sharp crags, varied 
by the myriads of smooth, slippery ledges and 
fragments of granite split off from the naked 
surface, is one of unbroken silence. Not a tree, 
or shrub, or blade of grass is to be seen in 
any direction ; the rugged and fearful precipices 
of innumerable mountains, strewed with huge 
broken masses of crumbling rock, are all that 
present themselves to the eye in the immediate 
neighbourhood, with the boundless waste of the 
desert sands in the distance: the whole scene 
forming, probably, the most dreary and desolate, 
as well as the most sublime and awful picture, 
upon which the sight of man can rest. 

Mt. Sinai has been rendered for ever me- 
morable from Almighty God having been 
pleased to descend upon it in presence of the 
whole assembled nation of Israel ; and there 
audibly, and in terrific majesty, giving that 
holy moral Law which was to be binding on all 
His creatures. Here, likewise. He made that 
covenant with His people to which He so often 
appealed in their rebellions against Him ; at the 
same time giving them those ordinances, sta- 
tutes, and judgments which were to guide 
them as a kingdom of priests, and serve as a 
shadow of better things to come. In the third 
month after having gone out of Egypt, the 
Israelites came to Sinai, from Elim and Re- 
phidim, and encamped before the mount, Ex. 
xvi. 1., xix. 2.; Judith v. 14.; whereupon at 
His bidding, Moses went up unto God, and was 
commanded by Him to sanctify the people 
against the third day, and to set bounds round 
about the mount, that neither beast nor man 
should touch it, lest they be put to death, Ex. 
xix. 3. 11, 12, 13, 14. And on the morning of 
the third day, there were thunders and lightnings 



336 SINAI. 

and a thick cloud upon the mount; and the 
voice of the trumpet was exceedingly loud, so 
that all the people trembled : the mountain was 
altogether on a smoke, which ascended as the 
smoke of a furnace, and the whole mount quaked 
greatly. Meanwhile the people were brought 
forth out of the camp to meet with God, and 
they stood at the nether part of the mount: 
the Lord, attended by myriads of angels, de- 
scended in fire on Mt. Sinai, which melted at 
His presence, and calling up Moses and Aaron 
to Him, spake unto all the multitude the words 
of the Ten Commandments, Ex. xix. 16, 17, 18. 
20. 23.; Dent xxxiii. 2.; Judg. v. 5.; Neh. 
ix. 13.; Ps. Ixviii. 8. 17.; Acts vii. 38, 53.; 
Heb. xii. 18. There was never, probably, in the 
whole history of man so awfully majestic and 
thrilling a scene as that which was then 
witnessed by the children of Israel, who, though 
they had seen the fearful wonders of Egj^pt and 
the Red Sea, yet now removed from Mt. Sinai 
in great terror, and stood afar off; and even 
Moses himself is recorded to have shared in 
their trembling and fear, Ex. xx. 18. 21. ; Heb. 
xii. 21. But Moses having first comforted the 
people, was himself called to draw near to the 
thick darkness where God was, and received 
some of those statutes and ordinances which 
were to guide the nation, Ex, xxi. 1., xxiv. 3. 
These he afterwards wrote in a book, which he 
sprinkled with blood, as the book of the covenant 
which the Lord had made with the people, Ex. 
xix. 5., xxiv. 7, 8. ; Acts vii. 38. ; Gal. iv. 24. 

Moses and Aaron, ISTadab and Abihu, and 
seventy of the elders of Israel, were then com- 
manded to go up into the mount, where, in 
some mysterious way, they saw the God of 
Israel, under whose feet there was, as it were, a 
paved work of a sapphire stone, and as it were 
the body of heaven in his clearness : here, also, 
they did eat and drink, Ex. xxiv. 9 — 11. Moses 
then went up alone into Mt. Sinai, leaving his 
minister Joshua below; the cloud and the gloiy 
of the Lord resting on the mount, like devouring 
fire for six days, at the end of which Moses 
went up into the midst of the cloud, and was 
in the moimt for forty days and nights. At 
that time he received the two Tables of Tes- 
timony — tables of stone, written on both sides, 
prepared hy Gcd, with the Law written on 
them with the finger of God ; and, likewise, the 
statutes and ordinances relating to the Taber- 
nacle and worship of Jehovah, Ex. xxiv. 12, 13. 

15, 16, 17, 18., XXV. 40., xxxi. 18., xxxii. 15, 

16. ; Lev. vii. 38., xxv. 1., xxvi. 46., xxvii. 34. ; 
l^um. xxviii. 6. But the people falling into 



SINAI, THE WILDERNESS OF. 

idolatry whilst Moses was in Sinai, he cast the 
two tables of stone out of his hands when he 
descended from the mount, and brake them 
there : and having ground their golden calf to 
powder, and strewed it upon the brook that 
descended out of the mount, he made the Israel- 
ites drink of the water. Ex, xxxii. 1. 15. 19, 
20. ; Deut. ix. 21. ; who at the strong intercession 
of Moses, were pardoned their sin. 

After this, the Lord was pleased, at the prayer 
of Moses, to reveal to him in a mysterious way 
some of His glory; and to proclaim to him, 
whilst hidden upon the rock in Sinai, the 
name of the Lord. Then it was, too, that He 
once more graciously descended on Mt. Sinai 
in the cloud, and again made a covenant with 
Israel ; and again wrote His law with His o^vn 
finger upon the two tables of stone, which He 
had commanded Moses to hew. Upon this 
occasion, also, Moses was forty days and nights 
in the mount, at the end of which he came 
down from Sinai with the two Tables of Tes- 
timony in his hand ; the skin of his face shining 
so brightlj', that Aaron and all the people were 
afraid to come nigh him ; wherefore he put a 
veil on his face whilst he spake with them, 
Ex. xxxiv. 2, 3, 4. 28, 29. 32. ; Num. iii. 1. 

From the holy and awful events which the 
Lord was pleased to bring to pass on Mt. Sinai, 
it is called in Ex. xxiv. 13. the Mount of God, 
and in Num. x. 33., the Mount of the Lord; 
a designation given, no doubt, for the same 
reason to Mt. Horeb. According to the apo- 
cryphal writer in Ecclus. xlviii. 7., Elijah heard 
the rebuke of the Lord in Sinai. 

SINAI, THE WILDERNESS or DESERT 
OF, one of the many names applied to the dif- 
ferent portions of that great waste which fills up 
the whole peninsula of Mt. Sinai ; and of which 
this appears to be the remotest and most southern. 
Cy.Ex.iii.l. ; Acts vii. 30. It encircled the whole 
cluster of rugged and precipitous mountains called 
Horeb and Sinai, Lev. vii. 38., lying contiguous 
to Rephidim and the Desert of Sin on the N.W., 
Ex. xvii. 1., xix. 1, 2., and to the Desert of 
Paran on the N.E., Num. x. 12. It was in this 
desert that Almighty God was pleased to appear 
in the burning bush to .Moses, when He sent 
him to deliver Israel from their bondage in 
Egypt, Acts vii. 30. ; and here, probably, within 
a year from that time, he safely brought the vast 
host of his countrymen to worship in the moun- 
tain, as it had been promised him, Ex. xix. 1. 
The Wilderness of Sinai is mentioned in Num. 
xxxiii. 15, 16., as one of the many encampments 



SmiM, LAXD OF. 

of the Israelites during their wandering for forty 
years in the Desert. In it, at the commandment 
of God, Moses first numbered all the nation of 
Israel, Xum. i. 1, 19., iii, 14. ; -when the number 
amounted to 603,550 fighting men, and 22,273 
Levites, i.e. 625,823 in all; but of this vast 
host not one remained alive, save Caleb and 
Joshua, when thirty-eight years afterwards, they 
were again numbered by Moses in the Plains of 
Moab, Xum. sxvi. 64. 

It was whilst they were encamped here, that 
Xadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, were cut 
off, when they offered strange fire before the 
Lord, Xum. iii. 4. Here also, at the end of the 
first year, the Passover was again commanded by 
God, and was kept by the whole nation, Xum. 
ix. 1. 5. Cf. Lev. vii. 38. They seem to have 
continued in this encampment nearly a year, 
when they removed northward into the Wilder- 
ness of Paran, Xum. x. 12. The whole of the 
valleys in the several deserts hereabouts, are 
filled with wondrous inscriptions in an unknown 
character, deeply engraved in colossal letters on 
the smooth faces of the rocks, which must have 
required great perseverance and skill, as well as 
a long time to execute. They are now commonly 
known by the name of the Sinaitic Inscriptions, 
and are mostly in an excellent state of preserv- 
ation. Some of them have been partially, though 
doubtfully, deciphered, and appear to com- 
memorate the events which happened to the 
Israelites, as well as some of their laws ; and 
they are generally believed to have been the 
handiwork of this wondrous people during their 
encampments in the Desert. 

SIXIM, LAXD OF, a country7whence God 
promises to gather the dispersed Jews in the 
latter days, and to bring them back to Zion, Isa. 
xhx. 12. Its situation is as j-et matter of mere 
conjecture, and is by no means agreed on. The 
Latin Yulgate renders the word the South Coun- 
try, and so it answers to the regions of the X. 
and W. previously mentioned. According to 
some commentators, it refers to the wandering 
tribes in the neighbourhood of the Deserts of 
Sin, Sinai, and Zin ; but surely these are too few 
and tmimportant to be thus mentioned, inde- 
pendent of other difiiculties. The region of Syene 
on the S. frontier of Eg}^t; and that of the 
great city Sin or Pelusium at its X.E. extremity 
are fixed on by others as a better locality. And 
others, again, with perhaps more probability, 
identify the Sinim with the Chinese, whom the 
profane authors call Sinse; and from whom, as 
early as the days of Solomon, the Israelites are 



SISERA, CHILDREI^T OF. 337 

said to have procured silk, Prov. xxxi. 22. And 
it may be that some from among the Ten Tribes 
so emphatically designated in Holy Writ as 
" the outcasts of Israel," may be looked for at 
their future restoration as coming from this last 
quarter. At all events, we have the good evi- 
dence of modem travellers, who have there met 
with them, that Jews are to be found in the in- 
terior of China at the present day, who are not 
able to give any consistent account of the time 
and manner of their forefathers' migrating 
thither. 

SIXITE, THE, a tribe of the Canaanites, de- 
scended from the eighth son of Canaan, Gen. 
X. 17. ; 1 Chron. i. 15. They are thought to have 
inhabited the X. part of the country, between 
Zidon and Arvad, where Strabo mentions a 
strong city called Sinna, the ruins of which seem 
to have been still called Sinni in the days of 
Jerome. 

SIOX, Ps. Ixv. 1. ; Matt. xxi. 5. ; Jo. xii. 15. ; 
Eom. ix. 33., xi. 26. ; Heb. xii. 22. ; 1 Pet. ii. 6. ; 
Rev. xiv. 1. ; also 2 Esd. iii. 2., v. 25., vi. 4., x. 
7. ; Judith ix. 13.; Ecclus. xxiv. 10., xlviii. 18. 
24. See Ziox. 

SIOX, MT., another name for Mt. Hermon, 
Deut.'iv. 49. ; which see. 

SIHOX, LAXD OF, an appellation given to 
the Land of Israel by the apocryphal writer of 
2 Esd, xiv. 31. 

SIPHMOTH, a city of Judah, to the elders of 
which David sent presents of the spoils he had 
taken from the Amalekites after their invasion 
of Ziklag, 1 Sam. xxx. 28. The name does not 
occur elsewhere. It may possibly have some re- 
lation to one or other of the two cities called 
Ziph, Josh. XV. 24. 55., both of which lay not 
far from Ziklag, and the latter one adjacent to 
Carmel, 

SIRAH, THE WELL OF, 2 Sam. iii. 26., a 
place to the X. of Hebron, whence the messen- 
gers of Joab brought back Abner after his re- 
conciliation with David, who had sent him 
away in peace, whereupon Joab treacherously 
slew him. Josephus calls it Besira, and states 
that it was 20 furlongs from Hebron. 

SIRIOX, the name given to Mt. Hermon by 
the Sidonians, Deut. iii. 9., and used by David, 
Ps. xxix. 6., when celebrating the wonderful 
power of God. 

SISERA, CHILDREX OF, a tribe of the 
Xethinims, who returned to Jerusalem -with 
Zerubbabel on the edict of Cp-us, Ezra ii. 53. ♦ 
Xeb. vii. 55. 

Z 



338 



SODOM 



SITNAH (i.e. Hatred), a well dug by Isaac's 
herdmen in the Valley of Gerar, in the S.W. 
part of Canaan, but taken from him by the 
herdmen of Gerar, Gen. xxvi. 21. 

SMYENA, a noble city in the province of 
Lydia, on the W. coast of Asia Minor. In it 
was one of the Seven Churches, Rev. i. 11. ; and 
to it St. John addressed that epistle which is 
so full of affectionate commendation, and of 
warning in regard to their approaching perse- 
cutions, Rev. ii. 8. The venerable Polycarp is 
said to have been at that time their bishop, 
and to have been amongst the earliest of its 
martyrs in the cause of his blessed Master. — 
Smyrna was originally a colony of the iEolians, 
but was treacherously taken from them by the 
lonians. It was one of the seven places which 
laid claim to the honour of being the birth-place 
of Homer, and apparently with considerable 
justice. He had a temple here, with his statue 
in it, and his name was attached to a brass coin 
current amongst the inhabitants. Smyrna stood 
at the mouth of the little river Meles, and gave 
name to the Gulf of Smyrna. It was destroyed 
by the Lydians, and is said to have laid in 
ruins until the time of Alexander the Great; 
after which it was rebuilt about 2 miles from 
the more ancient city, and soon began to grow 
in importance. It became eventually one of the 
handsomest, richest, and most powerful cities in 
Asia, and is not unfrequently called its metro-, 
polls. Its inhabitants were reputed to be 
luxurious and indolent ; but were, notwithstand- 
ing, much esteemed for their valour and intre- 
pidity in the field. It is now called Ismir 
by the natives, and Smyi-na by the Franks, and 
is still one of the most important and beautiful 
cities in the country, with a population of more 
than 120,000 inhabitants; but it is subject to 
terrible earthquakes, of which at least ten are 
recorded, and which at various times have 
nearly desolated the city. 

SOCHOH, 1 Kgs. iv. 10., a city or region in 
the purveyorship of Ben-hesed, which was 
one of the twelve districts into which Solomon 
divided the land for the purpose of supplying 
the king and his household with food. It may, 
perhaps, have been the same with or a territory 
about Socoh. 

SOCOH, Josh. XV. 35., a city of Judah, in the 
Valley, See Shochoh. 

SOCOH, a city of Judah, in the hill country, 
probably near Jattir, Josh. xv. 48. 

SODOM or SoDOMA, one of the Five Cities of 



the Plain, which from its being always men- 
tioned first, is supposed to have been the capital. 
It was one of the border cities of the Cana-anites 
on the S., Gen, x 19., and was situated near the 
banks of the R. Jordan, Gen. xiii. 10, 11., in the 
Vale of Siddim, whose exuberant fertility is de - 
scribed to have been like that of Eden, Gen. xiii. ^ 
10. See Vale of Siddim. It was governed by 
its own king, as was each of the five cities. Gen. 
xiv. 1. ; though they appear to have been all 
united in one common league. On the separa- 
tion of Lot from Abraham, Sodom was chosen 
by the former as his dwelling-place, Gen. 
xiii. 12. ; being at that time, together with all 
the neighbouring region, subject to Chedorla- 
omer, king of Elam. For twelve years they 
were subject to this monarch, who, upon their 
rebellion, came against them with three other 
kings, when a battle was fought in the Vale 
of Siddim, where the kings of Sodom and 
Gomorrah fell. These two cities and several 
others were pillaged, and many captives were 
taken, amongst whom were Lot and his family. 
These were eventually rescued by Abraham, 
who restored his subjects to the new king of 
Sodom, refusing to accept any reward for his 
service. Gen. xiv. 2. 8. 10, 11, 12. 17. 21, 22. 
Lot still made Sodom his dwelling-place for 
about fifteen years afterwards, though the abo- 
minable and unnatural wickedness of the people 
grievously vexed his spirit, 2 Pet. ii. 7, 8. 

At length, however, the measure of their 
iniquity being filled up. Gen. xiii. 13., xviii. 20., 
two angels were sent to deliver Lot and his 
family, and to destroy the cities, and on the 
following morning, the Lord rained upon them 
brimstone and fire from the Lord out of heaven, 
overthrowing all the plain, and that which 
grew there ; Zoar alone being saved at the inter- 
cession of Lot, Gen. xviii. 16. 22. 26., xix. 1. 4. 
24. 28. It would appear that Lot was the only 
righteous person in the whole of the plain, and 
that amongst all the numerous inhabitants there 
was no remnant to be saved ; hence its utter and 
hopeless destruction is contrasted with the de- 
solations of Jerusalem, which, because there is a 
remnant, shall yet be restored to more than its 
ancient glory, Isa. i. 9.; Ezek. xvi. 53. 55.; 
Rom. ix. 29. 

The monstrous vfickedness and impiety of 
Sodom are repeatedly alluded to in Holy Writ 
Deut. xxiii. 17., xxxii. 32. ; 1 Kgs. xiv. 24., 
XV. 12. ; 2 Kgs. xxiii. 7.; Isa. iii. 9.; Jer. 
xxiii. 14.; Ezek. xvi. 47. 49, 50.; Jude 7.; 
and the sins of many other cities are declared to 
have equalled it. Indeed, the transgressions of 



SODOMITISH SEA. 



SOUTH, THE. 



339 



Samaria, Ezek. xxi. 46. 55. ; of Jerusalem (flience 
designated Sodom, Isa. 10. ; Eev. xL 8.), Isa. 
i. 10., iii. 9. ; Jer. xxiii. 14. ; Ezek. xvi. 46, 47, 
48. 53. 55, 56.; and of Capernaum, Matt. xi. 
23, 24., are stated to have been greater. The 
sudden and awful destraction of Sodom is con- 
tinually spoken [of in the Bible as a proof of 
God's righteous anger against sin, and a warn- 
ing to the ungodly, Deut. xxix. 23, ; Isa. i. 9., 
xiii. 19. ; Jer. xlix. 18. ; Lam. iv. 6. ; Amos 
iv. 11. ; Lu. xvii. 29. ; Eom. ix. 29. ; 2 Pet. ii. 
6.; Jude 7. Cf. also 2 Esd. ii. 8., vii. 36.; 
Wisd. xix. 14. Many from amongst the king- 
dom of the Ten Tribes were thus overthrown, 
Amos iv. 11.; and Jeremiah complains in his 
Lamentations, iv. 6., that the iniquity of Jeru- 
salem had been even more grievously punished. 
Babylon, Isa. xiii. 19,, Jer. 1. 40., and Edom, 
Jer. xlix. 17, 18., and Moab, Zeph. ii. 9. , as 
they had resembled Sodom in their sins, were told 
that in like manner they should be utterly de- 
stroyed. The Blessed Redeemer forewarns all 
the persecutors of His Apostles and the despisers 
of their message, that it shall be more tolerable 
for Sodom in the day of judgment than for 
them. Matt. x. 15, ; Mk. vi. 11, ; Lu. x, 12. He 
also foretells us, that the end of the world, and 
the circumstances of the people then in it, shall 
be like the destruction of Sodom, and the sepa- 
ration of Lot from the wicked there, Lu. xvii. 29, 

We read, also, of a city which is spiritually 
called Sodom, where the two witnesses of the 
last times are to lie unburied three days and 
a half, Eev. xi. 8, ; and though in the text this 
is also said to be the place where our Lord was 
crucified, yet, inasmuch as He suffered without 
the gate, Heb, xiii. 12., under a Eoman governor, 
by Eoman law, and Eoman officers ; so this 
spiritual Sodom may in some way designate the 
then metropolis of the Gentile world, apostate 
Papal Eome, " the mother of harlots and abomi- 
nations of the earth," Eev. xvii. 5., xviii, 2,, 
whose sudden and utter destruction is to be by 
fire, Eev. xviii. 8. 

The name of Sodom is still presei*ved in that 
of Usdum, now attached to one of the wondrous 
masses of salt, bitumen, sulphur, &c,, now lying 
off the S.W. end of the Dead Sea ; and close to 
it is a most remarkable column of the same 
materials, about forty feet high, which the 
tradition of the neighbouring Arabs represents 
as the Pillar of Salt into which Lot's wife was 
suddenly changed. 

SODOMITISH SEA, 2 Esd. v. 7„ a name 
given by the apocryphal writer to the Sea of 



the Plain in his account of certain wonders to 
happen in the latter days, and which he appears 
to have copied and altered from the prophecies 
contained in Holy Writ. See Sea of the 
Plain. 

SOLOMON'S SEEYAXTS, Ezra ii. 55,; 
Xeh, vii. 57. These are conjectured to have 
been the descendants of the artificers who were 
employed in the building of Solomon's Temple ; 
and who, becoming proselytes, were, with their 
children and posterity, appointed by Solomon 
for its perpetual conservation and repair. 
Though it appears probable that they were 
mostly descended from the old Canaanites who 
had been left in the land — at all events of Gentile 
extraction — and were probably not admitted to 
the full pri-s-ileges of Israelites ; yet on the edict 
of Cyrus in favour of the Jews, they seem to 
have been more ready to return to Jerusalem 
than the Levites were. See Xethesims and 
Straxgers. 

SOPHEEETH, a family of Solomon's servants, 
that returned to Jerusalem with Zerubbabel at 
the end of the Babylonian captivity, Ezra ii. 
55. ; Xeh. vii. 57. 

SOEEK, VALLEY or BEOOK OF, the 
dwelling-place of Delilah, Samson's wife, Judg. 
xvi. 4. It was in the temtory of the Phi- 
listines, and one of the many small rivers run- 
ning down from the high land of Judah into the 
Great Sea. Jerome states that in his day, its 
name was still preserved in that of Caphar- 
Sorek, a small village lying to the X. of Eleu- 
theropolis. It is conjectured to have been the 
rivulet now called Nahr-el-Rouhin, which enters 
the Mediterranean a few miles X. of Ashdod. 

SOTAI, CHILDEEX OF, a family of Solo- 
mon's servants, who, on the decree of Cyrus, 
returned to Jerusalem with the Jews, Ezra ii. 
55. ; Xeh. vii. 57. 

SOUTH, THE, a general term applied in 
Holy Writ to very different places, according 
to the subject which is being spoken of. It was 
no doubt employed by the Israelites, as hj all 
other nations, to designate any region lying in 
a southerly direction from them; but in the 
Bible, the name seems especially given to four 
localities. 

L The S. part of the land of Israel below 
Hebron and Gaza, and contiguous to Edom, 
is often spoken of as the South, the South 
Country, the South Field, and the Land of the 
South. Thus it is mentioned as for a time the 
abode of Abraham, Gen. xii, 9., xiii, 1, 3., xx. 1,, 
z 2 



340 



SOUTH, THE. 



SPAIN. 



and of Isaac, Gen. xxiv. 62. The spies who 
were sent by IMoses to search the land, found 
the Amalekites then dwelling there, Num. xiii. 
9.9., some of whom, probably under king Arad, 
afterwards attacked Israel, Num. xxi. 1. ; but it 
was mostly conquered by Joshua, and a portion 
of it was given by him to Caleb for an inherit- 
ance, Josh. X. 40., xi. 16., xii. 8., xv. 19. ; Judg. 
i. 15. At his death it was completely subdued 
by the two tribes of Judah and Simeon, Judg. i. 
9. It was invaded by the Amalekites in the 
reign of Saul, when they burned Ziklag; and 
were afterwards severely chastised by David, 
1 Sam. XXX. 1. The prophet Jeremiah, xvii. 
26., promises to the Jews, shortly before their 
captivity by Nebuchadnezzar, that if they turned 
from their evil ways, the cities of the S. of 
Judah should come to worship at Jerusalem; 
and both he, xxxii. 44., xxxiii. 13., and Obadiah, 
19., foretell, that even after the destruction of 
the city, a time should come when fields should 
be bought, and flocks kept there by Israel, even 
to the Mount of Esau. Zechariah, vii. 7., speaks 
of its having been formerly well peopled, though 
desolate in his day for the sins of the Jews. It 
was the region to which Philip was sent to 
meet the Ethiopian nobleman. Acts viii. 26. 

II. The term is applied in a more extensive 
way, to describe the whole S. part of Canaan, 
including the possessions of Judah (with 
Simeon) and Benjamin ; or pretty much what 
eventually became the kingdom of Judah, or 
in later times the province of Judaea. Thus 
Joshua, when dividing Canaan by lot, com- 
manded that tlie house of Judah should abide 
on the S. and the house of Joseph on the N., 
Josh, xviii. 5. ; a division likewise recognised 
in some sort by Jeremiah, xiii. 19., as well as by 
Ezekiel, xx. 46, 47., when predicting the coming 
captivity of Judah, and by Obadiah, 20., when 
foretelling their restoi-ation. 

III. Arabia, likewise, appears to be in an 
especial way described as the South, The queen 
ofSheba, who is commonly believed to have 
oome from that country, is called by our Blessed 
Redeemer, the queen of the South, Matt, xii, 
42. ; Lu. xi. 31. The whirlwinds of the South 
are spoken of by Job, xxxvii. 9. ; Isa. xx. 1. ; 
Zech. ix. 14., in allusion to those which came 
from the Desert of Arabia, and were the greatest 
with which the Israelites were acquainted. 
The Psalmist, cxxvi. 4., is thought to allude 
to the torrents of Arabia, when he speaks of 
the Shums in the South : and Isaiah, xxx. 6., 
when threatening the Jews for their confidence 
in Egypt, speaks of the intervening desert of 



the South, as one of trouble and anguish, fre- 
quented by lions, vipers, and fiery flying serpents. 

IV. Egypt lay, in some measure, to the S. 
of Judaea ; and hence, in the prophecy of Daniel 
concerning the struggles which should follow 
on the death of Alexander the Great between 
some of his successors, Egypt and its king are 
described as the South and the king of the South, 
Dan., xi. 5, 6. 9. 11. 14, 15. 25. 29. 40. And 
when foretelHng the coming power of "the 
little horn," he mentions it as extending to 
the South, i.e. to Egypt, which was one of the 
countries subdued by the Romans, and of which 
they kept possession for many centuries, Dan. 
viii. 9. ; a conquest likewise alluded to by the 
prophet Zechariah, vi. 6,, in his vision of the four 
chariots. 

SPAIN, the large and important peninsula 
at the S.W. extremity of Europe, which noAV 
includes the two kingdoms of Spain and For- 
tugal. Its name nowhere occurs in the Bible, 
but in the Epistle to the Romans, xv. 24. 28., 
where St. Paul mentions his purpose of making 
a journey thither; but there is no proof that he 
was ever permitted to fulfil his intention. In the 
New Testament times it was under the power 
of the Romans (r/. 1 Mace. viii. 3.), and consti- 
tuted one of the provinces of their vast empire, 
until they were driven from it by the Goths. 
Many J ews had taken refuge in it, and for several 
centuries there carried on an extensive and 
lucrative commerce. 

The greater part of Spain is believed to 
have been originally peopled by some of the 
descendants of Gomer, the eldest son of Japheth, 
Gen. X. 2. ; but its S. shores were, at a very 
early period, colonised first by Tarshish, the 
son of Javan, and afterwards by the Tyrians, 
from whom the peninsula is said to have derived 
its Phoenician name of Spain. A few colonies 
were planted in its E. part by the Greeks, who 
named the whole country Iberia, from the 
Ebrus, now Ebro, which was the first great 
river they became acquainted with in the 
peninsula. The Carthaginians afterwards in- 
vaded it, founding several cities on its S. 
coast, and long holding it in subjection, until 
it was wrested from them by the Romans at the 
end of the second Punic war. The latter people 
called it Hesperia Ultima, from its extreme W. 
situation, and sometimes Celtiberia. The chief 
Tyrian colony in the country was Tartessus, 
now Cadiz, on its S.W. shore. It is thought 
by many to have been rather strengthened 
than founded by the Tyrians, and to have been 



SPARTA. 



STRAXGERS, THE 



341 



the Tarsliish spoken of in tlie book of Jonah, 
i. 3., -R-hither the ship was going, on board 
of -which Jonah embarked; others, however, 
consider that Tarsus in Asia Minor is there 
meant ; and others, again, that Tarshish is a 
mere generaFname for the sea. See Taeshish. 

SPARTA, called also LACEDiE>iox, a famous 
city of Greece, in the S.E. part of the Pelopon- 
nesus, the capital of the province of Laconia, and 
the metropolis of the Lacedsemonian republic. 
It was situated on the R. Eurotas, now Eui-e, 
and for a very long period resembled a collection 
of villages, or a great camp, having no walls 
whatever during the most flourishing period 
of its history; its citizens having been taught 
by Lycurgvis, that the real defence of a town 
was in the valor of its inhabitants. But when 
it was governed by despots, fortifications 
were erected, which enabled it to sustain a 
regular siege : its circumference then was about 
6 miles, but it contained more inhabitants than 
many cities of double its size. Before the 
Peloponnesian _war, it was destroyed by an 
earthquake, but it was soon rebuilt ■with great 
splendour; and the public edifices, which had 
been originally few and insignificant, now 
increased in number and beauty, with the 
rising power of the people. 

The Lacedaemonians rendered themselves 
illustrious by their courage and intrepidity, 
by their love of liberty, and their contempt 
for sloth and luxury. They were forbidden to 
exercise any mechanical arts or trades, which 
were carried on by their slaves. Their jealousy 
of the increasing greatness of Athens grew 
stronger and stronger, as they themselves rose 
in the scale of political power; until at last 
it burst out into a flame, which brought on the 
well-known Peloponnesian war. This war in 
which nearly every state of Greece took part, 
lasted for twenty-seven years, when at last, 
Athens was taken by the Spartan party. From 
that time Sparta began to decline in greatness, 
owing to the extensive corruption of manners 
brought on by the vast dominion and wealth 
they had acquired. Athens freed itself from its 
galling yoke after a few years ; and Lacedasmon, 
sinking by degrees before the rising greatness 
of Thebes, then kept in check by Philip of 
Macedon, and finally mastered by the Achteaus, 
was saved from the apparent ruin that threatened 
it only by the advancing power of the Romans. 

Sparta is mentioned by the apocryphal writer 
in 1 Mace. xiv. 16. on the occasion of the death 
of Jonathan Maccabseus. The Lacedaemonians 



according to that writer, had a great friendship 
for the Jews, and entered into treaties with them. 
Moreover, if his assertion and his account of 
their reputed traditions are to be trusted, both 
were descended from the stock of Abraham, 
and therefore were brethren, 1 Mace. xii. 7. 
21. : the truth of this fact, however, is extremely 
doubtful. See Lacedaemonians. — Sparta is 
now nothing but a heap of ruins, about 2 
miles from the modern town of Mistra. 

SPRINGS, THE, Josh. xii. 8., or Country of 
THE Springs, x. 40., a part of the territory of 
the tribe of Judah, which was subdued by the 
Israelites under Joshua. It is mentioned in 
contradistinction to the Mountains, the Valleys, 
the Plains, the "Wilderness, and the South 
Country ; and may have derived its name from 
the abundance of its springs. It is conjectured 
to have been that region which gives rise to 
the many small rivers running E. and W. into 
the Mediterranean and Dead Seas. A portion of 
it, called the Upper and the Nether Springs, in 
the neighbourhood of Kirjath-sepher, was given 
by Caleb to his daughter Achsah, Josh. xv. 19. 

STAIRS OF THE CITY OF DAVID, Neh. 

iii. 15., xii. 37., a name given to the descent 
which was cut in the rock of Zion, by which 
they went down from the city of David into 
the valley beneath. 

STONE, THE GREAT, 1 Sam. vi. 18., marg., 
or Stone of Abel ; which see. 

STORE CITIES, 1 Kgs. ix. IS., 2 Chron. 
viii. 6., certain cities built by Solomon in his 
extensive dominions, probably to receive the 
victuals and provender mentioned in 1 Kgs. 

iv. 27, 28., as collected and brought to appointed 
localities by his ofiicers ; or it may be as depots 
for the standing army, which consisted of 
24,000 men out of each tribe, i.e. in all 2^8,000 
men. Cf. 1 Chron. xxvii. 1 — 15. Some of 
these cities were in Hamath, 2 Chron. viii. 6. 
Those which were in Naphtali were taken by 
Benhadad, king of Syria, when at the instigation 
of Asa, king of Judah, he attacked Baasha, 
king of Israel, 2 Chron. xvi. 4. Other store- 
cities are also mentioned as having been built 
in Judah by Jehoshaphat, 2 Chron. xvii. 12. 
Perhaps these store-cities were somewhat si- 
milar to the treasure-cities which the Israel- 
ites had been made to build for Pharaoh, when 
they were in bondage in Egypt, Ex. i. 11. 

STRANGERS, THE, a name applied in the 
Bible, I., to all the Gentiles in every land who 
were not of the seed of Abraham, Gen. xvii. 12., 
z 3 



342 STRA^^-GERS, THE. 



SUCCOTH. 



and had not been brought into covenant with 
God by circumcision, Eph, ii, 12. It is also 
continually used, IL, to designate the Canaan- 
ites who had been left in the Holy Land after 
its conquest by the Israelites, and who, though 
born there, were thenceforward accounted 
Strangers, as being under condemnation, though 
mercifully spared, and as being aliens fi'om the 
commonwealth of Israel. Though forbidden to 
take part in any of the more sacred duties of the 
J ewish Church, until admitted into it duly by 
circumcision, they were made subject to many 
of its ordinances ; such as resting on the Sabbaths 
and feasts, refraining from leaven at certain 
times, the observance of some purifications, 
abstaining from blood, hearing the law, &c. 
" They were likewise made partakers of all the 
ordinary political and judicial privileges, as well 
as subject to their penalties, equally with the 
Israelites, who were forbidden to harass or 
vex them, inasmuch as they were under the 
protecting care of God. Great numbers of them 
were in bondage to the Israelites, not only to 
individuals, but to the Tabernacle and the 
Commonwealth. See Nethinims and Solo- 
mon's Servants. And though it is pro- 
bable that their number gradually decreased 
from various causes, yet when they were 
numbered by David and Solomon, who em- 
ployed them in Lebanon and elsewhere, pre- 
paring materials for the Temple at Jerusalem, 
the number of able-bodied men among them 
was found to be 153,600, 1 Chron. xxii. 2. ; 2 
Chron. ii. 1. 17. Solomon in his beautiful 
prayer at the dedication of the Temple, makes 
mention of them in his intercession, as well as 
of any Strangers who might come from any 
land to seek the God of Israel. He appears 
also to have included all of them who were 
left of the old inhabitants in a more regular 
covenant of bond-service than before, 1 Kgs. 
ix. 20. ; and after this, but little is read of 
them. HI. The name of Strangers is also 
applied to the Samaritans and other foreign 
nations, who had been either sent as colonists 
to the Holy Land, or had taken up their abode 
there after the captivity of Babylon, Mai. iii. 
5. ; Lu. xvii. 18. IV. It is likewise employed 
in the New Testament to designate all foreign 
Jews, as well as proselytes to the old covenant. 
Acts ii. 10. And the Apostle Peter applies it 
to the Dispersion of the Jews, including pro- 
bably some of the devout Greeks and proselytes 
of the Gentiles converted with them to the 
Christian faith, 1 Pet. i, 1. Cf. 1 Tim. v. 10. ; 
Heb. xiii. 2. ; 3 Jo. 5. See Gentiles. 



STRIFE, WATERS OF, Ps. evi. 32. ; Ezek. 
xlvii. 19., xlviii. 28. See Kadesh. 

STRONG CITY, THE, a fortified and impor- 
tant city of Edom, perhaps its capital, which 
David seems to acknowledge his own impotency 
to take, Ps. Ix. 9., cviii. 10. Perhaps the 
allusion may be to Selah ; which see. 

STRONGHOLD OF THE DAUGHTER OF 
ZION, an appellation used by the prophet 
Micah, iv. 8., to designate Jerusalem, or perhaps 
the city of David ; which see. 

SUBURBS, THE, a part of Jerusalem on 
the E. side of the Temple, perhaps outside the 
walls, where they kept the horses and chariots 
that the kings of Judah had given to the Sun, 
but which Josiah, on his reformation of the 
state, removed, 2 Kgs. xxiii. 11. 

SUCCOTH (i.e. Booths'), the first station of the 
Israelites in the Wilderness of Egypt, after they 
quitted Rameses, on their coming forth from 
Egypt, Ex. xii. 37., xiii. 20. ; Num. xxxiii. 5. 
6. Nothing is known concerning its situation ; 
which was probably not more than 20 miles 
from that part of the land of Goshen where 
they had been dwelling, and about the same 
distance from the head of the Red Sea. It may 
have obtained its name from the temporary so- 
journing of the Israelites there, and probably 
never grew into any regular city : at least, no 
traces of such a place are mentioned in after 
times, or are known now to exist thereabouts. 

SUCCOTH (i.e. Booths), a place on the further 
side of the R. Jordan, in the valley of the river, 
to the S.W. of Peniel, and the Ford of Jabbok, 
and nearer the Jordan. Here Jacob took up 
his abode for a short time, on his return from 
Mesopotamia, after his meeting with his brother 
Esau; and here he made a house for himself, 
and booths for his cattle, whence its name. Gen. 
xxxiii. 17. A city of some size gradually 
sprang up here; and Succoth is mentioned 
amongst the places assigned by Moses to the 
children of Gad, Josh. xiii. 27. When Gideon 
was pursuing the Midianites after his victory 
over them, he came to this place as soon as 
he had crossed the Jordan, asking food for 
himself and his troops on their way ; but the 
men of Succoth refusing his request with 
churlish cowardice, when he came back after 
completing bis conquest, he chastised the elders 
of the city with thorns and briers, Judg. viii. 
5, 6. 8. 14. 15, 16. It was in the clay ground 
in the Plain of Jordan, between Succoth and 
Zarthan, that Solomon cast the beautiful pillars. 



SUCHATHITES. 



SYENE, THE TOWER OF. 343 



vessels, &c. for the Temple of Jerusalem, 1 Kgs 
vii. 46.; 2 Chron. iv. 17. This Valley of 
Siiccoth had been already mentioned by David 
on looking forward to his future triumph over 
all his opposers, when he declared that he 
would mete it out, Ps. Ix. 6., cviii. 7. 

SUCHATHITES, a family of the Kenites, 
who dwelt at Jabez, and appear to have been 
scribes, 1 Chron. ii. 55. 

SCTD, R., mentioned by the apocryphal writer 
of the book of Baruch, i. 4., as a river in Baby- 
Ion, by which dwelt many of the Jews after 
their captivity by Nebuchadnezzar. The Eu- 
phrates is perhaps meant, but there seems to be 
no notice of such a river in any profane or eccle- 
siastical writer. 

SUKKIIMS, a people that accompanied 
Shishak, king of Egypt, when in the reign of 
Rehoboam, he came against Jerusalem with a 
vast host, and took and plundered the Temple 
and city, 2 Chron. xii. 3. They are mentioned 
together with the Lubinas and Ethiopians ; and 
were, no doubt, a nation adjacent to, and pro- 
bably at that time subject to, Egypt. The 
Septuagint renders the name Troglodytes ; al- 
luding, probably, to the people thus designated, 
who lived on the Egyptian coast of the Red Sea. 
But these must have been always too few and 
insignificant, to have been specially mentioned 
in such an army as Shishak's : and it seems far 
more likely, they were a nation dwelling on the 
upper part of the Nile, between Eg3^pt and 
Ethiopia, where is still an extensive region called 

SUKKOT. 

SUN GATE, Jer. xix. 2., marg., the Hebrew 
name of one of the Gates of Jerusalem, which 
in our translation is rendered the East Gate. 
See Jerusalem. 

SUP HAH, Num. xxi. 14,, marg. A name of 
doubtful signification, but by some conjectured 
to designate the Red Sea. Cf. Deut. i. 1., and 
marg, ; others, however, think it refers to some 
place in Moab, perhaps near the Field of Zophim, 
Num. xxiii. 14. See Red Sea. 

SUR, a place spoken of by the apocryphal 
writer of the book of Judith, ii. 28,, as one of 
those which were terrified at the approach of 
Holofernes, the Assyrian general. It is not 
known what locality is pointed at, some suppose 
the whole country of Syria ; but, as the other 
names mentioned with it are maritime cities, it 
seems more likely Sur is intended to designate 
some place on the coast, between Tyre and 
Ocina, such as Achzib, now called Zib. 



SUR, GATE OF, one of the gates of the 
Temple of Jerusalem, 2 Kgs. xi. 6,, which 
Jehoiada commanded ,to be especially guarded, 
when he was about to anoint the youthful 
Jehoash king of Judah. 

SUSA, Esth.xi. 3., xvi.18., in the Apocrypha. 
See Shushan. 

SUSANCHITES, Ezra iv. 9,, one of those 
Eastern nations that, in connection with many 
other tribes, were removed by Esar-haddon and 
his successors into the desolate cities of Samaria. 
These not being allowed by Zerubbabel to give 
any assistance in rebuilding the Temple at Jeni- 
salem on the return of the Jews, did all they 
could to hinder the work ; in which, at length, 
they succeeded, the building being stopped for 
several years. The Susanchites are conjectured 
to have derived their name from the city Susa or 
Shushan, or from the province in which it lay, 
and which is called Susiana in the profane writers. 
See Shushan. 

SYCHAR, Jo. iv. 5,, or 

SYCHEM, Acts vii. 16,, the city of Shechem ; 
which see. 

SYCHEMITES, the inhabitants of the country 
of Shechem, whom the apocryphal writer of the 
book of Judith, v. 16,, mentions among the 
Canaanite nations cast out by the Israelites. 

SYENE, THE TOWER OF, a ^place men- 
tioned by the prophet Ezekiel, xxix, 10., xxx. 
6,, when foretelling the desolation of Egypt, as 
one of its borders. In the margin, the original 
is otherwise rendex-ed, and perhaps more cor^ 
rectly ; according to which the word " tower " 
is considered a proper name, Migdol, and would 
then represent the N, border of Egypt, as Syene 
would the S., — from Migdol to Syene, even unto 
the border of Ethiopia. But Syene has been 
thought by some to be the same with Sin or 
Pelusium, at the N.E. corner of Egypt ; and so, 
" the Tower of Syene," would represent the N, 
boundary of the country towards the invaders' 
side, and " the border of Ethiopia," the S. This 
construction, however, seems liable to many 
objections. There is at all events no difficulty 
in identifying this Syene with the well-known 
city of the same name, so frequently mentioned 
in all the ancient authors. It stood on the E. 
bank of the R. Nile, and was long considered 
the frontier town of Egypt in this direction ; and 
during the Roman dominion, was reckoned one 
of the keys of their empire. It is remarkable 
as being only a few m.iles to the N. of the 
Tropic of Cancer, so that at the summer solstice 
Y 4 



344 SYEACUSE. 



SYRIA. 



all bodies are seen there at noon without shadows. 
This was discovered at a very early period by 
the ancients, who here dug a deep well, which 
at the proper time and season was wholly 
illuminated. Syene is now called Es-souan, 
and is still the border town of Egypt, though a 
mean and inconsiderable place. 

SYRACUSE, a famous city on the E. coast of 
the island of Sicily, where St. Paul landed and 
stayed three days, when on his voyage to Rome 
as a prisoner, Acts xxviii. 12. It was founded 
by a colony of Corinthians in conjunction with 
the Dorians, about 732 B.C., and became eventu- 
ally one of the largest, most flourishing, and 
most important cities, which the Greeks ever 
possessed. It consisted of four chief parts, some 
of which were adorned with magnificent build- 
ings : it possessed also a noble harbour, capable 
of receiving vessels of the greatest burden, and 
which greatly contributed to its naval and 
commercial importance. Though its territory 
in the island was very circumscribed, the in- 
habitants of Syracuse became very wealthy and 
powerful ; extending their influence and renown 
over many dependent states. It fell into the 
hands of the Romans under the Consul Mar- 
cellus, B.C. 212, after a siege of three years, 
during which the invaders were greatly annoyed 
by the engines contrived by the geometrician 
Archimedes, a native of the city, who was him- 
self killed during the siege. The booty ob- 
tained at the sacking of the city, is said to have 
been equal to that of Carthage. Syracuse still 
retains its name, but has lost all its old magni- 
ficence and splendour. 

SYRIA, the name given in Holy Writ to an 
extensive country in Western Asia, lying 
between Mt. Taurus and Mt. Amanus on the N. 
and the great Desert of Arabia on the S. ; ex- 
tending from the Mediterranean Sea on the W. 
to the R. Tigris on the E. These limits, how- 
ever, must be understood as excluding the Pro- 
mised Land and Phoenice, which fell to the lot 
of Canaan, the son of Ham, Gen. x. 6. 15. Thus 
on the N. it touched upon Asia Minor, to the E. 
upon Assyria, to the S. upon Arabia and the 
Holy Land, 2 Chron. xx. 2. In the original 
Hebrew, it is usually called Aram ; being a large 
portion of that region of Aram which obtained 
its name from Aram, the youngest son of Shem, 
Gen. X. 22, 23., by whom and his descendants it 
was first peopled. The appellation Syria is of 
uncertain origin. According to some, it was 
derived from Tzor or Sor, i.e Tyre ; but others 
think that it is only an abbreviation of Assyria, 



which the Greeks first heard of when at a very 
early period they traded to the coast ; and then 
applied the new term to the whole country, at 
that time mostly under the dominion of As- 
syria. 

The original dwelling-place of the Syrian 
nation was in Kir, whence the prophet Amos, ix. 
7., alludes to their having been brought by Al- 
mighty God into the wide and fertile regions 
which they afterwards so long possessed. They 
do not appear to have distinguished themselves in 
the arts of life, though Ezekiel, xxvii. 16., men- 
tions their trading in the markets of Tyre 
with emeralds, purple, broidered work, fine linen, 
coral, and agate; many of which commodities 
they obtained from all the surrounding nations, 
to whom, owing to their natural position, they 
must have been the general merchants. Cf. 1 
Kgs. X. 29. They were, however, pre-eminently 
an ambitious and martial people ; and appear to 
have all along borne an implacable hatred to 
Israel, with whom they had some of the fiercest 
and most sanguinary struggles on record. Their 
pride and luxury, as well as their cruelty and 
wickedness, appear to have multiplied with their 
increasing population and advancing prosperity ; 
until they were at length cut off for ever from 
being an independent nation, and were confined 
by the king of Assyria to the narrow territory 
whence they had come, 2 Kgs. xvi. 9. 

From the earliest period of its history, Syria 
appears to have been divided into a number of 
distinct and independent kingdoms, 1 Kgs. x. 
29. ; 2 Chron. i. 17., xxviii. 23. ; though perhaps, 
first one and then another (as was the case with 
Zoba, 2 Sam. x. 19.) took the lead, until Da- 
mascus became the ruling power. Many of these 
are mentioned by name in the Bible ; ex. gra. 
Syria of Zoba, 2 Sam. viii. 3., x. 6. 8. ; Syria- 
Damascus, 2 Sam. viii. 5, 6. ; 1 Chron. xviii. 6. ; 
Isa. vii. 8., xvii. 3. ; Amos i. 5. ; Syria-Maachah, 
2 Sam. X. 6. 8. ; 1 Chron. xix. 6. ; Geshur in 
Syria, 2 Sam. iii. 3., xiii. 37., xiv. 23., xv. 8. ; 
Syria of Beth-rehob, 2 Sam. x. 6. 8. ; Syria of 
Ishtob, 2 Sam. x. 8. ; and the Syrians beyond 
the River (i.e. the R. Euphrates), 2 Sam. x. 16. ; 
1 Chron. xix. 16. The last-mentioned people 
dwelled in Padan-Aram, or Mesopotamia, as the 
Greeks called it ; and hence in Gen. xxv. 20., 
xxviii. 5,, xxxi. 20. 24., Bethuel and Laban are 
in our translation called Syrians of Padan-Aram, 
which was the region where they lived. For a 
similar reason Jacob is described in Deut. xxvi. 
5., as " a Syrian ready to perish ; " and the 
prophet Hosea, xii. 12., says of him that he 
" fled into Syria, and there for a wife he kept 



SYKIA. 



345 



sheep." The term Syrian or Syriac is likewise 
applied in a general way to the language used 
by these people and the Assyrians, 2 Kgs. xviii. 
26. ; Ezra ir. 7. ^ Isa. xxxvi. 11. ; Dan. ii. 4. ; as 
it is to their various idolatries, which were a 
great snare to the Israelites during the time of 
the judges, Judg. x. 6., as well as at other 
periods of their history, 2 Kgs. xvi. 10. Hence, 
probably, they were permitted .-by Grod to be so 
harassed by those to whom they were neighbours ; 
until some of the Syrians fell upon David as he 
went to recover his border at the K. Euphrates. 
Upon that occasion he conquered the two king- 
doms of Zobah and Damascus, putting garrisons 
in the latter; capturing 1000 chariots, 700 
horsemen, 20,000 footmen, and slaying 22,000, 
and in another battle in the Yalley of Salt, 
18,000 more, 2 Sam. viii. 5, 6. 12, 13. ; 1 Chron. 
xviii, 5, 6. About three years after this, upon 
the occasion of Da-v^id's ambassadors to the 
Ammonites being scandalously used, the latter 
hired to their assistance the Syrians of Beth-re- 
hob, Zobah, Maachah, Ishtob, and Mesopotamia ; 
who, when they were beaten by the army of 
David, called to their aid the Syrians that were 
beyond the river, when 'they were again con- 
quered, and vast numbers of these were slain, 2 
Sam. X. 6. 8, 9. 11. 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19. ; 1 
Chron. xix. 6. 10. 12. 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 
19. 

From this time forward, until towards the close 
of Solomon's reign, the Syrians appear to have 
been under some kind of subjection to the Israel- 
ites, and to have been at peace with them. David 
took one of his wives from amongst them, who 
was the daughter of the king of Geshur, and 
became Absalom's mother, 2 Sam. iii. 3., xiii. 
38. ; and the Israelites maintained for many 
years friendly and commercial intercourse with 
them, 1 Kgs. x. 29. ; 2 Chron. i. 17. But, mean- 
while, one of the king of Zobah's officers fled 
from him, and established himself in Damascus, 
where his son Eezon was stirred up by God 
to be an adversary to Solomon when he fell into 
idolatry, and permitted to become the ruler over 
Syria, 1 Kgs. xi. 25. From this time forward, 
whenever Syria is mentioned in the Old Testa- 
ment, it almost invariably designates the king- 
dom or empire of Damascus, which city became 
its acknowledged head, Isa. vii. 8., until its 
final subjection by the Assyrians. See Dajvias- 
cus. 

On the death of Solomon, the Syrians threw 
off the yoke of Israel, and began that career of 
invasion and persecution which they continued 
with but short intervals, until carried captive to 



Kir. In one of their earliest campaigns, proba- 
bly in the time of Omri, they gained such suc- 
cesses over the Jews, as to have built streets in 
the city of Samaria, 1 Kgs. xx. 34. But the 
first great encounter of which we have any 
details in the Bible, was when Asa, king of 
J udah, hired Benhadad to attack Baasha, king 
of Israel, upon which the Syrians assaulted and 
plundered the cities which were near them, 
seizing upon others which they were able 
to keep, 1 Kgs. xv. 18. ; 2 Chron. xvi. 2. 7. 
Fifty years afterwards, Benhadad, the king of 
Syria, with thirty-two kings under him, again 
invaded Israel in the reign of Ahab ; but he was 
conquered twice, and at length taken prisoner ; 
when he promised to restore the cities his father 
had taken from the Jews, and even to suffer 
Ahab to build streets in Damascus, 1 Kgs. xx. 

I. 20, 21, 22, 23. 26, 27, 28, 29. In the last of 
these battles, the Syrian host is represented 
as filling the country, and the Israelites as like 
two little flocks of kids pitched before them ; but 
there were 100,000 of the former slain in one 
day, and 27,000 more perished shortly afterwards. 
After three years' peace between the two 
countries, Benhadad's not fulfilling his treaty as 
to restoring the cities of Israel he had taken, 
gave occasion to a united attack upon Eamoth- 
gilead by the two kings of Judah and Israel, 
when Ahab was slain and the Israelites were 
driven back, 1 Kgs. xxii. 1. 3. 11. 31. 35. ; 2 
Kgs. V. 1, 2. 20. ; 2 Chron. xviii. 10. 30. 34. ; Lu. 
iv. 27. The striking events connected with the 
cure of Naaman, seem to have occurred about 
this time. But in the reign of Jehoram, king of 
Israel, the Syrians again made two attacks upon 
his dominions; in one of which, through the 
miraculous knowledge of Elisha, 2 Kgs. vi. 8, 9. 

II. 23., and in the other by an alarm which the 
Lord made them to hear, 2 Kgs. vi. 24., vii. 4, 
5, 6. 10. 12. 14, 15, 16., they were repulsed. 

Some years afterwards, when Elisha went to 
Damascus, Benhadad, who was sick, sent Hazael 
to him with a present, to inquire if he should 
recover ; . but the prophet foretelhng his perfidy 
and cruelty (Elijah having long before been 
commissioned to anoint Hazael king of Syria, 
1 Kgs. xix. 15.), Hazael murdered his master, 
and reigned in his stead, 2 Kgs. viii. 7. 9. 13. 
Hereupon, he began greatly to afflict Israel, 
wresting Kamoth-gilead from Joram, king of 
Israel, 2 Kgs. viii. 28, 29., ix. 15.; 2 Chron. 
xxii. 5, 6. ; and afterwards, in the days of Jehu, 
cutting Israel short on all their E. border. He 
then advanced into Judah, where he took Gath, 
and would have sacked Jerusalem, but for the 



846 



SYRIA. 



bribe which Jehoash gave him to go awaj'; 
though he still destroyed the princes, and sent 
the spoil of them to Damascvis, 2 Kgs, xii. 17, 
18. ; 2 Chron. xxiv. 23, 24. He likewise greatly 
oppressed the kingdom of Israel, under Je- 
hoahaz, destroying nearly all their army, and 
making them like the dust by threshing ; until, 
at the prayer of Jehoahaz, the Lord was pleased 
once more to deliver them out of the Syrians' 
hands, 2 Kgs. xiii. 4, 5. 7. Indeed, during all 
the reigns of Hazael and his son Benhadad, 
Israel was more or less scourged hy them, 
2 Kgs. xiii. 3. 22. 24, 25. ; though the latter was 
beaten three times, and the cities of Israel were 
taken from him by Jehoash, king of Israel, 
according to the prediction of Elisha, 2 Kgs. 
xiii. 17. 19. Jeroboam, the second king of 
Israel of this name, pressed him still harder, 
possessing himself even of Damascus and 
Hamath. But on his death, the Syrians, under 
Eezin, again recovered their independence, and 
forming a league with Pekah, king of Israel, 
invaded the Jewish territory, penetrating to 
Elath on the lied Sea, and even threatening 
Jerusalem, 2 Kgs. xv. 37., xvi. 5, 6. ; Isa. vii. 1, 
2. 4, 5. 8., ix. 12. ; Ezek. xvi. 57. ; smiting Ahaz, 
and carrying away a gi'eat multitude captive to 
Damascus, 2 Chron. xxviii. 5. Upon this, Ahaz 
in his extremity, sent a present to Tiglath- 
Pileser, king of Assyria, with an urgent demand 
for assistance against his enemies; whereupon 
the latter attacked and took Damascus, carried 
the inhabitants captive to Kir, whence they had 
originally come, and united the country with 
his own empire, b.c. 740, 2 Kgs. xvi. 7. 9. Some 
of them are supposed to have been located in 
the S. part of the province of Media, and to 
have hence communicated to it the name of 
Syro-Media. From that time, " the kingdom 
ceased from Damascus," as Isaiah foretold ; and 
the woes denounced against Syria began to be 
fulfilled, Isa. vii. 4, 5. 8., xvii. 3. ; Amos i. 5. 

Syria followed the fortunes of the Assyrian 
empire, and fell under the yoke of the king of 
Babylon, who brought many of them into the 
field against their old enemies the Jews, when 
he came to the destruction of Jerusalem, 2 Kgs. 
xxiv. 2. ; Jer. xxxv. 11. From the Chaldeans, 
it passed into the hands of the Persians (cf. 
1 Esd. vi. 7., viii. 19.), from whom it was taken 
by Alexander the Great, who fought his second 
battle with them at Issus, a small town on its 
N.W. frontier, in the province of Cilicia. On 
the death of Alexander, the possession of Syria 
was disputed for some years ; but at length, 
after the battle of Issus, b.c. 301, it fell to the 



lot of Seleucus Nicanor, one of his generals. 
From that time it became the seat of an empire, 
known in history by the name of the Empire of 
the Seleucida;, which grew rapidly in wealth 
and power until it became one of the most 
important then in the world. The ambition 
and talents of its rulers gradually extended its 
bounds from Egypt on the S. to the Caspian Sea 
on the ]Sr. ; and from the Hellespont on the W. 
to the frontiers of India on the E. Their capital 
was Antioch ; but there were also many noble 
cities buiit or beautified by them in several parts 
of their dominions. The era of the Seleucidae, 
reckoned from the beginning of the reign of 
Seleucus Nicanor, 311 b.c, was for a long period 
commonly used to compute time in Syria. It is 
often employed in the Maccabtean histories, as 
well as by the Jews of a much later period: 
and some of the Arab tribes are said to adopt 
it still. 

For more than 230 years, the Seleucidse 
maintained their empire with varying success, 
contesting portions of it with the Egyptians, 
the Parthians, the Jews, and many other nations 
about them. During this interval, Judsea suf- 
fered much from the constant warfare between 
the kings of Syria and Egj-pt, to each of whom 
it was alternately subject, and by each gi'ievously 
oppressed. But at length, the cruel tyranny of 
the Seleucidse, in endeavouring to force the 
idolatry of the Greeks upon the Jews, brought 
on a general revolt of the nation under the 
Maccabsean princes, to resist the abominable 
wickedness of Antiochus Epiphanes, b.c. 168; 
when, after a war of twenty-six years, the yoke 
of Syria was finally thrown ofi" by them. (-See 
Jews.) Some account of this fierce struggle is 
given in the two apocryphal books of the Mac- 
cabees, in which the kingdom of Syria is occa- 
sionally mentioned, 1 Mace. iii. 13. 41., vii. 39., 
xi. 2. 60. ; 2 Mace. xv. 36. ; though it is also 
styled the kingdom of the Greeks, 1 Mace, 
i. 10. Weakened by this, and many other con- 
flicts on various sides, but above all, broken 
down by civil wars occasioned by the many 
pretenders to its crown, Syria at last became an 
easy prey to the Romans, who had long been 
watching their opportunity ; and was, at length, 
conquered by Pompey, who dethroned Antiochus 
Asiaticus, the last of the Seleucidse, and B.C. 65, 
declared the whole country to be an integral 
part of the Eoman empire. 

From that time Syria was governed by a 
Eoman officer, called a president, Lu. ii., 2., 
who usually resided at Antioch ; Judaia being 
still exempt from his power, though the 



SYEIAC. 



TABBAOTH, CHILDEEN OF 347 



Romans did all .hey could to interfere in Jewish 
aifairs, and to intrigue with the several parties 
amongst them. Their ambitious designs, 
and the unhappy disputes of the Jews them- 
selves, at length led the way to Herod the 
Great being appointed king of Judaea. On his 
death the sceptre departed from Judah; and 
a few years afterwards, on the banishment of 
his son Archelaus, Judaea became actually a 
Roman province, governed by an inferior officer, 
who usually resided at Csesarea. The rest of 
Herod's dominions, which had been divided 
amongst his other descendants, were gradually 
swallowed up in the Roman empire, of which 
it then wholly became a mere dependency. 
Cyrenius is mentioned by St. Luke, ii. 2., as 
having been the governor of Syria when that 
taxing was made which led to the enrolment 
of the Divine Redeemer at Bethlehem as the 
Son of David ; and when He entered upon His 
ministry, Judaea had long been governed by 
Pilate, or by his unjust and cruel predecessors, 
Lu. iii. 1. 

Though our Lord does not appear to have 
ever quitted the bounds of the Holy Land, yet 
His fame went throughout all Syria ; and many 
who came thence to Him were healed. Matt, 
iv. 2-i. It was, however, traversed by several 
of the Apostles ; and in Antioch, its chief city, 
the disciples were first called Christians, Acts 
xi. 26. ; and at a very early period there sprang 
up many Christian churches in the country, 



j to which the council of Jerusalem directed 
their well-known epistle, and which were 
visited by Paul and others of the Apostles, 
Acts XV. 23. 41., xviii. 18., xx. 3., xxi. 3. ; Gal. 
i. 2L Syria was taken from the Romans by 
the Saracens, a.d. 640, and finally fell into 
the hands of its present possessors, the Turhs, 
A.D. 1515. It is still called Syria (or Sham 
by the natives), and is now di\dded into the 
four pachalics of Aleppo, Tripoli, Damascus and 
Acre : its limits are nearly the same as those of 
old. 

SYRIAC or Syeia^^s. See Syria. 

SYRIA-DAMASCUS. See Damascus and 
SvpaA. 

SYRIA MAACHAH. See Maachah and 
Syria. 

SYROPHENICIAN, the name given by the 
Evangelist Mark, vii. 26., to the woman who 
applied to our Blessed Lord to heal her 
daughter of an unclean spirit. In the parallel 
passage of St. Matthew's Gospel, xv. 22,, she 
is called a woman of Canaan. She was probably 
a Phoenician; as the name of Syro-Phcenice 
was that by which the whole province of 
Phoenice was often designated by the Romans, 
after Syiia fell under their sway, to distinguish 
it probably from certain of the Tyrian colonies 
in other parts of the world. 



TAAS"ACH, an ancient royal city of Canaan, 
whose king was vanquished by Joshua, xii. 21. 
On the division of the land amongst the seven 
tribes and a half, it fell to the lot of Manasseh 
on this side Jordan, though it was afterwards 
made a Levitical city, and given to the children 
of Kohath, Josh. xvii. 11., xxi. 25. ; 1 Chron. 
vii. 29. The Canaanites, however, continued 
still to inhabit it, though when they became 
strong enough, Manasseh put them to tribute, 
Judg. i. 27. It was not far from Megiddo, 
upon the small river called the Waters of 
Megiddo ; and was one of the scenes of conflict 
between Barak and the kings of Canaan, in the 
days of Deborah, Judg. v. 19. It appears to 
have been a city of some consequence, and | 
situated in a fruitful country; as it was a 
district in one of those twelve purvej-orships I 
which supplied Solomon and his household with i 
victuals, 1 Kgs. iv. 12. It is written Tanach in ' 



J osh. xxi. 25., and appears to be the same place 
which is called Aner in 1 Chron. \i. 70. In the 
time of Eusebius it was still a considerable vil- 
lage, which he describes as lying 3 or 4 miles from 
the town of Legio, or Lejjune as it is now called. 
Perhaps it was the Thena of Ptolemy, About 
5 miles S.E. of Lejjune is a village still called 
Taanuk. 

TAAXATH-SHILOH, a city of Ephraim, 
lying on its border, between Janohah and 
the Great Sea, Josh. xvi. 6. According to 
Eusebius, it was 10 miles to the E. of Neapolis, 
towards the Jordan, and was called Thanath in 
his time. Ptolemy marks a city Thena in 
this neighbourhood, which was probably either 
this or Taanach. 

TABBAOTH, CHILDREN OF, a family 
of the Xethinims who returned to Judaea with 
Zerubbabel at the end of the Babylonian cap- 
tivity, Ezra ii. 43. ; Xeh. vii. 46. 



348 TABBATH. 



TADMOR IN THE WILDERNESS. 



TABBATH, a pLace not far from Abel- 
meholah, near the W. banks of the R. Jordan, 
and so, probably, at the E. extremity of the lot 
of Manasseh. It was one of the places to which 
the Midianites fled after Gideon's signal victory 
over them, and before they attempted to recross 
the Jordan, Judg. vii. 22. 

TABERAH (i.e. Burning), an encampment of 
the Israelites in the Wilderness, to the N. of Mt. 
Sinai, which received its name from " the fire of 
the Lord " there consuming such as were in the 
uttermost parts of the camp, when the people 
provoked Him to wrath by complaining. Num. 
xi. 3. ; Deut. ix. 22. It was in the Wilderness 
of Paran, Num. x. 12., and a little to the S. of 
Kibroth-hattaavah, xi. 34. 

TABOR, MT., a lofty and beautiful mountain 
in the S. of Galilee, about 10 miles W. from the 
exit of the Jordan from the Sea of Chinnereth, 
on the borders of the two tribes Zebulun and 
Issachar. It rises rather suddenly yet easily 
from the N. side of the Valley of Jezreel, to the 
height of about 1794 feet ; its shape being that 
of a truncated cone, completely isolated on 
three sides from all the surrounding hills. It 
was here that, at the command of God, Barak 
and Deborah assembled the army, with which 
they defeated Jabin, king of Canaan, and his 
general Sisera, in the famous plain which lies on 
its S. side, and which has been the scene of so 
many battle-fields, Judg. iv. 6. 12. 14. Here^ 
also, the Midianites, when they invaded Canaan, 
and enslaved the Israelites for seven years in the 
time of Gideon, had an engagement with them, 
in which some of Gideon's brethren were slain, 
Judg. viii. 18. Its remarkable beauty, and the 
splendid prospect easily obtained from its broad 
summit, made it a well-known object with the 
Jews ; and hence, it is sometimes enumerated 
amongst the other conspicuous mountains of the 
Holy Land, Ps. Ixxxix. 12. ; Jer. xlvi. 18. 

In the latter years of the kingdom of Is- 
rael, Mt. Tabor appears to have been one of the 
high places in the " land of |idols," Isa. ii. 8., 
where altars were built to some of the many false 
gods then worshipped by the Israelites. Hence, 
the prophet Hosea, v. 1., charges both the 
priests and princes with having been as a net 
spread upon Tabor; a comparison which is 
thought to have been derived from the wild game 
with which the hill abounded. According to 
common tradition, Tabor was the scene of our 
Blessed Saviour's transfiguration; but this seems 
somewhat doubtful, though chapels and con- 
vents have been built on its summit by the 



Greek and Latin Christians, on the assumption 
that the tradition was true. There are many 
traces of walls and fortifications on the mountain ; 
showing, that it has often been a stronghold in 
the times of the many wars by which that part 
of the Holy Land was of old so often convulsed. 
Amongst others, Josephus, when governor of 
these parts, strongly fortified Tabor ; but Ves- 
pasian contrived to draw down the Jews into the 
open country, where he easily mastered them. 
Tabor is called Itabyrius by the profane authors, 
and by Josephus; its modern name is Tor. 

TABOR, Josh. xix. 22., 1 Chron. vi. 77., a 
Levitical city in the tribe of Zebulun, probably 
the same with Chisloth-tabor ; which see. 

TABOR, PLAIN OF, one of the valleys ofMt. 
Ephraim, in the neighbourhood of Bethel and 
Zelzah, not far from the N. border of Benjamin, 
1 Sam. X. 3. It was passed by Saul after he had 
been anointed king by Samuel; and was the 
place where the seer foretold him one of the 
three signs he had given him, should be confirmed. 

TACHMONITE, THE, 2 Sam. xxiii. 8., 
written Hachmonite in 1 Chron. xi. 11., a pa- 
tronymic of Jashobeam, one of David's chief 
mighty men ; but whence derived is not known. 

TADMOR IN THE WILDERNESS, a splen- 
did and extensive city of Syria, either actually 
built by Solomon, 1 Kgs. ix. 18., 2 Chron. viii. 
4., or else very greatly enlarged, as Veil as for- 
tified and adorned, by him. It was nearly mid- 
way between Damascus and the R. Euphrates, 
about 120 miles from each, and not far from the 
borders of Arabia. It stood in the midst of the 
great Syrian Desert, or " the Wilderness " as it 
is called in Holy Writ; and was a complete 
oasis, or island of cultivation, in the midst of the 
tractless waste by which it was surrounded. 
From its very advantageous position on the high 
road between Babylon, the Persian Gulf, India, 
and all the countries of the East on one side ; and 
the Jewish, Phoenician, and Egyptian markets 
on the other, it must always have been a place 
of some consequence with the early traders of 
the world ; and this the rather, from the beau- 
tiful springs and general verdure by which the 
few miles it occupies are so wonderfully marked. 
Hence it is, that Solomon is rather supposed to 
have enlarged and strengthened what he found 
already existing ; and he is conjectured to have 
done so, not only to get influence over the mer- 
chants who came there, and who probably paid 
a tax on their goods ; but likewise to wrest the 
commerce out of the hands of the Syrians and 
Mesopotamians, and to prevent their caballing 



TADMOE IX THE WILDEKXESS. 



TAPHOX. 349 



and conspiring against him, as they had done 
against his father David. Tadmor was called 
Palmyra by the Greeks ; both names being de- 
rived from the numerous palm-trees^ with Avhich 
this lovely oasis is so plentifully adorned. 

In the course of time it became a sort of inde- 
pendent state, which latterly was governed by a 
king ; and though it continually shared in the 
fortunes of the Holy Land, being possessed succes- 
sively by the Babylonians, Persians, Greeks, and 
Romans, yet it appears to have maintained akind 
of honourable neutrality, and to have been re- 
spected by all its conquerors. This distinction 
it seems to have owed, not only to its commercial 
importance as a depot for all the neighbouring 
nations, but to the fact, that the inhabitants did 
what they could to avoid political collisions, and 
confined their attention strictly to merchandise. 
This may, perhaps, partly account for Tadmor 
not being mentioned elsewhere in Holy Writ. 
It is, however, repeatedly spoken of by the 
heathen authors, who describe it as a noble city, 
and the great centre of the transit merchandise 
in that part of the world. It preserved its im- 
portance after the conquest of Syria by the 
Romans ; when it submitted to Hadrian, who 
beautified it exceedingly, and called it Hadri- 
anopolis after himself. It continued to increase 
in wealth and power till the time of Valerian, 
who gave its king Odenathus a share in the 
empire for the services he had rendered to the 
Roman people. Upon the death of Odenathus 
the ambition and warlike spirit of his beautiful 
queen Zenobia (who, according to some accounts 
was a Jewess), induced her to make herself mis- 
tress of Egypt, Palestine, Syria, Mesopotamia, 
and nearly the whole of Asia Minor ; till at last 
she provoked the jealousy of the Roman emperor, 
Aurelian, who attacked her in the Plains of Syria, 
defeated her in two hardly fought battles, and 
having laid siege to Palmyra, summoned her to 
submission. His summons was answered by a 
letter of defiance from her minister Longinus, the 
well-known philosopher; which so incensed 
Aurelian that, after the capture of the city, he 
ordered him to be put to death. Zenobia herself 
was eventually taken prisoner, and carried to 
Tibur in Italy, a.d. 273, where she ended her 
days in honourable distinction. But Palmyra 
was soon after again attacked by Aurelian, in 
consequence of its inhabitants having destroyed 
the Roman garrison ; when the enraged emperor 
ordered the city to be destroyed, and the greater 
part of its people to be put to the sword. This 
command was so completely carried out, that all 
subsequent attempts to restore the city proved 



ineflfectual. Its ruins, which are still called Tad- 
mor, ai-e amongst the most magnificent in the 
East, and amply attest its former grandeur. 

i TAHANITES, a family of the tribe of 
Ephraim, descended from his son Tahan, who 
were numbered by Moses in the Plains of Moab, 
Num. XX vi. 35. 

TAHAPANES, Jer. ii. 16., otherwise Hanes ; 
which gee. 

: TAHATH, a station of the Israelites in the 
Wilderness, Num. xxxiii. 26, 27. 

i TAHPANHES, Jer. xliii. 7, 8, 9., xliv. 1., 
xlvi. 1. 4., another form of the name Hanes; 
which see. 

\ TAHTIM-HODSHI, THE LAND; OF (i.e. 
the Nether Land newly inhabited'), 2 Sam. xxiv. 
6., a district in the N. part of Bashan, to the S. of 
Dan-jaan, which was visited by Joab and the 
captains of the host, when at David's command 
they numbered the people. It is conjectured to 
have been a marshy tract of land on the E. 
side of the R. Jordan, near its source, and lying 
at the foot of Mt. Hermon, which perhaps had 
not been reclaimed from the waste long before. 

TALMON, CHILDREN OF, a family of the 
porters, that returned home with Zerubbabel 
at the end of the seventy years' captivity, Ezra 
ii. 42. ; Neh. vii. 45. 

TAMAR, a place mentioned by Ezekiel in 
his prophetical description of the future division 
of the Holy Land, as one of its borders on the 
S., and, in like manner, as one>f the S. limits of 
the portion of Gad, xlvii. 19., xlviii. 28. ; the other 
points mentioned with it being the Waters of 
Strife in Kadesh, and the River toward the Great 
Sea, all apparently on the same parallel. This 
was probably about 50 miles to the S. of the 
Dead Sea, not far from the parallel of Mt. Hor ; 
and in that neighbourhood a place named 
Thamaro or Thamana is marked by Ptolemy, in 
Peutinger's Table, and in the Notitia of the 
Roman empire. Eusebius likewise mentions 
Thamara as a post which the Romans garrisoned 
hereabouts. 

TANACH, Josh. xxi. 25. See Taanach. 

TANIS, Ezek. xxx. 14., marg., Judith i. 10. 
Seo, ZoA^r. 

TAPHNES, Judith i. 9. See Hanes. 

TAPHON, a strong city of Judsea, which the 
apocryphal writer in 1 Mace. ix. 50. mentions 
as having been fortified by Bacchides. Accord- 
^ ing to Josephus, it was the same with Tekoa. 



350 TAPPUAH. 



TARSHISH. 



TAPPUAH, a royal city in the land of Ca- 
naan, -whose ruler was one of the thirty-one 
kings subdued by the Israelites under Joshua, 
Josh. xii. 17. It was, probably the same with 
the Tappuah described as situated on the'common 
borders of Ephraira and Manasseh, but ac- 
tually' belonging to the former tribe; though 
THE Land of Tappuah was allotted to Ma- 
nasseh, Josh. xvi. 8., xvii. 8. It may perhaps 
have been the same place with En-tappuah 
mentioned in xvii. 7. 

TAPPUAH, a city of Judah, lying in the 
Valley, Josh. xv. 34. 

TARAH, a station of the Israelites in the 
Wilderness, Num. xxxiii. 27, 28. 

TARALAH, a city belonging to the tribe of 
Benjamin, Josh, xviii. 27. 

TARPELITES, one of the many nations or 
tribes transplanted into Samaria by the kings of 
Assyria after the captivity of the Ten Tribes, Ezra 
iv. 9. They joined with the other colonists in a 
letter to king Artaxerxes, to hinder the rebuild- 
ing of the Temple at Jerusalem, by which the 
good work was made to cease until the second 
year of the reign of Darius. Whence they were 
brought into Samaria does not appear. 

TARSHISH or Tharshish, the name of 
a people or country, the situation and even 
existence of which has been the subject of 
much discussion. That there was such a region 
cannot be doubted ; for in Holy Writ, ships are 
described as going to it, merchandise coming from 
it, and nations trading with it. It derived its 
name from Tarshish, the second son of Javan, 
and grandson of Japheth, Gen. x. 4. ; 1 Chron. 
1. 7. ; who is generally believed to have settled 
near his brothers Elishah, Kittim, and Dodanim, 
on the S. shores of Asia Minor, where the well- 
known city of Tarsus, now Tersoos, has for 
many ages preserved his name. The city is 
stated by the profane writers to have been of 
very remote foundation ; and an idolcaUed Jupiter 
Tersius worshipped there with especial honour, 
may perhaps have been a heathen memorial of 
their ancient progenitor. 

The descendants of Tarshish are conjectured 
to have colonised various places on the shores of 
the Mediterranean, which is thought to have 
hence been called the Sea of Tarshish, until 
they reached the S.W. coast of Spain. Here 
they built the city of Tarshish, or Tartessus, as 
it is called by the profane writers, and which 
was afterwards named Gades, now Cadiz ; though 
there seems to be some doubt amongst them 



whether it was a city or a region, and likewise 
as to its exact situation. It is not unHkely, 
that the Phoenicians of Tyre and Sidon may 
have given the name of Tarshish to all their 
settlements on the S. coast of Spain, if not, 
indeed, to all their Mediterranean colonies ; for, 
in some passages in the Chaldean and Septuagint 
interpreters, the name is made to refer to Car- 
thage. At all events, it seems agreed upon 
amongst the ancients, that the several articles of 
merchandise mentioned by the prophet Jeremiah, 
X. 9., and Ezekiel, xxvii. 12., as having been 
brought from Tarshish, were at that time to be 
found in Spain; such as silver and gold, iron, 
lead, and tin, though the last mentioned may 
possibly have been also first imported thither 
from Britain. 

That Tarshish was somewhere in the Western 
Seas appears evident, from J onah's endeavour to 
flee thither from J oppa, where he found a ship 
going to Tarshish, Jonah iv. 2. ; as also from his 
complaining at Nineveh that he had actually 
fled to it, iv. 2. The merchants of Tarshish, too, 
visited Tyre with their precious commodities, 
Ezek. xxvii. 12., and are represented as singing 
of her in her markets, xii. 25., and bidden to 
howl over her destruction, Isa. xxiii. 1. 14, ; 
and even Tyre herself is called a " daughter of 
Tarshish," Isa. xxiii. 10. ; and is told, when 
her time of desolation comes, to pass over to 
Tarshish, xxiii. 6. David, likewise, Ps. Ixxii. 
10., and Isaiah, Ix. 9., Ixvi. 19., when foretelling 
the coming glories of Messiah's kingdom, con- 
nect Tarshish and the Isles together; and in 
Holy Scripture, the latter term is generally 
used to designate the islands and coasts of the 
Mediterranean. 

But, on the other hand, Tarshish is also 
mentioned in the Bible as being reached from 
the Eastern Seas, and as supplying ivory, apes, 
and peacocks, as well as precious woods and 
stones ; gold and silver, likewise, were imported 
thence in such vast quantities, as had never 
been seen in Jerusalem before. Some of these 
commodities could not be obtained from the 
Western Seas ; and there is no reason to believe, 
that the precious metals were at that time found 
in the West in such abundance as to justify 
the description of it here met with. Yet, Solo- 
mon's ships, which he built at Ezion-geber on 
the Red Sea, to go to Ophir, are stated to have 
been ships of Tai'shish ; which, in conjunction 
with the Tyrian navy, by whose sailors they 
were navigated, brought to the king of Israel, 
every three years, some of these valuable Eastern 
treasures, 1 Kgs. ix. 26—28., x. 11, 12. 22. ; and 



TARSUS. 



TEKOA. 



351 



in the parallel passage of 2 Cliron. ix. 21., these 
ships are said expressly to have gone to Tar- 
shish. The same observation applies to the 
fleet of Jehoshaphat, which he built in con- 
nection with Ahaziah, king of Israel, and which 
was wi-ecked at Ezion-geber; they are called 
ships of Tarshish, bound to Ophir, in 1 Kgs. 

xxii. 48. ; but in the parallel passage of 2 Chron. 
XX. 36, 37., they are said to have been built to 
go to Tarshish, but owing to their wreck they 
did not go thither. And it appears to be to this 
Tarshish that the prophet Ezekiel alludes, 
xxxviii. 13., when he unites its merchants with 
the Arabians of Dedan and Sheba in their 
trafficking with Gog, on his invasion of the 
Holy Land in the last days. 

There is, however, no mention made by any 
ancient author of any Tarshish in the East; 
nor does it seem likely that any of the de- 
scendants of Tarshish, or his father Javan, 
would settle there. It has, therefore, been con- 
jectured, that the name Tarshish was sometimes 
employed to distinguish the open sea generally ; 
and that the term "ships of Tarshish," or 
" navy of Tarshish," 1 Kgs. x. 22., xxii. 48. ; 
2 Chron. ix. 21. ; Ps. xlvii. 7. ; Isa. ii. 16., xxiii. 
1. 14., Ix. 9. ; Ezek. xxvii. 25., became applied, 
in the course of time, to all large and heavy 
ships, adapted by their strength for long and 
distant voyages, such as the men of Tarshish 
seem to have been the first to construct, Isa. 

xxiii. 14. And this view seems in some measure 
to be borne out by the general way in which 
Tarshish is spoken off, in connection with the 
destiny of the Jews in the latter days; as its 
kings, and ships, and merchants, are represented 
as all contributing to the triumph of that ancient 
people of God, Ps. Ixxii. 10. ; Isa. Ix. 9., Ixvi. 
19. ; Ezek. xxxviii. 13. 

TARSUS, a large and populous city of Cilicia 
in Asia Minor, which eventually became the 
metropolis of the province; it stood about 6 
miles from the sea, on the banks of the clear and 
beautiful little R. Cydnus, now Tersoos, so cele- 
brated in history for Cleopatra's ascending it to 
visit Antony. It is generally believed to have 
owed both its name and foundation to Tarshish, 
the son of Javan, and grandson of Japheth ; and 
is by many critics identified with the Tarshish 
of Holy Writ. See Tarshish. But, according 
to some of the profane historians, it was built by 
Sardanapalus ; others ascribed its origin to an 
Argive colony; and others, again, going back 
to the regions of mythology, to Bellerophon, 
whose horse Pegasus losing his hoof here, caused 



the city to be called Tarsus. The inhabitants 
appear to have always busied themselves in 
navigation and commerce, carrying on an active 
trade with all the neighbouring people, which 
greatly added to their wealth and luxury. It 
was much visited by the Greeks, who made it a 
free colony, settling here in large numbers ; and 
owing to their influence and cultivation, the 
city not only became one of the handsomest 
and most frequented in these parts, but so noted 
for its excellent academy, as to be reckoned at 
one time the rival of Alexandria and Athens in 
literature and the polite arts. Tarsus, with 
many other cities in Asia Minor, fell into the 
hands of the Seleucid^e, and upon the occasion 
of Antiochus Epiphanes giving it and the neigh- 
bouring city Mallos to his concubine, they 
revolted from him, 2 Mace. iv. 30. 

From the Seleucidce it passed into the hands 
of the Romans; and Julius Caisar is said to 
have bestowed upon it the same privileges that 
Rome had, whence it took for a time the name 
of Juliopolis. During the civil war at Rome, 
it espoused his cause so warmly as to draw 
down on it the vengeance of Cassius ; an injury, 
which was afterwards made up to it by the 
Triumviri, and more especially by Antony, 
who greatly added to its privileges. Hence 
St. Paul, who was born here, Acts ix. 11., xxi, 
39., xxii. 3., describes himself as being thereby 
" a citizen of no mean city ; " and it was, pro- 
bably, owing to its privileges as a free city 
under the Romans, that he more than once 
pleaded his rights as a Roman citizen, though 
some critics are of opinion he derived this 
advantage from other and ancestral rights. See 
Rome. After his conversion he retired to his 
native city for a time to escape from the malice 
of his persecutors, until he was joined by Bar- 
nabas; after which he seems to have often 
passed through it in his missionary journeys, 
Acts ix. 30., xi. 25. Julian the Apostate is 
stated to have been buried in one of the suburbs. 
Tarsus is still called Tersoos, and is one of the 
most busy and populous places on this coast : 
there are many beautiful ruins lying round the 
present dirty Turkish city. 

TEHAPHNEHES, Ezek. xxx. 18., another 
form of the name Hanes ; which see. 

TEKOA or Tekoah, a city in the N, part 
of the inheritance of Judah, about 12 miles from 
Jerusalem, and 6 from Bethlehem, according to 
Eusebius and Jerome, in a S.E. direction, on 
the W. edge of the great Desert of Judah. It 
appears to have stood on an eminence, which 



352 TEKOA, WILDERNESS OF. 



TEMA. 



gave it a commanding view of the country 
around. Here the prophet Jeremiah, vi. 1., on 
the occasion of the approach of the Chaldeans 
to Jerusalem from the K bids the people of 
Benjamin blow the trumpet of alarm in Tekoa. 
It lay on one of the high roads fi'om Edom and 
Moab, and became, therefore, an important 
military position, which soon after his accession 
to the throne, Rehoboam rebuilt and fortified, 
2 Chron. xi. 6. . One of David's mighty men, 
Ira, the Tekoite, who was also one of his twelve 
chief captains, came from this city, 2 Sam. 
xxiii. 26. ; 1 Chron. xi. 28., xxvii. 9. ; as ^did 
also that wise woman whom Joab employed in 
his stratagem to incline David to fetch Absalom 
home from Geshur, 2 Sam. xiv. 2. 4. 9. The 
prophet Amos was originally one of the herd- 
men of Tekoa, i. 1. It gave name to the 
adjoining "Wilderness of Tekoa, where 
Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, encamped when 
the Moabites, Ammonites, and Edomites, had 
invaded his dominions, and near which they 
all miraculously perished, 2 Chron. xx. 20. 
Some of the Tekoites returned at the end of the 
Babylonian captivity, and assisted Nehemiah 
in rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem, Neh. iii. 
5. 27. During the Maccabsean war, it was one 
of the places fortified by the Syrian general 
Bacchides, 1 Mace. ix. 50., marg., where in the 
text it is called Taphon; and it was in the 
Wilderness of Thecoe, that Jonathan and 
Simon fled from him, encamping by the pool 
Asphar, 1 Mace. ix. 33. Tekoa is said still to 
exist, and to preserve the old name of Tekoa, 

TEKOA, WILDERNESS OF, 2 Chron. xx. 
20. ; 1 Mace. ix. 33. See Tekoa. 

TEL-ABIB, a place mentioned by the pro- 
phet Ezekiel, iii. 15., as being by the R. of 
Chebar, and where many of the Jews who had 
been taken captive by Nebuchadnezzar were 
located when he visited them : here, too, he had 
one of his wondrous visions. It is identified by 
many with a city called Thallaba in the ancient 
authors, and now Thallabun, lying on the 
Khabour, a small river of Mesopotamia, which 
runs into the Euphrates at Carchemish. See 
Chebar. 

TELAIM, a city of Judah, where Saul as- 
sembled his army when sent by Samuel, at 
the command of God, to destroy Amalek, 1 Sam. 
XV. 4. It was, probably, the same with Telem, 
mentioned in Josh. xv. 24., a city of Judah, on 
the frontiers of Edom. 

TELASSAR or Thelasar, a region where 



dwelt the children of Eden, whom Sennacherib, 
king of Assyria, in his blasphemous message 
to Hezekiah, king of Judah, boasted that his 
fathers had destroyed, 2 Kgs. xix. 12.; Isa. 
xxxvii. 12. Nothing is known about it, 
though it is commonly conjectured to have 
been near a city called Talatha by the ancient 
authors, on the lower course of the R. Eu- 
phrates and Tigris, Some critics identify it 
with the kingdom of Ellasar, mentioned in 
Gen. xiv. 1. ; which see. Others, again, con- 
jecture it to have been the same with Tel- 
harsa, where some of the captive Jews were 
located, Ezra ii. 59. 

TELEM, Josh. xv. 24. See Telaim. 

TEL-HARESHA, Neh. vii. 61., or 

TEL-HARSA, Ezra ii. 59., a place where 
some of the captive Israelites were stationed who 
returned home with Zerubbabel on the edict 
of Cyrus; but who, not being able to show 
their genealogy, lost some of their privileges. 
Its situation is wholly unknown, though it was 
probably either in Mesopotamia, near the R. 
Chebar ; or about the lower course of the Eu- 
phrates. Some authors identify it with Telassar ; 
which see. It seems to be called Thelersas 
in the apocryphal book of Esdras, 1 Esd. v. 36. 

TEL-MELAH, Ezra ii. 59.; Neh. vii. 61. 

Its position is unknown; it was the residence 
of certain Israelites who could not make out 
their pedigree, and lost some of their privileges 
on returning to Jerusalem at the end of the 
seventy years' captivity. 

TEMA, the name of a city and tribe, in the 
N. part of Arabia Deserta, on the borders of 
Syria, which derived their name from Tema, 
one of the twelve sons of Ishmael, Gen xxv. 
15. ; 1 Chron. i. 30. Job speaks of the troops 
of Tema as parched by the drying up of the 
brooks in summer, vi. 19. ; alluding, it is sup- 
posed, to the wandering nomadic tribes of that 
region; or else, to the caravans of merchants 
which at that early period are known to have 
crossed these wastes. The prophet Isaiah, 
likewise, xxi. 14., mentions the inhabitants of 
the land of Tema as asked to bring bread and 
water to their flying neighbours, in the ap- 
proaching day of their desolation ; a calamity 
which is also predicted by Jeremiah, xxv. 23. 
According to some. Job's friend Eliphaz, the 
Temanite, Job ii. 11., iv. 1., xv. L, xxii. 1., 
xlii. 7. 9., was so named from this place ; others, 
however, connect him rather with Teman in 
Edom. Ptolemy and other ancient writers 



TEMAK. 



THESSALONICA. 



353 



place a city, vrliich tliey call Bavatlieraa or 
Themma, hereabouts, which is conjectured to 
have been the same with Tenia. 

TEMA]Sr, a city and district in the land of 
£dom, so called after Teman, the eldest son 
of Eliphaz, and grandson of Esau, who was 
also one of the early dukes or kings of Edom, 
Cren. xxxvi. II. 15. 42.; 1 Chron. i. 36. 53. 
The region they inhabited seems to have been 
even then designated the land of Temani, Gen. 
xxxvi. 34., or the land of the Temanites, 
1 Chron. i. 45. It is supposed by many to have 
been the residence of Eliphaz, the Temanite, 
the friend of Job, as well from the identity 
of the name, as from the wisdoiia for which 
Teman was distinguished; but to others it 
seems too far from the land of Uz, and not so 
suitable to the historj' as Tema in Arabia. 
The city of Teman was, probably, the most 
ancient capital of the country, and is mentioned 
by the prophet Jeremiah, xlix. 7., as the abode 
of their wise and prudent counsellors, and by 
Obadiah, 9., as the post of their mighty men 
(c/. Baruch iii. 22, 23.) ; but its complete destruc- 
tion, as well as the final and irreparable desolation 
of the whole region of Teman, are plainly foretold 
by Jeremiah, xlix. 7. 20., Ezekiel, xxv. 13., 
Amos, i. 12., and Obadiah, 9., and were fully 
accomplished in due season. See Edom. It 
appears to have been the most S. district of 
Edom, Ezek. xxv. 13.; and from its lying 
round Mt. Seir, it is conjectured to be mentioned 
by the prophet Habakkuk, iii. 3., as one of the 
places whence God manifested His glory to the 
Israelites on their quitting Egypt. From the 
account given by Ezekiel of the limits of the 
Land of Promise at the future restoration 
of the Jews, it seems likely that the S. frontier 
will touch upon Teman, Ezek. xlvii. 19., marg. 
According to Eusebius, the city of Teman was 
15 miles from Petra, under Mt. Hor, though 
Jerome makes it only 5 ; and in his days it was 
guarded as a strong post by a garrison of 
Eoman soldiers. The name is said still to 
survive in that of Maan, applied to a heap 
of ruins about 12 or 15 miles to the E. of the 
magnificent ruins of Petra, or Selah as it is called 
in the Bible. 

TEMANI, LAND OF, Gen. xxxvi. 34,, or 

TEMANITES, LAND OF THE, 1 Chron. i. 
45. See Teman. 

TEMANITE, THE, Job ii. 11., iv. 1., xv. 1., 
xxii. 1., xlii. 7. 9. See Teivia. 

THAMAH, or TAMAH, CHILDREN OF, 



Ezra ii. 53., Neh. vii. 55., a tribe of the Nethi- 
nims that returned to Jerusalem with Zerubba- 
bel on the edict of Cyrus. 

THAMNATHA, a city of Judsea, mentioned 
by the apocryphal writer of 1 Mace. ix. 50. 
as having been fortified by Bacchides, the Syrian 
general. It is conjectured to have been the 
same with the Timnah of Josh. xv. 10.' 57., or 
with the Thimnathah of Josh. xix. 43. 

THARSHISH, 1 Kgs. x. 22., xxii. 48. See 
Tarshish. 

THEBEZ, a city which appears to have re- 
volted from Abimelech, the son of Gideon, after 
he had been made king by the Shechemites, 
and where he eventually met his death when be- 
sieging it, Judg. ix. 50. ; 2 Sam xi. 21. It was 
probably close on the borders of the tribes of 
Ephraim and Manasseh. Eusebius, in whose 
time it was an insignificant village still called 
Thebes, states it to have been 13 miles from 
Neapolis, in the direction of Scythopolis ; which 
would seem to place it within the limits of 
Manasseh. 

THECOE, WILDERNESS OF, 1 Mace. ix. 
33. ^ee Tekoa. 
THELASAR, 2 Kgs. xix. 12. See Telas- 

SAR. 

THELERSAS, 1 Esd. v. 36.; possibly the 
same with Tel-harsa ; which see. 

THEMAN, Baruch iii. 22, 23. See Teman. 

THERAS, R., 1 Esd. viii. 41. 61., apparently 
the same with the river which in the canonical 
book of Ezra, is called the R. of Ahava ; which see. 

THERMELETH, a city or district men- 
tioned by the apocryphal writer of 1 Esd. v. 
36., as one of those whence some of the Jews 
returned home after the edict of Cyrus. It was 
probably either in Mesopotamia or Chaldasa, 
and was meant apparently for one of the places 
mentioned in Ezra ii. 59. 

THESSALONICA, a celebrated city on the 
coast of Macedonia, at the head of the extensive 
gulf called from it Therm£eus Sinus hj the 
ancients, and now the Gulf of Salonica. It 
had been formerly called Therma, but its name 
was changed to Thessalouica by Cassander, 
in honour of his consort, the daughter of Philip, 
and sister of Alexander the Great, upon which 
the old city was either greatly enlarged and 
beautified, or a new one built adjacent 
to it. When it fell into the hands of the 
Romans, they made it the capital of one of 
the regions into which they divided Macedonia ; 
A A 



354 THIMFATHAH. 



TIBERIAS. 



but ill process of time, it became the actual 
metropolis of the whole country, and the 
residence of the Roman president. Owing 
to its very advantageous situation, it soon 
rose into great political and commercial import- 
ance, and its population rapidly increased, the 
city was ornamented Avith noble buildings, and 
the people were accounted amongst the most 
wealthy and flourishing in that part of the 
world. There were many J ews resident amongst 
them, who had a synagogue here, in which 
St. Paul preached on his first missionary 
journey in Europe; but being persecuted by 
the unbelieving amongst them, he fled to 
the neighbouring city of Berea; whither he 
was still followed by certain of the malicious 
Thessalonians, and so was driven to Athens, 
Acts xvii. 1. 11. 13. Whilst at Thessalonica, 
he was neglected, and in want; so that the 
Philippian church sent twice to minister to 
his necessities, Philip, iv. 16. There were, 
however, some that believed the gospel amongst 
the Thessalonians; and to these the Apostle 
directed his two well-known epistles, 1 Thess. 
i. 1.; 2 Thess. ii. 1. He is thought to have 
again visited Thessalonica at a much later 
period; but when is not known. Two Thes- 
salonians, Aristarchus and Secundus, are men- 
tioned as having been his companions in 
travel; the former of whom appears to have 
accompanied him when going to Rome, Acts 
xix. 29., XX. 4., xxvii. 2., probably as a fellow- 
pi-isoner, Col. iv. 10, ; where Demas forsook 
him, to return to Thessalonica, 2 Tim. iv. 10. 
It is still called Salonica, and is one of the 
most flourishing and commercial places in 
the country, with a population of more than 
70,000 souls. 

THIMNATHAH, a city of the tribe of Dan, 
Josh. xix. 43,, conjectured by some to be one 
with Timnah, mentioned in Josh. xv. 57. as a 
town in the mountains of Judah; but this is 
doubtful. It ma}^, perhaps, be identified with the 
Thamnatha of 1 Mace. ix. 50. 

THIS SIDE JORDAN". -S-ee Beyond Jor- 
dan, 

TFIISBE, the name of a town in Galilee, 
mentioned in the Apocrypha as lying at the 
right hand of the city of Naphtali in Galilee, 
and as the place whence Tobit was led captive by 
Enemessar, king of the Assj'rians, Tobit i. 2. 
It does not appear to be otherwise known; 
for, notwithstanding the conjectures of some 
learned men, it can hardly be identified with 
that city whence Elijah received the name of 



Tishbite, as he is expressly said to have come 
from Gilead, 1 Kgs. xvii. 1. 

THRACIA, 2 Mace. xii. 35. See Tiras. 

THREE TAVERNS, THE, a station on the 
Appian Way, about 25 miles S.E. from Rome, in 
the midst of the Pontine Marshes. At first 
probably, it only consisted of the three houses 
whence it obtained its name ; but in the course 
of time, a small town appears to have sprung 
up there. It was in this neighbourhood, that 
some of the Roman Christians met St. Paul 
when on his way to the mightj^ metropolis of the 
world as a prisoner; whose coming not a little 
comforted y^im, Acts xxviii. 15. It is now 
called Castella. 

THYATIRA, a city in the K part of Lydia, 
a province of Asia Minor, standing on the R. 
Hyllus, which runs into the Hermus. It was 
formerly called Pelopia and Evippia, and is said 
to have been colonised by the Macedonians: 
when it fell into the hands of Seleucus, he 
greatly enlarged and beautified it, changing its 
name to Thyatira. It long continued to be an 
important place, both in a military and com- 
mercial point of view ; and its inhabitants were 
distinguished, amongst other things, especially 
for the manufacture of purple dye and purple 
cloths. Lydia, who was one of St. Paul's first 
converts at Philippi, was a seller of pui-ple from 
this city. Acts xvi. 14. Thyatira was one of 
the Seven Churches of Asia; and to it was 
addressed one of the seven apocalyptic epistles, 
in which it is severely censured for permitting 
some Jezebel to corrupt the faith with unclean 
and idolatrous practices, Rev. i. 11., ii. 18. 24. 
Its ruins are found at Ak Hissar, a small and 
dirty Turkish town, inhabited by a motley 
population, amongst whom are a few nominal 
Christians. 

TIBERIAS, a city of Galilee, on the S.W. 
shore of the Sea of Chinnereth, to which it gave 
the name of the Sea of Tiberias. It is said to 
have been built by Herod Antipas, who called 
it after Tiberius, the emperor of Rome. The 
Rabbins, however, maintain that he only rebuilt 
or enlarged an old city which stood there, though 
they are not agreed whether it was Chinnereth, 
or Hammath, or Rakkath ; but all these cities 
appear to have stood further IST., in the lot of 
Naphtali. Tiberias soon rose to considerable 
size and importance under the fostering care of 
Herod, who adorned it with many large and 
handsome edifices. Its beautiful situation, and 
the warm mineral baths near it, caused it to be 



TIBERIAS, SEA OF. 



tbhstath- serah. 3.5.5 



much resorted to by the heathen around, of 
whom its population is stated to hare been 
chiefly composed. It was rendered a busy 
place by its fisheries, and from being a common 
depot and crossing place for all merchandise 
shipped on the lake. It was strongly fortified, 
and gradually became the metropolis of Galilee ; 
of which, according to Josephus, it was the 
largest and most important city after Sepphoris. 
Herod Antipas is stated to have made it his 
ordinary residence ; and in the opinion of some 
critics, this is the reason why in the gospel 
history, the Blessed Eedeemer is never men- 
tioned as visiting it. Some of its numerous 
boats are spoken of as having crossed the sea 
to bring the people to see and hear Him, Jo. 
vi. 23 ; but it is not unlikely that the Saviour 
himself avoided the city where the tetrarch 
appears to have been plotting against him. Cf. 
Lu. xiii. 31, 82., xxiii. 8. Tiberias played a 
distinguished part in the last Jewish war ; but 
it was eventually mastered by Vespasian, who 
would have put all the inhabitants to the 
sword, but for the intervention of Agrippa. 
After the destruction of Jerusalem, a celebrated 
university of Jewish learning was established at j 
Tiberias, which existed for many centuries. It 
is now a small Turkish town, and still maintains 
the name in that of Tabariyah. 

TIBEEIAS, SEA OF, Jo. vL 1., xxi, 1. See 
Sea of Chixn'ereth. 

TIBHATH, 1 Chron. xviii. 8. See Betah. 

TIGRIS, one of the largest rivers in Western 
Asia, which rises among the mountains of 
Armenia, in Mt. Xiphates, and after forming the 
old boundary between Assyria and Mesopotamia, 
as well as between Babylon and Susiana, is 
joined by the Euphrates, and then enters the 
Persian Gulf. It is about 1200 miles long, and 
is still called the Tigris or Terr. It is conjec- 
tured to be the same with the Hiddekel, men- 
tioned by the prophet Daniel, x. 4., as the river 
by the side of which he had one of his wondrous 
visions ; and therefore also is identified with that 
Hiddekel which was one of the four rivers of 
Eden, Gen. ii. 14. See Edex. The names of 
Diklat, Diglath, Degola, &c., are given to it by 
some of the ancient authors, and in the East, it 
is occasionally called Diglath to the present day. 
Its more recent appellation of Tigris is said to 
have been obtained from a word signifying an 
arrow in the language of the country, and was 
applied to it on account of the swiftness of its \ 
course. The Euphrates and Tigris formerly 



entered the Gulf of Persia by two distinct 
channels; but they have for many ages con- 
stituted one river, near a place now called 
Corny, whence to the sea they have one common 
channel. This was indifferently called Euphrates 
or Tigris, and sometimes Pasitigris by the 
ancients, but now it is commonly denominated 
Shatt el Arab. The R. Tigris is occasionally 
mentioned in the Apociypha. Tobias and the 
angel are said to have lodged on its banks, and 
got a certain wonderful fish out of it, Tobit vi. 
1, 2. The tribes about it are stated to have 
followed Xabuchodonosor in his war with Ar- 
phaxad, .Judith i. 6. ; and its periodical swellings 
are spoken of by the son of Sirach, Ecclus. 
xxiv. 25. 

TIMXAH, a city of the tribe of .Judah, near 
its KW. border, in the neighbourhood of Mt. 
.Jearim and Bethshemesh, Josh, xv, 10. ; but 
whether the same with the Timnah mentioned 
at XV. 57., as a city of Judah in the mountains, 
is uncertain. It must have been close upon the 
borders of Dan, and hence it is conjeetm-ed by 
many to have been the same with Thimnathah, 
which is eventually mentioned amongst the 
cities of Dan, .JosK xix. 43. It was, likewise, 
adjacent to the frontiers of the Philistines ; by 
whom it was taken and inhabited in the reign of 
Ahaz, king of .Judah, 2 Chron. xxviii. 18. It is 
also frequently identified with 

TIMXATH, Gen. xxxviii. 12, 13, 14., 
whither Judah went up to his sheep-shearers 
with his friend the Adullamite. Here, among 
the vineyards, Samson killed the lion, in the 
carcase of which he afterwards found honey as 
he went to take his wife, who was of Timnath, 
Judg. xiv. 1, 2. 5., and who, with her father the 
Timnite, .Judg. xv. 6., was afterwards burned to 
death by the Philistines. If Timnah and Tim- 
nath were one and the same city, then it must 
have fallen into the hands of the Philistines at a 
very early period, or else not have been com- 
pletely wrested from them imtil the time of 
David. See ThA3en-atha, 

TIMXATH-HERES, Judg. ii. 9., or 

TIMXATH-SERAH, Josh. xix. 50., xxiy. 
30., a city in Mt. Ephraim, and apparently 
in the lot of the tribe of Ephi'aim, to which 
Joshua belonged, Ximi. xiii. 8. It was built by 
Joshua, who had his inheritance assigned him in 
this mountain. Here too he dwelt for many 
years, and was eventually buried in the border 
of his inheritance, on the X. side of the hill of 
A a 2 



356 



TIMNITES. 



TISHBITE. 



Gaash. According to Eusebius, bis tomb was 
still shown in his days. 

TIMNITES, the inhabitants of Timnath, 
Judg. XV. 6. ; which see. 

TIPHSAH, a city of Syria, on the W. bank 
of the E. Euphrates, the limit of Solomon's do- 
minions in this direction, 1 Kgs. iv. 24., as it had 
no doubt been of David's (c/. 2 Sam. viii. 3.) ; 
for the R. Euphrates w^s to be the boundary of 
the Promised Land, Gen. xv. 18. It is also 
mentioned as having refused to submit to Mena- 
hem, king of Israel, who at last took it and bar- 
barously treated its inhabitants, 2 Kgs. xv. 16. 
Some critics, however, are of opinion that this 
was another Tiphsah, near Tirzah, observing 
that as the name signifies a ford, it may have 
designated many places in Palestine ; but this con- 
jecture seems to be unnecessary. In consequence 
of the great ford of the Euphrates being here, a 
large and populous city grew up, which is called 
Thapsacus by the profane authors. It was the 
common landing, and place of embarkation for 
all passengers and merchandise going to Ba- 
bylon, the Persian Gulf, India, &c. ; and hence 
gradually became a great entrepot and place of 
trade. Many large armies have here crossed the 
river ; amongst others that of Cyrus in his ex- 
pedition against Artaxerxes, that of Darius pre- 
vious to his defeat at Issus, and that of Alexander 
before the battle of Arbela. When Thapsacus 
fell into the hands of Seleucus Nicanor, he 
changed its name to Amphipolis; building 
a bridge of boats at Zeugma, about 200 miles 
higher up the river, which thenceforward be- 
came the more usual crossing-place. Tiphsah 
is now known by the name of Der. 

TIRAS, the name of a race descended from 
the youngest son of Japheth, Gen. x. 2. ; 1 
Chron. i. 5. ; whose descendants appear to have 
settled originally at the N.W. extremity of Asia 
Minor, and thence to have crossed the Hellespont 
into Europe. Here they gave name to the well- 
known region of Thrace, and probably to many 
other localities in the S.E. pai-t of Europe, which 
bear such evident traces of them in the old 
authors. Thus we mee^ with the rivers Athrys, 
Athyras, Trausus, and Tyras ; the cities Tirista- 
eis and Trissae ; the promontory Tiristria ; the 
tribes Trausi and Odrysse, with Odrysus, the 
deified king of the latter, who was perhaps Tiras 
himself. Tereus, too, the king of Thrace, and 
Tros, the reputed founder of Tro}^, are conjectured 
to have been appellations both derived from 
the son of Japheth. The Thracians were a 
eruel, though brave and warlike people, whence 



in the heathen mythology. Mars was said to have 
been born in their country, and to have re- 
sided amongst them. One of his names amongst 
them was Thouras, which even Homer seems to 
adopt, and which has an apparent affinity 
to Theiras, as the Septuagint writes Tiras. 
They were expert horsemen, and often distin- 
guished themselves by their strength and skill 
in the armies of those generals under whom 
they served. Cf. 2 Mace. xii. 35. They had ths 
character of being greatly addicted to intempe- 
rance and prone to revenge; in earlier times 
they are said to haveofiered their enemies whom 
they had taken on the altars of their gods. 
But notwithstanding this, they appear in the 
latter part of their history, to have attained 
to a remarkable degree of civilisation. 

TIRATHITES, a tiibe of the Kenites, who 
dwelt at Jabez, and appear to have been scribes, 
1 Chron. ii. 55. 

TIRZAH, an ancient royal city of Canaan, 
whose king was one of the thirty- one kings 
conquered by J oshua, xii. 24. It seems to have 
been a strong and lofty city in the E. part 
of the tribe of Manasseh, about midway between 
Shechem and the Jordan, probably on some 
part of the high ground called the Mountains of 
Israel. Solomon mentions its great beauty, 
which he connects with Jerusalem, and an army 
terrible with banners. So. of Sol. vi. 4. Jero- 
boam made it occasionally his residence, and here 
hisson Abijah was buried, 1 Kgs. xiv. 12. 17. ; and 
it appears most likely that all the kings of Israel 
resided in the palace here until Omri removed 
to Samaria. Baasha reigned here, and was 
buried here, 1 Kgs, xv. 21. 33,, xvi, 6, ; as was 
the case with Elah, xvi. 8, 9. ; and Zimri, xvi. 
15., who Avhen he was here besieged by Omri 
and the party that followed him, burnt the 
palace over his head, xvi. 17, 18. Tirzah was at 
first chosen by Omri for his residence, xvi. 23. ; 
but after he had built Samaria, he removed 
thither, and was buried there ; whereupon 
the latter city became the usual abode, as well as 
the burying'place, of the kings of the Ten 
Tribes, though it is not unlikely that they oc- 
casionally dwelt at Tirzah, Cf. 2 Kgs. xv. 14. 
16. 

TISHBITE, the name commonly given to the 
prophet Elijah, 1 Kgs. xvii. 1., xxi. 17, 28,; 2 
Kgs. i. 3. 8., ix. 36. Its origin is unknown, though 
many suppose it to have been derived from 
a town called Thisbe ; but no such place is men- 
tioned by any author in Gilead, whence Elijah 



TIZITE. 



TEirOLIS/ 357 



came. The town of this name spoken of in the 
apociyphal book of Tobit, i. 2., -was in the tribe 
of Xaphtali, on the W. side of the Jordan. 
Other critics, therefore, suppose that this appel- 
lation, which signifies a reformer or converter, was 
given to the prophet from the extraordinary 
character of his office. 

TIZITE, a patroii^-mic given to one of David's 
mighty men ; but whence derived is not known, 
1 Chron. xi. 45. 

TOB, LAXD OF, Judg. xi. 3. 5. See Ish- 

TOB. 

TOBIAH, CHILDREN OF, a tribe or family, 
probably of the Ten Tribes, who returned to 
Judaea with Zerubbabel at the termination of 
the Babylonian captivity; but not being able 
to prove their descent from Israel, they forfeited 
many of their privileges, Ezra ii. 60. ; Xeh. 
vii. 62. 

TOBIE, THE PLACES OF, 1 Mace. v. 13. 
See IsH-TOB. 

TOCHEX, a city belonging to the tribe of 
Simeon, 1 Chron. iv. 32. 

TOGARMAH, a people descended from To- 
garmah, the youngest son of Gomer, and grand- 
son of Japheth, Gen. x. 3. ; 1 Chron. i. 6. ; who 
appear to have settled in the N.E. regions of 
Asia Minor. A tribe of them called Trocmi, 
Trogmi, or Trocmeni, is often spoken of in the 
ancient authors as inhabiting part of the pro- 
vince of Galatia ; and other traces of their name 
are to be met with in that neighboiirhood. The 
prophet Ezekiel, xxvii. 14., mentions " the 
house of Togarmah " as trading in the fairs of 
Tyre with horses, and horsemen, and mules; 
and again, in his description of the grand on- 
slaught upon the Holy Land in the latter days, 
he numbers " the house of Togarmah of the i 
north quarters " (which it was in respect of i 
Judeea) with the bands of Gomer, amongst the I 
vast and heterogeneous army of Gog, Ezek. 
xxxviii. 6. 

TOLAD, a city of the tribe of Simeon, 1 Chron. 
iv. 29., called Eltolad in the parallel passage of 
Joshua, xix. 4. 

TOLAITES, a family of the tribe of Issachar, 
so called after his son Tola ; they were numbered 
by Moses, together with all Israel, in the Plains 
of Moab, Num. xxvi. 23. 

TOPHEL, a place mentioned in Dent. i. 1., as 
one of the encampments of Israel in the Wilder- 
ness, where Moses rehearsed to the people some 
of the statutes and commandments which had 



been given him by God. From its being named 
next to Paran, it was probably somewhere 
between this place and Mt. Seir ; but nothing 
is known of its situation. 

TOPHET or Topheth, 2 Kgs. xxiii. 10.; 
Isa. XXX. 33. ; Jer. vii. 31, 32., xix. 6. 11, 12, 
13, 14. See HiN2s'03i. 

TOWER OF THE FLOCK, THE, an ap- 
pellation given in the prophecy of Micah, iv. 8., 
to Mt. Zion, or the Temple, or perhaps the 
whole city of Jerusalem, as being the tower or 
fold of God's flock Israel. It is also styled the 
stronghold of the Daughter of Zion in the 
same verse. 

TOWER, THE GREAT, a large tower on 
the E. wall of Jerusalem, near Ophel and the 
Court of the Prison; it appears to have pro- 
jected considerably beyond the line of the wall, 
and to have been in some way connected witTi 
the King's High House, Neh. iii. 25, 26, 27. It 
was rebuilt by Xehemiah when he restored the 
walls of the city. 

TOWER, THE, 1 Mace. vi. 18. 24. 26. 32., ix. 
53., X. 32., xiii. 50. 52., xiv. 7., xv. 28. j 2 Mace, 
iv. 12., XV. 35. See Castle. 

TRACHOXITIS, a region on the N.E. of 
Palestine, Avhich had originally formed part of 
the kingdom of Herod the Great ; but which, on 
his death, was assigned to his son Philip, to- 
gether with the district of Iturtea, whereupon 
the two constituted one tetrarchy, Lu. iii. 1. It 
touched upon Batangea or Bashan, on the W., 
Damascus on the N., Syria on the E., and 
Arabia on the S. It derived its name from the 
rugged character of the country, which was 
broken up by many ridges of hills, called by 
the ancients Trachones Montes, and now Kliiara. 
The inhabitants were reckoned expert archers, 
and lived mostly by plundering the travellers 
and caravans that passed near them ; or by 
making marauding attacks upon their neigh- 
bours. The Trachonitis is now called El Ledja 
by the Arabs, and its more S. part the Haouran, 
The latter name is not much altered from that 
of Auranitis, by which it was anciently dis- 
tinguished from the rest of the tetrarchy. 

TRIPOLIS, a city in the K part of Phoenicia, 
on the sea-coast between Aradus and Botrys. 
It derived its name from having been built by 
the people of the three cities of Sidon, Tyre, and 
Aradus, for the convenience of assembling there 
i the several federal bodies of the country for the 
j despatch of all such matters of business as 
i related to their common interest. It had a 

AA 3 



358 



TROAS. 



TYRE. 



" Haven," whicli was of no great magnitude, 
though probably sufficient for the traffic of those 
days ; and here Demetrius landed when invading 
Judaea, 2 Mace. xiv. 1. It is still called Tripoli, 
and is the capital of a Turkish province or 
pachalic of the same name. 

TROAS, a city of Asia Minor, on the W. 
coast of the province of Mysia, midway between 
the two well-known promontories Lectum and 
Sigeum, and about 15 miles to the S. of the 
ancient Ilium or Troy. It was originally founded 
by Antigonus, the great ruler of Asia, and then 
called Antigonia ; but it was afterwards greatly 
enlarged and beautified by Lysimachus, the 
general of Alexander the Great, who, out of 
compliment to his master, changed its name to 
Alexandria Troas. The former half of its new 
name soon fell into desuetude; and the city 
itself does not appear to have become a very 
prosperous place until the time of the Romans, 
who are said to have been much struck with the 
great capabilities of its situation. J ulius Ctesar 
is stated to have thought of removing the seat 
of the whole monarchy hither; a purpose at- 
tributed likewise to Augustus, and to Con- 
stantine, before the latter fixed upon Byzantium 
for his new metropolis. To gratify the vanity 
of the Romans, who gave themselves out as 
descended from the Trojans, Augustus sent a 
colony to Troas, and dignified it with the rights 
of a Latin city ; after which it increased rapidly 
both in size and importance, and became one of 
the most flourishing places in the province. It 
had a convenient harbour, which greatly faci- 
litated its trade, and whence there was a common 
passage to Thrace and Macedonia. It was occa- 
sionally visited by the Apostle Paul, who here 
had his vision of the man of Macedonia praying 
for help, and who sailed hence to Europe when 
he first brought the Gospel to our continent. 
Acts xvi. 8. XI., XX. 5, 6, ; 2 Cor. ii. 12, ; 2 Tim. 
iv. 13, 

TROGYLLIUM, a promontory on the W. coast 
of Asia Minor, in the S. part of the province of 
Lydia, about midway between the cities of 
Ephesus and Miletus, and now called Cape St. 
3Iary. It is formed by a projecting spur of Mt 
Mycale, and leaves only a narrow channel be- 
tween the mainland and the opposite island of 
Samos. There was a small town on the pro- 
montory, at which St. Paul tarried for a time 
when proceeding from Macedonia to Jerusalem, 
Acts XX. 15. 

TUBAL, a people and country so named after 
Tubal, a son of Japheth, Gen. x. 2., 1 Chron, i.5., 



whose descendants are thought to have originally 
settled between Mt. Ararat and the Caucasus, in 
a province known by the name of Iberia, the in- 
habitants of which were formerly called Thobeli. 
To the E. of it lay the province Albania, wherein 
was the city Thabilaca, and to the S.W. of it 
were the noted nation of the Chalybes; all 
names supposed to bear some affinity to the more 
ancient one. Add to this, that the prophet 
Ezekiel, xxvii. 13., represents Tubal as supplying 
Tyre with slaves and brass; a commerce which 
is well known to have been then actively 
carried on by the tribes in these parts. But it 
would appear that the descendants of Tubal ex- 
tended their settlements across the Caucasus, and 
eventually peopled the E. parts of Europe and 
the W. part of Asia ; in the latter of which the 
modern province and city of Tobolsk seem still 
to exhibit traces of their name. They are closely 
connected in the Bible with their brethren, the 
descendants of Meshech, and seem to have once 
made themselves very formidable by their cruel 
and warlike habits, Ezek. xxxii. 26. The pro- 
phet Isaiah, Ixvi. 1 9., enumerates them amongst 
the people to whom the glad tidings of the Gospel 
should be proclaimed, and who should in some 
way take part with the Jews on their final restor- 
ation to their own land. Yet they are, likewise 
especially mentioned amongst the forces of Gog, 
who is called their chief prince, and who in the 
latter days of the world seems destined to gather 
them together to fight against the people of God 
Ezek. xxxviii. 2, 3., xxxix. 1. See Gog. 

TUBIENI, 2 Mace. xii. 17. See Ish-tob. 

TYRE or Tyeus (in Hebrew, Tzor), a cele- 
brated city of Canaan, on its N. coast, about 20 
miles to the S. of Zidon, by the inhabitants of 
which it appears to have been founded, and hence 
it is called "the Daughter of Zidon/' by the 
prophet Isaiah, xxiii. 12. According to the 
Tyrian account, as given in Herodotus, it was 
built 2700 years before the Christian era (i.e 
350 years before the Flood) ; a fabulous boast, to 
which Isaiah, xxiii. 7., appears to allude when 
foretelling its coming desolation. Josephus 
states it to have been founded about 240 years 
before Solomon's Temple was built ; but as Tyre 
is mentioned by Joshua as a " strong city " two 
centuries earlier, it is not unlikely but the date 
in Josephus may refer to the peopling of the 
adjacent isle, subsequently called New Tyre 
The Sidonians watched over Tyre and fostered 
it, Isa. xxvii. 2., until it became a great and 
flourishing city, and was governed by its own 
king. Its importance and strength are attested 



TYRE. 



359 



by the extensive foi'tifications with which it was 
defended at a very early period; whence it is 
called the strong city Tyre in Josh. xix. 29., and 
the stronghold of Tyre, in 2 Sam. xxiv. 7. Cf. 
Isa. xxiii. 11. ; Amos i. 10. ; Zech. ix. 3. 

It fell within the borders of the Promised 
Land, and so on the division of Canaan by 
Joshna, it was allotted to the tribe of Asher; 
though it seems doubtful whether the Israelites 
ever had any power over it, except perhaps for a 
short time during the reigns of David, 2 Sam. 
xxiv. 7., and Solomon, the latter of whom is ex- 
pressly said to have been at peace, and to have 
made a league, with the king of T}Te, 1 Kgs. v. 
12. It is not unlikely that this league may have 
been first made with David, 1 Kgs. v. 1., and 
that it was "the brotherly covenant" which 
they are charged with having forgotten by the 
prophet Amos, i. 9. The apocryphal writer of 
the book of Ecclesiasticus, xlvi. 18., speaks of 
Samuel having " destroyed the rulers of the 
Tyrians," together with the princes of the Phi- 
listines; which would appear to show at how 
early a period these two inveterate enemies of 
Israel were united in their persecuting warfare. 
Cf. Judg, X. 12. Hiram, king of Tyre, sent 
materials and builders to David for the erection 
of his own palace in Jerusalem, as well as ma- 
terials for the Temple of Jerusalem, 2 Sam. v. 11. ; 
1 Chron. xiv. 1., xxii. 4. ; and either himself or 
his successor on the throne of T\n.-e, greatly as- 
sisted Solomon with skilful builders and la- 
bourers, as well as with costly stones, cedar trees 
and fir-trees, gold, and other important ma- 
terials, for the erection of his magnificent Temple, 
as well as other splendid edifices in Jerusalem, 
1 Kgs. V. 1., vii. 13, 14., ix. 11, 12. ; 2 Chron. ii. 
3. 11. 14. Cf. Ps. xlv. 12. Hiram, one of the 
chief artificers whom he sent, was a widow's son 
of the tribe of Naphtali or Dan, and his father 
a man of Tyre. These references abundantly 
show the skill and the wealth of Tyre at this time, 
which had become the complete rival of Zidon, 
if it did not even surpass it ; and had come to be 
numbered with the most powerful nations of the 
world, Ps. Ixxxvii. 4. 

There was a small island nearly opposite to it 
only three stadia or furlongs from the shore, and 
about twenty-tAvo in circuit ; which had no doubt 
already begun to form a part of the city, and to 
receive its overflowing population and merchan- 
dise, since it is mentioned as the Isle by Isaiah, 
xxiii. 2. 6. In this advantageous situation they 
constructed a navy, such as probablj^ had never 
been known up to that time, Ezek. xxvii. 5, 6, 
7, 8, 9. ; the ships of which were amongst the 



first to lose sight of land, and to steer by the 
stars ; and which, being of a larger and stronger 
build than had been usual, and such as were 
adapted to long and perilous voyages, were pro- 
bably those which are described in Holy Writ as 
" ships of Tarshish ; " and hence too, it may be 
Tyre herself is called "the Daughter of Tarshish," 
Isa. xxiii. 10. With these she planted colonies 
on numerous parts of the coasts of the Mediter- 
ranean and Atlantic, amongst which Carthage 
and Tartessus may be specially named; and 
those colonies, again, contributed to enrich the 
mother city, and to make her become what for 
ages she was, the great emporium of all the mer- 
chants and trade of the world. Hence Isaiah 
calls Tyre, Canaan or the 3Ierchant City, the 
Crowning City, the Mart of Nations ; and de- 
scribes her merchants as princes, and her traf- 
fickers as the honourable of the earth, Isa. xxiii. 
3. 8. 11. Ezekiel speaks of her markets being 
visited not only by Judah and Israel, xxvii. 17., 
but by more than thirty of the leading nations 
of the world, so that by their means she was re- 
plenished and made glorious in the midst of the 
seas, xxvii. 25., though ruined by "the iniquity 
of her traffic," xxviii. 18. Zechariah states that 
she heaped up silver as the dust, and fine gold 
as the mire of the streets, ix. 3. 

This vast accumvdation of wealth greatly 
added to the pride and luxury of the people, as 
well as contributed to the beauty, Ezek. xxviii. 
12., Hos. ix. 13., and magnificence of their city, 
and to the knoAvledge and skill for which they 
were so famed, Ezek. xxviii. 2—18. By it, like- 
wise, they derived the means of increasing 
their power and infiuence over the nations that 
traded in her fairs, to an almost unexampled 
degree, Ezek. xxvi. 17. ; and by it they were 
hardened and strengthened in that base idolatry 
they practised, and with which they so long 
and so successfully tried to corrupt the pure wor- 
ship of the Hebrews. But still, it appears to 
have been rather the cruelty of Tyre, and her op- 
pressive hatred of the Israelites, as well as 
her wanton rejoicing over the ruin of the king- 
dom of the Ten Tribes, and over the destruc- 
tion of Jerusalem, that finally brought down 
the vengeance of Almighty God upon her, and 
ended in her ruin. 

There appear to have been peace and a good 
understanding between the Tyrians and the 
Israelites for many years after the death of Solo- 
mon ; which the marriage of Ahab, king of Israel, 
with Jezebel, daughter of Ethbaal, king of the 
Zidonians (whom Josephus states to have been 
also king of Tyre), 1 Kgs. xvi. 31., for a time 
A A 4 



360 



TYRE. 



perhaps increased. But it is evident from the 
language of the prophecy that, before a century 
had passed from the death of Ahab, the Tyrians 
had joined some of the enemies of Israel in their 
acts of oppi-ession and spoliation. Cf. Ps. Ixxxiii. 
7., Ixxxvii. 4. The prophet Joel, iii. 4 — 6., 
charges them with having taken the silver and 
gold, and goodly pleasant things, which belonged 
to God, and put them into their temples ; as well 
as with selling the children of Judah and Je- 
rusalem into slavery ; which may possibly have 
taken place, when the Philistines and Arabians 
attacked Jehoram, king of Judah, and rifled 
Jerusalem, B.C. 887, 2 Chron. xxi. 16, 17. And 
Amos, i. 9., accuses the Tyrians of having for*- 
gotten " the brotherly " covenant, and delivei'ed 
up the whole captivity to Edom ; perhaps, 
when Pul, king of Assyria, was oppressing the 
Ten Tribes, 2 Kgs. xv. 19. ; 1 Chron. v. 26. ; 
or during some of those invasions which the 
Philistines and Edoraites were always ready to 
make upon Israel, 2 Chron. xxvii. 17, 18. 

This spirit of hatred and cruelty had still 
more ample scope when Shalmaneser overthrew 
the kingdom of the Ten Tribes; and Tyre is 
described by Jeremiah, xxvi. 2., as having re- 
joiced and mocked at the destruction of Jeru- 
salem by Nebuchadnezzar. For all these long- 
continued iniquities, the doom of Tyre was 
foretold for centuries before it came, by many 
of the prophets, with a minuteness of circum- 
stances that Omniscience alone could describe ; 
but which were only gradually, though now 
they have been most completely, carried out. 
Joel, iii. 4. 8., predicted that the Tyrians 
should be sold as captives to the Jews, who 
should again sell them for slaves to distant 
lands; Amos, i. 9, 10., that their punishment 
should surely come, when the strength of their 
city and its palaces should be burnt. Isaiah, 
xxiii. 1. 5. 8. 15. 17., foretold her miserable 
overthrow by the Chaldeans, even when the 
city was in the midst of its joyous prosperity; 
and likewise, that after seventy years of desola- 
tion, she should again return to her former glorj- 
and her former iniquities, until another day 
of visitation arose upon her. Jeremiah, xxv. 
22., xxvii. 3., xlvii. 4., announced the coming 
wrath of God upon Tyre, when she should be 
brought into heavy bondage to Nebuchadnezzar, 
and all her helpers should be cut off. But as the 
day of vengeance drew nearer, Ezekiel's words 
were more fearfully descriptive of the terrible 
desolations that should be most surely brought 
upon them. He foretold the slaughter and 
plunder of her inhabitants after a long and 



severe siege by Nebuchadnezzar with many 
nations to help him; when the fortifications 
should be destroyed, the city burnt, the founda- 
tions left like the top of a rock, and become 
only a place for the spreading of nets to dry : 
and again, that her stones, and timber, and 
dust should be laid in the midst of the water ; 
that her meniment and traffic should be ended, 
that the isles should shake at her fall, and that 
she should eventually be made desolate for ever, 
Ezek. xxvi. 2, 3, 4. 7. 15., xxvii. 2, 3. 8. 32., 
xxviii. 2. 12., xxix. 18. And even after her 
recovery from her first partial desolation, 
when she had again returned for a time to her 
former ways, Zechariah, ix. 2, 3., foretells that 
ultimate and complete destruction, from which 
she has never recovered to this day. 

These fearful predictions are said by Josephus 
to have been first made good by Shalmaneser, 
who, after having carried captive the Ten 
Tribes, besieged Tyre for five years, and re- 
duced it to great straits, though eventually he 
retired from the attack. Cf. also Judith ii. 28, 
However this may be, they began to be really 
and awfully accomplished soon after the de- 
struction of Jerusalem, when Nebuchadnezzar 
attacked the city by land ; but though he 
brought all the vast resources of his army to 
bear upon it, such was the strength of Tyre that 
it was not until after a siege of thirteen years 
(one of the longest recorded in history), that 
it was at length taken. Even then, it was only 
continental Tyre that fell into his hands; the 
insular city still remained unhurt, and thither 
most of the Tyrians escaped from the land, 
taking with them all the riches and treasures 
which they could, thus greatly disappointing the 
conqueror both of his captives and his spoil. This 
led him to wreak his vengeance on the inhabit- 
ants who remained by putting them to death, 
and by razing the city to the ground. The labour 
and suffferings of his troops during the siege are 
spoken of in the prophecy of Ezekiel, xxix. 18., 
who describes " every head as having been made 
bald, and every shoulder peeled " during the long 
service ; and as neither Nebuchadnezzar nor his 
army got any wages in the way of pay, the pro- 
phet is directed by God to promise him the land 
of Egypt for his labour. It does not appear that 
continental Tyre ever again rose to anj^thing 
like a city: some small portion of the site, 
however, was covered with houses, which an- 
ciently bore the name of Old Tyre. The Chal- 
deans remained masters of this, and are said 
by Josephus to have eventually gained pos- 
session of the isle; after which, according to 



TYRE, 



361 



the Plioenician annals, the Tyrians received 
their kings from Babylon or Persia for seventy 
years, the native royal house having, as has 
been conjectured, been carried into captivity, 
like that of Judah. 

The Tyrians are mentioned in the book of 
Ezra iii. 7. (cf. 1 Esd. v. 55.) as having assisted 
Zenibbabel by bringing cedar-trees from Le- 
banon to Joppa for the building of the second 
Temple, according to the grant that they had of 
Cyrus, king of Persia; and a century later, 
JSTeheraiah, xiii. 16., speaks of some of the Ty- 
rians who lived in Jerusalem, and traded in 
fish and all manner of ware, by the sale of 
which they profaned the Sabbath. Under the 
mild sway of the Persians, Insular Tyre rose 
rapidly to some of its old dignity and glory, 
and again became the leading emporium of the 
world. Its inhabitants appear to have been re- 
stored to their former independence, under the 
condition of supplying the Persians with ships 
and men, whenever these should be required. 
This they did very effectually in the great 
conflict of Xerxes and Darius with the Greeks ; 
but after the fatal defeat of the latter by Alex- 
ander the Great, at Issus, B.C. 333, the Mace- 
donian conqueror marched into Phoenicia to 
attack Sidon and Tyre, as had been foretold by 
Isaiah, xxiii, 1. The former city surrendered ; 
but the latter, confident in its own strength and 
in the naval supplies promised by Carthage and 
others of its colonies, refused to yield. This so 
enraged Alexander, that he fell upon it with 
all his force ; but though he made several attempts 
to storm it by sea, he was always driven back. 
At length he determined to connect the island 
vfiih. the mainland by a causeway built with 
the stones, timber, and rubbish of the old con- 
tinental city, and held together by huge trees, 
floated down from Lebanon and the adjacent 
mountains. When nearly completed, his first 
causeway Avas destroyed by a storm, but at 
length, the daring enterprise was successful, as 
had been minvitely predicted by Ezekiel, xxvi. 
12. 19., and after a siege of seven months. Tyre 
fell into Alexander's hands. Many of the in- 
habitants escaped to Carthage and elsewhere, 
but the greater part were either cruelly put to 
death by him, or else sold as slaves to the Jews 
and other neighbouring nations, the city was 
nearly consumed by fire, and its fortifications 
mostly destroj-ed. From this blow Tyre never 
recovered, especially after the foundation of 
Alexandria in Egypt, which soon began to draw 
to itself most of that trafiic with so many na- 
tions which had been enriching the Phoenicians 



for more than 1000 years. Henceforward, the old 
city and the island became connected together 
by the causeway of Alexander; which the 
accumulations of the ruins, and of the sand and 
rocks cast up by the sea, have now rendered 
almost a natural isthmus. T}Te was in a measure 
restored on a small scale, and once again for- 
tified so strongly that it was able to withstand 
a siege against the fleet of Antigonus for 15 
months; but it eventually fell into his hands, 
and became from that time subject alternately 
to the Seleucidse and Egyptians, according to 
their varying successes (and is hence some- 
times mentioned in the apocryphal history of 
the great Maccabsean struggle, 1 Mace. v. 15., 
xi. 59.; 2 Mace. iv. 18. 32. 44. 49.), until at 
length it was absorbed in the iron empire of the 
Eomans, whoimder Hadrian made it a free colony. 

Though Tyre lay within the limits of the 
Holy Land, and there were many Jews resident 
in it in the New Testament times, yet it does not 
appear to have been visited by our Blessed 
Kedeemer during His ministry, but He preached 
the gospel in the coast of Tyre and Sidon, and 
many came thence to hear Him, and to be healed 
by Him of their diseases, amongst whom was the 
woman of Canaan, or the Syro-Phoenician, 
Matt. XV. 21. ; Mk. iii. 8., vii. 24. 31. ; Lu. vi. 
17. See Phekicia. Amongst these, there 
were probably many who truly repented and 
believed in Him, since He declared that the un- 
belief of Chorazin, Bethsaida, and the cities 
wherein most of His mighty works were done, 
was greater than that of Tyre and Sidon; and 
that their doom at the day of judgment should 
be worse. Matt. xi. 21, 22. ; Lu. x. 13, 14. It was 
on the occasion of the reconciliation between 
Herod and the Tyrians, that the former was 
smitten of God, for his impiety, after his rheto- 
rical display at C^sarea, Acts xii. 20. This 
quarrel is conjectured to have arisen from the 
Tyrians having thwarted some of Herod's mer- 
cantile and naval plans, which he purposed 
resenting by cutting off their usual supplies of 
food from his dominions, and as it appears by 
declaring war against them ; all which shows 
that, by this time, owing probably to Roman 
influence. Tyre had again become a respectable 
and influential place. St. Paul landed and 
tarried seven days here during one of his 
voyages, where he found many faithful Christian 
disciples, who warned him through the Spirit 
not to go up to Jerusalem, Acts xxi. 3. 7. 

But Tyre has for ages lost every portion of 
its former greatness, and is now nothing but 
i heaps of ruins on every side. The site of the 
i 



362 TYRE AFD SIDON. 



UK OF THE CHALDEES. 



olden city on the land, may still be in some 
measure traced near a spot called Ras-el-Ain, 
notwithstanding the wide-spread desolation; 
whilst Insular Tyre is reduced to a small insig- 
nificant village rather than town, though it still 
bears traces of the ancient name in that of Tsoor 
or Soor. It is now little more than a fishing 
station, and amidst the many wondrous marks 
of fulfilled prophecy, every traveller notes that 
its " dust has been scraped from it, and that it 
is made like the top of a rock, a place for the 
spreading of nets in the midst of the sea," 
Ezek. xxvi. 4, 5. 

TYRE AND SIDON, COASTS OF. See 
Phenicia. 

TYRIANS, Ecclus. xlvi. 18., the inhabitants 
of the city or region of Tyre, whose rulers 
Samuel is said to have destroyed, together with 



the princes of the Philistines ; an allusion pro- 
bably to tthe canonical history in 1 Sam. vii. 
9—12. See Tyre. 

TYRUS, THE LADDER OF, mentioned in 
1 Mace. xi. 59., as the N. boundary of the 
government of Simon Maccabseus when his bro- 
ther Jonathan made him captain over the whole 
coast of his dominions; the S. point being 
the borders of Egypt. The name, which is 
mentioned likewise in some of the ancient 
writers, is thought to have been given to a 
bold headland on the coast of Syria formed by a 
projecting cliff" of the Anti-Lebanon, now called 
Cape Nakhora, about 15 miles to the S. of Tyre. 

TZIDON, Gen. x. 15., marg., the Hebrew 
form of the name Zidon ; which see. 

TZOR, Josh. xix. 29., marg. See Tyke. 



ULAI, RIVER OF, where the prophet Daniel 
had some of his wonderful visions, was in the 
province of Elam, and flowed past the city of 
Shushan or Susa, the magnificent winter resi- 
dence of the Persian kings, Dan. viii. 2. 16. 
This river is called Choaspes by the profane 
authors, and sometimes Eul^us, a name which 
carries evident traces of that of Ulai. It rises on 
the borders of Media and Persis, and flows with a 
S.W. course into the Pasitigris. Its. water was so 
remarkably pure, that the kings of Persia are 
stated to have drunk no other, forbidding, upon 
pain of death, that it should be used by any 
of their subjects, and carrying it with them 
in silver vessels in all their journeys to the 
most distant countries. Its modern name is 
said to be Kerkhah. 

UMMAH, a city of the tribe of Asher, Josh, 
xix. 30. 

UNCIRCUMCISION, THE, Rom. ii. 26., iii. 
30., iv. 9. ; Gal. ii. 7. ; Eph. ii. 11. ; Col. iii. 11. ; 
or The Gentiles ; which see. 

UPHAZ, a place mentioned by the prophets 
Jeremiah, x. 9., and Daniel, x. 5., as pi'oducing 
fine gold. Its situation is utterly unknown, 
though it has been identified by many with 
the island of Ceylon, in the N. part of which 
Ptolemy places a river which he calls Phasis; 
a name which is so remarkable as connected 
with the golden Phasis of the Euxine, that it 
is not an unlikely alteration of the older form 
Uphaz. Others, however, conjecture Uphaz to 



have been the Aurea Chersonesus of the pro- 
fane authors, now known as the Peninsula of 
Malacca. Some critics consider it most probable 
that this Uphaz was the same with Ophir, which 
is mentioned both by Job^ and in the books of 
Kings and Chronicles, as abounding with gold. 
See Ophik. 

UPPER POOL, THE, a small lake or reser- 
voir on the W. side of Jerusalem, connected 
apparently with the springs of Gihon ; and from 
which water was conveyed by a conduit, past 
the highway of the Fuller's Field into the city. 
Here the prophet Isaiah was directed to go and 
meet Ahaz, king of Judah, to comfort him 
against the assault of Rezin and Pekah, Isa. vii. 
3. And here, likewise, Rabshakeh and his 
fellows stood, when they reviled Hezekiah, and 
by blasphemous persuasions solicited the Jews 
to revolt to the king of Assyria, 2 Kgs. xviii. 
17. ; Isa. xxxvi. 2. See Gihon. 

UR OF TI-IE CHALDEES, the original 
residence of Terah, the father of Abraham, where 
Haran, the brother of Abraham, died; and the 
place whence Almighty God was pleased to call 
out Abraham, and send him into the Land of 
Promise, to become the founder of the mighty 
nation of Israel, and the father of the faithful. 
Gen. xi. 28. 31., xv. 7. ; Neh. ix. 7. It was 
evidently to the E. of the R. Euphrates, in a land 
of idolaters, Josh. xxiv. 2,, and in the country 
of the Chaldeans, Acts vii. 4. ; but whereabouts 
is altogether unknown. It is conjectured to 



UTTERMOST SEA, THE 



UZZA, GARDEN OF. 363 



have been in tlie original country of the Chal- 
dees, towards the X. part of Mesopotamia, rather 
than in that which, at a much later period, was 
called Chaldgea or Babylonia, lower down the 
Euphrates ; and this seems to accord with the 
direction Abraham took towards the Promised 
Land, by passing through Haran or Charran, 
where the whole family dwelt for some time, 
and where Terah died. Gen. xi. 31, 32. Several 
localities have been assigned to Ur of the 
Chaldees, but with much uncertainty. Ammi- 
anus Marcellinus mentions an old fortified town 
called Ur in his time, a few days' journey ^Y. 
from the ancient city Hatra, still called Hadhr, 
in the old Desert of Mesopotamia, now known as 
the Desert of Sinjar. Others place it further K 
at Skerridge, an ancient fortified city in the 
neighbourhood of the E. Tigris. Others, again, 
fix it at Orthaga, mentioned by the profane 
authors as a small town close to the E. Cba- 
boras, a tributaiy of the Euphrates. And others 
identify it with Urchoa or Orchoe, an ^ancient 
and important city, some miles to the S. of 
Babylon, on the Euphrates ; and described by | 
the ancients as remarkable for a peculiar sect of 
astronomers and astrologers. It is now called 
Arja. There is one more position assigned to 
Ur, which, as being to the W. of Haran, is less 
likely than any of the preceding, though, ac- 
cording to the native tradition, it was Abraham's 
birth-place ; it is the city now called Urhoi by 
the Sjiiaus, but Orfah or JJrfah by the Arabs, 
the site of the well-known ancient city Edessa, 
the capital of Osroene. 

UTTEEMOST SEA, THE, Deut. xi. 24. ; or 

UTMOST SEA, Deut. xxxiv. 2.; Joel ii. 
20. See Geeat Sea. 

UZ, LAXD OF, a country and people the 
situation and extent of which are much disputed, 
as -well as the origin of the name. There are 
three persons called Uz in the early history of the i 
book of Genesis : viz, Uz, the eldest son of i 
Aram, and grandson of Shem, Gen. x. 23.; | 
1 Chron. i. 17. ; Uz, the grandson of Seir, the | 
Horite, Gen. xxxvi. 28. ; 1 Chron. i. 42. ; and 
Uz or Huz, the eldest son of Xahor, and nephew 
of Abraham, Gen. xxii. 21. 

The first of these is conjectured to have 
settled in the E. part of Syria, between Canaan 
and the Euphrates, in the neighbourhood of | 
Damascus ; which by common tradition, as well 
as by the testimony of some ancient authors, is 
said to have been built by him. Hence, his 
descendants spread S., occupying a large tract j 
of Arabia Deserta, possibly as far as Mt. Seir, ' 



until they were driven within narrower bounds 
by other nations. This appears to have been 
the Land of Uz, wherein Job dwelt, Job i. 1., 
and which is described as being in the E., i. 
3. This situation agrees very well with the 
account of other places and people mentioned 
in the same book, as the Sabeans and Chal- 
deans, i. 15. 17., who made incursions upon his 
property, the former from the S. and the latter from 
the E. ; the Temanites, Shuhites, and Naama- 
thites, ii. 11., from amongst whom came Job's 
three friends, and whose territories are generally 
agreed to be found on the borders of Arabia 
and Syria ; as well as the Buzites, of the king- 
dred of Eam, xxxii. 2., who are likewise thought 
to have dwelt here. 

That the land of Uz was of considerable 
extent, is shown by the prophet Jeremiah, xxv. 
20., when foretelling its desolation, speaking of 
" all the kings of the land of Uz ; " and also, 
from his describing the " daughter of Edom as 
dwelling in the land of Uz," Lam. iv. 21. The 
latter is, perhaps, an allusion to their famous city 
of Selah, otherwise Petra, on the E. of Mt. 
Seir ; or else to some Edomite settlements on the 
E. borders of the Holy Land, on which they 
may have seized after the captivity of the trans- 
Jordanic tribes. Cf. 1 Chron. v. 18—22. That 
the land of Uz was distinct from Edom itself, 
appears plain from Jeremiah's mentioning both 
in consecutive verses, xxv. 20, 21. Ptolemy 
marks a people in the jST.E. part of Arabia 
Deserta, called Msitee, or Ausit^e as some write 
it; and they are thought, not improbably, to 
carry in their name traces of the ancient Uz. 
The Septuagint translates Uz by Ausitis in Job 
i. 1., and likewise in xxxii. 2. mentions Elihu, 
as belonging to the land of Ausitis. 

UZAL, a people descended from the sixth son 
of Joktan, Gen. x. 27.; 1 Chron. i. 21.; whose 
dwelling is mentioned to have been between 
Mesha and Sephar, a mountain of the East. They 
may perhaps be looked for on the W. borders 
of India, though many place them in the S, 
part of Arabia. 

UZZA, THE BEEACH OF, 1 Chron. xiii, 
11., marg. See Perez-uzza. 

UZZA, CHILDEEX OF, a family of the 
Xethinims that returned to Jerusalem with 
Zerubbabel on the edict of Cyrus, Ezra ii. 49. ; 
Xeh. vii. 51. 

UZZA, GAEDEX OF, where Manasseh, 
king of Judah, was buried, as was also his son 
Amon, 2 Kgs. xxi. 18. 26. It was attached to 



864 UZZEliT-SHERAH. 



VALE, THE. 



Manasseh's own house, 2 Chron. xxxiii. 20., no 
doubt in Jerusalem ; but the origin of the name 
is unknown. 

UZZEN-SHERAH, a city of the tribe of 
Ephraim, built by Sherah, grand-daughter 
of Ephraim, together with Beth-horon, 1 Chron. 
vii. 24. 



UZZIELITES, a family of the Kohathites, 
so named after Uzziel, the youngest of the 
four sons of Kohath, Num. iii. 19. 27. They 
are mentioned as having assisted in bringing 
the ark of the covenant to Jerusalem in the 
time of David, and as having had, with their 
brethren, oversight of some of the treasures of 
the Tabernacle, 1 Chron. xv. 10., xxvi. 23. 



VALE, THE, otherwise the Valley, a ge- \ 
neral name often applied in the Bible to seve- ( 
ral extensive plains or depressions, but more ] 
especially to two ; viz. the Low Country on the i 
shores of the Mediterranean, in the S.W. part ' 
of Canaan ; and the Great Valley of the R. 
Jordan. 

1. The whole level tract of land extending 
along the sea-coast in the S.W. part of Canaan, 
for about 50 or 60 miles, from the neighbour- 
hood of Csesarea to that of Gaza. It is some- 
times also called the Plain, or the Low Country; 
and some portions of it were distinguished by 
particular names, as the Plain of Sharon, 
Sephela, the Valley of Eshcol, the Valley of 
Megiddo, &c. It was originally inhabited by 
the Amalekites, Canaanites, and Amorites, 
Num. xiv. 25. ; Judg. i. 9. 19. 34. ; but these 
were more or less smitten by the Israelites 
under Joshua, Josh. x. 40., xi. 16., xii. 8.; 
whereupon the S. part of their land was assigned 
at first to the tribes of Judah, Josh. xv. 33. ; 
Judg. i. 9. ; but eventually to Simeon and Dan, 
Judg. i. 17. 34. ; 1 Chron. iv. 39. ; and its K 
part to the house of J oseph, Judg. i. 35. After 
the death of Joshua, these native tribes again 
made head against the Israelites, who do not 
appear to have been able to drive them out, 
though it is probable they put them to 
tribute, Judg. i. 9. 19. 34, 35. In the later 
history of the Israelites, we find the S. part 
of this magnificent valley mostly in the hands 
of the Philistines, who maintained possession 
of it to the last, though kept in check by David 
and Solomon, and occasionally chastised by 
some of the good kings of Judah. It was one 
of the most beautiful and prolific portions of the 
Land of Promise ; its luxuriant meadows being 
covered with flocks and herds, its fields teeming 
with corn, wine, oil, milk, honey, and every 
delicious fruit, and celebrated throughout the 
land for its fragrant flowers. Num. xiii. 23. 27. ; 
Judg. xiv. 5. 8. ; 1 Sam. vi. 13. ; 1 Kgs. x. 27. ; 
1 Chron. xxvii.. 29. ; 2 Chron. i. 15. ; So. of 



Sol. ii. 1. It still exhibits marvellous traces 
of its old exuberant fertility, though now 
lying under the curse, because of its former 
possessors having so grievously sinned against 
God ; but in due season, on their restoration to 
the inheritance of their fathers, this Valley is 
again to sing with plenty, Jer. xxxiii. 13. 

11. The general name of the Valley is like- 
wise frequently applied to the whole remarkable 
vale or depression in which the R. Jordan 
pursues its wondrous winding course from the 
Lake of Gennesaret to the Salt Sea. See J okdan. 
It is also distinguished in the Bible by other 
appellations, as the Plain, the Valley of the 
Plain, the Plain of Jordan, &c. ; and these 
names are all applied equally to both sides 
of the river. It was, no doubt, of some con- 
sequence, because of the Jordan rxmning through 
it, the thick woods of which abundantly sup- 
plied them with game, fuel, and many other 
necessaries. Its E. portion was taken from 
Sihon and Og, the two kings of the Amorites, 
and was divided by Moses between the tribes 
of Reuben and Gad, Deut. iii. 16. ; Josh. xiii. 
27. The Perizzites and other native tribes on 
the W. side, joined Jabin, king of Canaan, in 
his attack upon Joshua, who, however, con- 
quered them, and gave the greater part of the 
Valley to Ephraim and Manasseh, Josh. xi. 2., 
xvii. 15, 16. ; portions of it, likewise, fell to the 
lot of Issachar and Benjamin. The inheritance 
of the rest of the tribes was mostly excluded 
from it ; but in the latter days, when Israel shall 
again return home, it would appear from the 
measurements of the prophet Ezekiel, xhiii. 
1 — 29., that many more of them will have a 
share of it than formerly. It was in the clay 
ground in this Valley, that Hiram cast the 
brazen vessels and other magnificent ornaments 
for the Temple of Solomon, 1 Kgs. vii. 46. 

Other well-known localities in the Land of 
Promise are also specially distinguished by the 
name of "the Valley;" though by no means 
so frequently as the two preceding. Thus, the 



VALLEY GATE. 



WILDEKNESS, THE 365 



great Valley bet-^veen the two ranges of ^It. 
Lebanon, in the X. of Canaan, is called " the 
Valley that lieth by Beth-rehob," Judg. xviii. 
28.; though it seems to be more commonly 
mentioned in the Bible under the name of the 
Entrance of Hamath. In the profane writers 
it is denominated Anion or the Great Plain. — 
The famous Plain of Jezreel is also occasionally 
merely termed the Yalley, Josh. xvii. 16.; 

1 Sam. xsxi. 7. ; 1 Chron. x. 7., from its being 
of such large extent, and of such importance 
both in a political and economic point of view, 
— The low groimd on the W. side of Jerusalem, 
between the city and the mountains, is like^vise 
sometimes merely termed the Valley, 2 Chron. 
xxxiii, 14. It appears t^ have given name 
to one of the gates of Jerusalem opening into 
it, which was hence called the Valley Gate. 

VALLEY GATE, or Gate of the Valley, 

2 Chron. xxvi. 9.; Xeh. ii. 13. 15., iii. 13. It 
appears to have been in the middle of the V. 
wall of Jenisalem, before the Dragon Well ; and 
was strongly fortified by Uzziah, king of Judah, 
at the beginning of his reign. It was the gate 
by which Xehemiah went out and came in, 



when by night he took his survey of the ruined 
condition of the city of his fathers ; and was 
one of those which are mentioned as having been 
repaired by him. It appears to have been at no 
great distance from Mt. Calvary ; and it may, 
perhaps, have been through this gate that the 
adorable Redeemer of the world passed, when 
on His way to this scene of His suflferings. 
Cf. Heb. xiii. 12. 

VIXEYAEDS, THE, Xum. xxii. 24., a place 
between the Arabian Desert and Moab, in a 
i path of which the angel of the Lord met Balaam, 
I when the ass crushed his foot against the wall. 
I It was probably near the borders of the then 
I territories of Ammon and Moab; and in the 
! same region •ndth the Plaut of the Vine- 
I TAKDS, Judg, xi. 33., whither Jephthah chased 
the Ammonites with great slaughter after his 
signal victory over them. The latter place is 
called Abel of the Yineyards in the margin. It 
is stated by Eusebius to have been about 6 miles 
from Eabbath-Ammon, and both he and Jerome 
describe the region as abounding with vineyards 
in their time. 



WATCH-TOWEPt IX THE WILDEEXESS, 
2 Chron. xx. 24., a post of observation esta- 
blished by the Israelites in the Wilderness of 
Judah, near the S.W. shore of the Salt Sea; 
probably to give notice of any invasion of the 
countiy from that quarter by the Edomites and 
Moabites, their long-continued enemies. It was 
here that Jehoshaphat and his army first dis- j 
covered the terrific slaughter which their con- 
federate enemies from Ammon, oMoab, and Seir 
had been miraculously provoked to make of 
each other, though leagued together in the inva- 
sion of Judah; and the spoil was so great, that 
the Israelites were three days in carrying it off. 

WATEE-GATE, the name of one of the gates 
of Jerusalem, apparently on the E. side of the 
city, near the abode of the Xethiuims and 
Ophel, and the Great Tower ; it was repaired 
and dedicated by Xehemiah when he restored 
the walls, Xeh. iii. 26., xii. 37. There was a 
street before it, in which he caused the Law to 
be read to the people, and in which many of 
them made booths on his reviving the Feast of 
Tabernacles, Xeh. viii. 1. 3. 16. It is conjectured 
to have received its name from the circumstance 
of the water, which had been used in the services 



of the Temple, being conducted through or 
near this gate into the Brook Kidron. 

WATEES, CITY OP, 2 Sam. xii. 27., a strong 
position in the city of Eabbah, connected perhaps 
with the idCl-temple which was taken by Joab 
when besieging this metropolis of the Am- 
monites. See Eabbah. It probably obtained 
its name fi'om being surrounded by the waters 
of the river, upon which Eabbah stood. Cf. 
Xum. xxi. 28. ; Josh, xiii, 9. 16. 

#. 

WEEDY SEA, THE, Jer. xlix. 21., marg. 
See Eed Sea. 

WILDEEXESS, THE, or Jeshkion, a general 
term often used in our translation of Holy 
Scripture, not only for any desert, or even open 
and uninhabited tract of land, but, likewise, 
specially applied to several of the largest or 
most important of them. 

I. The one most frequently thus described is, 
the W^ilderness of Mount Sinai, which is likewise 
frequently translated "the Desert; " it extended 
over the whole region between Egypt, Canaan, 
the Eed Sea, and Mt. Seir, and is often spoken 
of rmder many other names, which it received 
from particular localities connected with it. See 



366 



WILDERNESS, THE. 



Desert. It was appointed to be the boundary 
of the Promised Land towards the S., Deut. xi. 
24. ; Josh. i. 4. ; Judg. xi. 22. ; Isa. xvi. 1. ; 
Amos vi. 14. ; Judith ii. 23. ; and as such it 
generally remained after the settlement of Israel 
in Canaan. Some of the earliest people who are 
mentioned as wandering in the valleys of its E. 
part, were the Horites, Gen. xiv. 6., xxxvi. 24. 
Hither Hagar fled from Sarah, and was found 
by the angel, who bade her return home ; and 
hither (in that part of it called the "Wilderness 
of Beersheba, Gen. xxi. 14,), both she and Ish- 
mael afterwards took up their abode, until his 
descendants extended themselves further E., 
Gen. xvi. 7., xxi. 20. It was into this Wilder- 
ness, that Almighty God commanded Moses to 
bring the Israelites from the bondage of Egypt ; 
a deliverance which, notwithstanding Pharaoh's 
hardened opposition, was at length accom- 
plished by their miraculous passage through 
the Eed Sea, Ex. iii. 18., iv. 27., vii. 16., viii. 
27, 28., xiii. 20., xiv. 3. 11., xv. 22.; Num. 
xxxiii. 6. 8. ; Ps. evi. 9. This was the scene of 
their repeated murmurings, and consequent 
punishment, as well as of so many miraculous 
interpositions in their behalf ; the place where 
they were tried and disciplined for a season, 
where they received the Divine Law, and first 
erected the Tabernacle for the appointed worship 
of God. Here, too, they were miraculously 
fed with manna, and quails, and the living 
water of the Eock that followed them; and 
were guided on their -way by the pillar of cloud 
and fire, to the very borders of the Promised 
Land, Ex. xvi. 2. 32., xix. 2.; Num. x. 31., 
xiv. 22.; Deut, i. 19., viii. 2—5, 16.; 1 Chron. 
xxi. 29. ; Ezek. xx. 10. ; Jo. vi. 49. ; Acts vii. 
44. But upon their rebellious murmuring at 
the report of the twelve spies, and fearfully 
refusing to enter it, they ^ere sentenced to turn 
back again, and wander in this Wilderness for 
forty years (i. e. a year for every day the spies 
were absent on their search), until that whole 
generation, then of ripe age, had perished, save 
Caleb and Joshua, Num. xiv. 2. 16. 22. 25. 29. 
32, 33. 35., xxxii. 13. 15. ; Deut. i. 40. ; Josh. v. 
5, 6., xiv. 10. They accordingly wandered 
in it the appointed time, exhibiting all along 
the same obstinate rebellion; but mercifully 
sustained by God, who bore them even as a 
man doth bear his son, Deut. i. 31., ii. 1., viii. 

4. ; Judg. xi. 16. 18. ; Ps. xcv. 8. ; Ezek. xx. 
13. 17, 18. 21. 23. 36. ; Hos. ix. 10., xiii. 5. ; Jo. 
iii. 14. ; Acts vii. 36. 38. 42., xiii. 18. ; 1 Cor. x. 

5. ; Heb. iii. 17. And though the scene of their 
wandering is described as a fearful and solitary 



desolation, a great and terrible wilderness, 
wherein were fiery serpents and scorpions, and 
drought, and where there Avas no water; yet, 
they needed nothing that was good for them ; 
their raiment never waxed old upon them, nor 
did their feet swell, during the forty years, 
Deut. viii. 15., xxix. 5., xxxii. 10. ; Neh. ix. 
19. 21.; Ps. xxix. 8.; Jer. ii. 2., xxxi. 2.; 
Ezek. vi. 14. Here, too, they received by the 
hands of Moses those statutes, and judgments, 
and ordinances, which were to guide them for 
ever as a church and nation. Until, at length, 
all God's promises and threatenings having been 
fulfilled, that whole generation with whom He 
was angry having passed away. Num. xxvi. 64., 
and the appointed term of the wandering being 
completed, they entered into the rest of Canaan, 
Deut. i. .1. ; So. of Sol. iii. 6., viii. 5. ; Amos ii. 

10. — This Wilderness is likewise mentioned as 
the place whither Elijah retired from the per- 
secuting fury of Jezebel, 1 Kgs. xix. 4. 

II. The same general term is likewise em- 
ployed to distinguish the Wilderness of Judah, 
which was an extensive tract on the W. side of 
the Dead Sea, between the S. border of Benja- 
min, 1 Sam. xiii. 18., and the ascent of Mt. Seir, 
and was bounded on the W. by the hill country 
of Judah. See Desert of Judah and Jeshi- 
MON. It appears to have been connected with 
the smaller deserts of Engedi, Maon, Ziph, and 
Tekoa ; if, indeed, these were not rather portions 
of it. It was taken by the Israelites under 
Joshua, who either found or built in it six 
considerable cities, besides other smaller ones. 
Josh. xii. 8., XV. 61. Hither David fled from 
Saul, and maintained himself for some time 
against his fury, 1 Sam. xxiii. 14. 19. 24., xxv. 
4. 14. 21. ; 1 Chron. xii. 8. Joab, the general of 
David, appears to have been buried here, 1 Kgs. 

11. 34., probably in that part which was near 
Bethlehem, 1 Sam. xvii. 28. It was frequently 
the scene of the Maccabaean struggles, and 
was defended by strong posts and castles. It was 
in this extensive Wilderness that John Baptist 
began his ministry, when such multitudes 
went forth to him from Jerusalem and all the 
land of Judasa, though he afterwards went into 
all the country about Jordan, Matt. iii. 1., 
xi. 7. ; Mk. i. 3, 4. ; Lu. iii. 2. 4. ; Jo. i. 23, 
The scene of the Blessed Redeemer's temptation 
by Satan, is conjectured to have been, likewise, 
in this Wilderness, though some critics, and even 
a popular tradition, place it nearer Jericho, 
Matt, iv, 1. ; Mk. i. 12, 13. ; Lu. iv. 1. Cf. I 
Mace. ix. 62. 

III. The Wilderness of Jericho is also spoken 



WILDERNESS, E. OF THE. 



367 



of as " The Wilderness ; " and seems to have ' 
extended from this city for a considerable 
distance to the westward, throughout Mt. ! 
Bethel, Josh. xvi. 1. It was partly the scene of 
Joshua's stratagem against Ai, Josh. viii. 15. 20. 
24., as well as of the fatal conflict of the Ben- 
jamites with the other tribes, Judg. xx. 42. It 
was crossed by David when fleeing from Jerasa- 
lem to escape from Absalom, 2 Sam. xv. 23., 
xvi. 2. ; and from its lying athwart the direct 
high road from this city to the Jordan, its rocky 
glens and woody defiles became a great j 
lurking-place for such robbers as are spoksn of [ 
in the parable of the Good Samaritan, Lu. x. j 
30. There is one desolate spot in it now called i 
Mt. Quarantania, to which tradition assigns the 
scene of our Lord's fasting for forty days j 
and nights, and His subsequent temptation by ! 
Satan. However this may be, we read in Jo. \ 
xi. 54., that not long before His passion, j 
the Redeemer retired to apart of this Wilderness j 
near the city of Ephraim, and there continued 
with His disciples for a time, to avoid the perse- j 
cution of the Jews. It would also appear as if ^ 
some other cities in this neighbourhood gave | 
name to small portions of this wilderness ; as the 
Wilderness of Bethaven, Jos. xviii. 12., and the 
Wilderness of Gibeon, 2 Sam. ii. 24.; which 
see. I 
lY. The open country near Bethsaida, on the ■ 
Js.E. of the Sea of Galilee, was another large 
uninhabited tract, which is termed " the Wil- I 
demess." It seems to have been often visited I 
by ovir Lord, and was probably the place -where 
he twice miraculously fed the multitudes that : 
followed Him; and it appears to have been, j 
likewise, the haunt of the fierce demoniac whom 
He healed. Matt. xiv. 13. 15., xv. 33.; Mk. 
vi. 32. 35., viii. 4. ; Lu. v. 16., viii. 29., ix. 10. 



V. The Wilderness in which Bezer, the citj 
of Refuge lay, and which was hence called Eezer 
in the Wilderness, Deut. iv 43. ; Josh. xx. 8. ; 
1 Chron. vi. 78, It was beyond Jordan, in the 
Plain Country of the Reubenites ; and appears to 
have extended more or less from the head of the 
Salt Sea to the R. Arnon, possibly so as to join 
the great Wilderness before Moab, Xum. xxi. 11. 
18. Cf. Ezek. vi. 14. See Jeshenion. 

YI. That vast tract of arid and uninhabited 
country between Palestine and the Euphrates, 
and extending from Damascus on the IT. 
to the frontiers of Arabia on the S., is also 
in a general way termed the Wilderness. It was 
chiefly peopled by wandering pastoral tribes, and 
was the haunt of robbers ; though there were 
some famous cities in it, among which may be 
mentioned Tadmor in the Wilderness, built by 
Solomon, 1 Kgs. ix. 18. ; 2 Chron. viii. 4. Cf. 1 
Kgs. xix. 15. 

YII. The enormous waste 'of the Arabian 
Desert is sometimes merely called the Wilderness ; 
though the word Desert is more frequently used 
to describe it in our translation, 1 Chron. v. 9. ; 
Job i. 19. ; Jer. iii. 2., iv. 11., ix. 26. ; 1 Mace. 
V. 28. 

WILDERNESS, E. OF THE, Amos vi. 
14., another name for the Torrent of Egypt; 
which see. 

WILLOWS, BROOK OF THE, a stream 
mentioned by the prophet Isaiah, xv. 7., in his 
denunciation against Moab. Its situation is un- 
known, though many conjecture it to be the 
Anion, or one of its mountain torrents. See 
Arnon. 

WITNESS, ALTAR OF, Josh. xxii. 34., 
marg. See Ed. 



YONDER SIDE JORDAN, Num. xxxii. 19. See Beyond Jordan. 



ZAANAIM, PLAIN OF, a level tract of land 
near Kedesh in Galilee, where Heber the 
Kenite pitched his tent when he severed 
himself from the Kenites to take his lot with 
Israel ; and where he was dwelling when Sisera 
was killed in his tent by Jael, Judg. iv. 11. It 
was possibly one of the small fertile valleys on 
the banks of the Waters of Merom, and is 
thought to have derived its name from the 



adjacent city of Zaanannim, Josh. xix. 33. See 
Kenites. 

ZAANAN (i.e. the Country of Flocks^, men- 
tioned by the prophet Micah, i. 11., when foretell- 
ing the woes that should come upon the kingdom 
of Judah for its idolatry. It is supposed to be 
the same with Zenan, which was a city of the 
tribe of Judah in the Yalley, Josh, xv. 37., the 



368 ZAAN-ANNIM. 



ZAEETAN", 



spelling being somewliat altered, to suit the 
prophetical style. 

ZAAN'ANNIM, a border town of the tribe 
of Naphtali, Josh. xix. 82., probably near the 
Plain of Zaanaim spoken of in Judg. iv. 11. 

ZABADEANS, 1 Mace. xii. 31., a tribe of 
Arabians, dwelling to the E. of Gilead, who 
were smitten and plundered by Jonathan Mac- 
cabosus. Some critics identify them with the 
Nabatheans; but this seems doubtful. See 
Nabathites. 

ZABULOIT, Matt, iv, 13. 15. ; Kev. vii. 8. 
See Zebulun. 

ZACCAI, CHILDREN OF, the inhabitants 
of a city of Judah, who returned home with 
Zerubbabel at the end of the Babylonian cap- 
tivity, Ezra ii. 9. ; ISTeh. vii. 14. 

ZAIR, a city or district in the land of Edom, 
which was attacked by Joram, king of J udah, 
when the Edomites finally revolted from that 
kingdom, 2 Kgs. viii. 21. It was, probably, no 
very great way within the borders of Edom ; 
but nothing is known of its situation. 

ZALMON, MT., Judg. ix. 48. See Salmon. 

ZALMONAH, a station of the Israelites in 
the Wilderness of Zin ; the next one to the N. 
of Mt. Hor, Num. xxxiii. 41, 42. 

ZAMZUMMIMS (i.e. Wickedness), a race of 
giants as great and numei-ous as the Anakims. 
In very ancient times they inhabited the re- 
gion between the R. Arnon and Jabbok ; but 
were destroyed by God, before the Ammonites, 
who thenceforward took possession of the 
country, Deut. ii. 20. They are by many 
critics identified with the Zuzims mentioned 
in Gen. xiv. 5., as dwelling in Ham ; the name 
of Zamzummims having been given them by 
the Ammonites. 

ZANOAH, a city of the tribe of Judah, situ- 
ated in the Valley not far from Adullam, Josh. 
XV. 34. Its inhabitants returned home at the 
end of the Babylonian captivity, and are men- 
tioned as assisting Nehemiah in repairing the 
Valley Gate, when he restored the walls of 
Jerusalem, Neh, iii. 13., xi. 30. Jerome calls 
it Zanua, and states that it existed in his day, 
in the neighbourhood of Eleutheropolis ; it is 
still called Zanua. 

ZANOAH, a city of the tribe of Judah, in 
the Mountains, probably near Ziph, Josh. xv. 
56. 



ZAPHON, an ancient city of the kingdom 
of Sihon, apparently in the Valley of the Jordan, 
which, after its conquest by the Israelites, 
Moses assigned to the tribe of Gad, Josh. xiii. 
27. It may perhaps be the same place which 
is called Shophan in Num. xxxii. 35., and men- 
tioned as having been rebuilt by the Gadites. 

ZAREAH, a city of Judah, the inhabitants 
of which returned to their old dwelling-place at 
the end of the Babylonian captivity, Neh. xi. 
29. It is identified by many with Zoreah 
(which see), and is supposed to have originally 
been founded or enlarged by the Zareathites. 

ZAREATHITES, a family of Kirjath-jearim, 
1 Chron. ii. 52., who with their kinsmen the 
Eshtaulites, settled here and at the neighbouring 
city Eshtaol, Josh. xv. S3. 

ZARED, Num. xxi. 12., or Zered, Deut. ii. 
13, 14., a brook to the S. of the R. Arnon, and 
to the N. of the station of the Israelites at Tje- 
abarim, in the Wilderness before Moab. It 
appears to have been one of the brooks which 
are still met with in this region, and run into 
the Dead Sea, on its E. side. Some identify it 
with that now called W. el Karahi. The Brook 
Zered was not reached by the Israelites under 
Moses, until the completion of thirty-eight years 
after leaving Kadesh-barnea ; by which time, all 
the generation of the men of war were wasted 
out from among the host, save Moses, Caleb, 
and Joshua, according to the threatening of 
God, when the people murmured and rebelled 
against Him, at the report of the twelve spies. 
Cf. Num. xiv. 28—35., xxvi. 64. 

ZAREPHATH, 1 Kgs. xvii. 9, 10.; Obad. 
20. See Sakepta. 

ZARETAN, a city or district on the R, 
Jordan, hard by the city Adam, Josh. iii. 16. 
Here the waters of the river which flowed down 
from above, stood and rose up upon a heap ; 
whilst those that were flowing down toward 
the Sea of the Plain failed, and were cut off; 
whilst the Israelites under the guidance of 
J oshua crossed over the bed of the Jordan, on 
dry ground, and entered Canaan, Josh. iii. 16. 
It is conjectured to be the same with Zarthan, 
mentioned in 1 Kgs. vii. 46., as being in the 
Plain of Jordan ; in the clay ground between 
which and Succoth, Hiram cast the brazen 
vessels, &c., for the service of Solomon's Temple. 
The same place seems to be called Zeredathah, 
in 2 Chron. iv. 17. It is likewise identified 
with Zartanah, described in 1 Kgs. iv. 12., as 



ZARETH-SHAHAR. 



ZEBULUN. 



369 



near Beth-shean, and beneath Jezreel, in the 
purveyorship of Baana. If so, it was on the 
W. bank of the K. Jordan, about midway in 
its course between the two seas, in the lot of 
Manasseh, between Beth-shean and Succoth. 
See Adajsi. 

ZARETH-SHAHAR, a city in the old king- 
dom of Sihon, which was assigned by Moses to 
the tribe of Reuben ; described as lying in the 
Mount of the Valley, Josh. xiii. 19., i. e. pro- 
bably, near the Valley of Shittim. 

ZARHITES, a family of the Reubenites, 
so named after Zerah, a son of Reuben ; they 
were numbered by Moses, when he numbered 
all Israel the second time in the Plains of 
Moab, Num. xxvi. 13. Thei*e was also another 
family of the same name, who were numbered 
on that occasion ; these latter sprang from 
Zerah, the son of Judah, xxvi. 20. 

ZARTAXAH, 1 Kgs. iv. 12. ; and 

ZARTHAJ^, 1 Kgs. vii. 46. See Zaretan. 

ZATTCr, CHILDREN OF, the inhabitants 
of a city of Judah, who, after the edict of Cyrus, 
returned home with Zerubbabel, Ezra ii. 8. ; 
Neh. vii. 13. 

ZEBAIM, CHILDREN OF, a company of 
Solomon's servants, who returned to Jerusalem 
with Zerubbabel, at the end of the seventy 
years' capti\'dty, Ezra ii. 57. ; Neh. vii. 59. 

ZEBOIIM or Zeboim, one of the Five Cities 
of the Plain, which stood originally in the 
luxuriant and Eden-like Vale of Siddim, well 
watered by the streams of the R. Jordan. It is 
always mentioned fourth in the list ; and there- 
fore, though larger than Bela or Zoar, it is 
presumed to have been smaller, and of less 
importance, than Sodom, Gomorrah, and Ad- 
mah. It was an ancient royal city of Canaan ; 
and is mentioned as lying on its S. frontiers. 
Gen. X. 19. It was conquered and put to 
tribute, together with the other Cities of the 
Plain, by Chedorlaomer, king of Elam, but 
after twelve years of servitude they rebelled. 
Hereupon, he formed a league with the king 
of Shinar, the king of Ellasar, and the king of 
Nations, and attacking these five cities, toge- ^ 
ther with the neighbouring tribes as far as 
Mt. Seirand the Wilderness of Kadesh, he car- 
ried off great spoil and many captives. Gen. xiv. i 
2. 8. But Lot being among the prisoners, 
Abraham with his confederate friends Aner, i 
Eshcol, and Mamre, pursued the invaders; ^ 
recovered Lot and many other captives, with 1 
the booty, and slew the kings, Heb. vii. 1., J 



! B.C. 1913. But about fifteen years afterwards 
! Zeboiira, together with Sodom, Gomorrah, and 
. Admah, having filled up the measure of their 
• enormous wickedness, were' suddenly and aw- 
full}'- destroyed by Almighty God raining down 
upon them brimstone and fire from the Lord 
out of heaven ; when the beautiful and fertile 
plain in which they had stood, was changed 
into the fetid and bitter lake, called hencefor- 
ward the Sea of the Plain, or the Salt Sea, 
and now known as the Bahr Lut, i.e. Sea of 
Lot, or the Bead Sea, Gen. xix. 25. 29. ; Deut. 
xxix. 23. Its fearful ruin is alluded to in the 
prophecy of Hosea, xi. 8., when God is mer- 
cifally remonstrating with Israel concerning 
their idolatry. See Cities of the Plain. 

ZEBOIM, a city of Benjamin, the inha- 
bitants of which returned home to their pos- 
sessions at the end of the Babylonian captivity, 
Neh. xi. 34. It appears to have given name to 
the Valley of Zebeim. 

ZEBOIM, VALLEY OF, 1 Sam. xiii. 18., 
a valley on the borders of the two tribes 
Judah and Benjamin, in the neighbourhood 
of the Wilderness of Judah. It was the scene 
of one of the invading campaigns of the Philis- 
tines in the days of Saul. 

ZEBULUN or Zabulon (i.e. Dwelling), 
one of the twelve tribes of Israel, which derived 
its name from Zebulun, the tenth son of Jacob, 
by his wife Leah, Gen. xxx. 20., xxxv. 23. ; 
1 Chron. ii. 1. He had only three sons. Gen. 
xlvi. 14., but so greatly was their posterity 
increased, that when the Israelites quitted 
Egypt, about 255 years after the birth of Ze- 
bulun, the tribe contained 57,400 fighting men, 
Num. i. 9. 30, 31., ii. 7. ; and when they were 
numbered again, about thirty-eight years after- 
wards, in the Plains of Moab, it amounted 
to 60,500 men that bore arms. Num. xxvi. 
26. 27. They marched under the standard of 
the camp of Judah, and were the third tribe 
as ranged in the order of their journeyings, 
being immediately preceded by Judah and 
Issachar, these three leading the van of the 
whole host : and when encamped, they pitched 
on the E. side of the Tabernacle, Num. ii. 7., 
X. 16. The offerings of the tribe of Zebulun 
for the service of the Tabernacle on the occa- 
sion of its dedication in the Wilderness, were 
made on the third day. Num. vif. 24. One of 
their princes was appointed by Moses, together 
with a man out of every other tribe, to search 
the land, whilst the host remained encamped 
at Kadesh, Num. xiii. 1 0. ; and another of their 
BB 



370 



ZEBULUN. 



number was likewise chosen by him to assist 
Eleazar and Joshua in dividing by lot their in- 
heritance among the nine tribes and a half on 
this side Jordan, Num. xxxiv. 25. 

On their entrance into Canaan, they were one 
of the six tribes who stood upon Mt. Ebal to 
curse, at the reading of the Law to the people, 
as Moses had appointed, Deut. xxvii. 13. ; Josh, 
viii. 33. Upon the division of Canaan by lot, 
under Joshua, the Zebulunites received their 
inheritance in the N. part of the land, as Jacob 
had foretold, when he said "Zebulun shall 
dwell at the haven of the sea, and he shall be 
for a haven of ships, and his border shall be 
unto Zidon," Gen. xlix. 13. ; a situation also 
foretold by Moses in his final blessing, " rejoice, 
Zebulun, in thy going out; they shall suck 
of the abundance of the seas, and of treasures 
hid in the sand," Deut. xxxiii. 18, 19. On the 
W. their territory was bounded by the Great 
Sea or Mediterranean, Josh. xix. 10, 11. 16., 
and on the E. by the Sea of Chinnereth or of 
Galilee, Isa. ix. 1. ; Matt. iv. 15. ; a situation 
which enabled them to become one of the most 
maritime and commercial of the tribes; and 
they were thus brought into contact not only 
with the Phoenician merchants, but with all who 
frequented their ports ; and were, moreover, able 
to convey the merchandise thus bought and 
sold, to and from many of their brethren by 
means of the Sea of Chinnereth and the E. Jor- 
dan. Cf. Ezek. xxvii. 17. By their proximity 
to Zidon, too, not only were their knowledge and 
opportunities for trade greatly increased, but 
the skill and example of the Phoenicians assisted 
them in some of. those manufactures of metals, 
glass, purple, &c., which were possibly alluded 
to amongst the treasures hid in the sand." 

On the N. the tribe of Zebulun was bounded 
by Asher and Naphtali, Josh. xix. 27. 34., on the 
S. by Issachar and Manasseh on this side Jordan. 
There were in their territory four Levitical 
cities assigned to the Merarites ; viz. Jockneam, 
Kartah, Dimnah, and Nahalal, Josh. xxi. 7, 34. ; 
1 Chron. vi. 63. 77. Like the rest of Israel, 
however, they do not appear to have driven out 
the old inhabitants from their cities for a long 
period, but put them to tribute and suffered 
them to dwell amongst them, Judg. i. 30. They 
are believed to have enjoyed a high character 
with their countrymen for learning and wisdom, 
and to have been much employed as scribes and 
artists ; hence Deborah speaks of their " hand- 
ling the pen of the writer," or " draw with the 
pen," as the margin has it, Judg. v. 14. ; and 
David numbers their princes amongst those who 



gave him their assistance on the removal of the 
ark, Ps. Ixviii. 27. They were likewise an emi- 
nently courageous and patriotic tribe, 1 Chron. 
xii. 33. ; and in the great conflict between De- 
borah and Barak with the confederate Canaanites 
under Jabin and Sisera, they were amongst the 
first to take the field, and there jeoparded their 
lives unto the death in its high places, Judg. iv. 
6. 10., V. 14. 18. They also joined Gideon in his 
attack upon the Midianites, when he delivered 
Israel from their oppression, Judg. vi. 35. Elon, 
who judged Israel for ten years, wasaZebulunite, 
and was buried in their city of Aijalon, Judg. 
xii. 11, 12. A larger host of them than from any 
other tribe appears to have marched to Hebron, to 
assist in making David king of all Israel, 1 Chron. 
xii. 33. ; and one of their own princes was ap- 
pointed by David to be the ruler of Zebulun, 
probably for civil purposes, as appears to have 
been the case likewise with every other tribe 
except Asher and Gad, which, for some reason 
not mentioned, are not stated to have enjoyed 
this privilege, 1 Chron. xxvii. 19. 

The Zebulunites took part with Jeroboam on 
the division of the kingdom ; after which they 
suffered much from the inroads of the Sjnrians 
and other neighbouring enemies, and were pro- 
bably deeply infected with idolatry, from their 
proximity to Dan, as well as from their inter- 
course with Zidon and the Gentiles of the West. 
They seem to have been much harassed by the 
inroad made upon the N. of Israel, by Ben- 
hadad, king of Syria, at the instigation of Asa, 
king of Judah, 1 Kgs. xv. 20. But they appear 
to have maintained their ground against him 
and his successors, as well as against the Zido- 
nians, and the Assyrians, until the time of 
Tiglath-Pileser, king of Assyria, who, about 
740 years b.c, took them captive, together with 
Naphtali and the trans-^ Jordanic tribes, and car- 
ried them away to his own country ; where he 
put them in Halah, Habor, Hara, and Gozan, 2 
Kgs. XV. 29. ; 1 Chron. v. 26. ; Isa. ix. 1. ; Matt, 
iv. 15. Some of the Zebulunites, however, appear 
to have either escaped, or been left behind ; as 
they were invited by Hezekiah, king of Judah, 
to attend his solemn celebration of the Passover, 
which (though at first they scorned the invita- 
tion) they eventiially did, 2 Chron. xxx. 10. 
11. 18. 

But if the tribe of Zebulun was one of the first 
to be taken captive, its territory was one of the 
first also to be enlightened with the beams of the 
Sun of Righteousness, as had been foretold by 
Isaiah, ix. 1, 2. ; for in the days of His ministry^ 
our Blessed Eedeemer seems to have frequented 



ZEBULUN. 



ZEREDA. 



371 



it and the region of Naphtali, more than other 
parts of Israel, Matt. iv. 13. 15, 16. In the 
future division of the Holy Land, as given in the 
prophecy of Ezekiel, xlviii. 26., Zebulun is placed 
the eleventh tribe in order from the N., having 
Issachar above it, and Gad on the S. ; and one 
of the three gates on the S. side of the city is to 
be called the Gate of Zebulun, Ezek. xlviii. 33. 
In his apocalyptic vision, St. John saw twelve 
thousand sealed of this tribe, Rev. vii. 8. 

ZEBULU^^, Josh. xix. 27., a city of the tribe 
of the same name, on the borders of Asher. 
Josephus mentions it as a strong city of Galilee, 
not far from Ptolemais. 

ZEBULUN", GATE OF, Ezek. xlviii. 33., one 
of the three gates to be built on the S. side of 
the New City of Jerusalem at the final restora- 
tion of Israel. 

ZEBULL^NITES, N"um. xx%-i. 27. ; Judg. xii. 
11, 12. See Zebulun. 

ZED AD, a city or region of Syria, adjacent 
to the Entrance of Hamath, and appointed by 
Moses, at the command of God, to be part of the 
N. border of the land of Israel, Num. xxxiv. 8. 
The same place is mentioned by the prophet 
Ezekiel, xlvii. 15., when assigning the bounds 
of their land, on the future restoration of Israel ; 
and is described by him as lying in the same 
direction. Nothing further seems to be known 
concerning its exact situation, or its present 
name. 

ZEEB, WINE-PRESS OF, Judg. vii. 25., 
where the Ephraimites whom Gideon had sum- 
moned to his assistance against the Midianites, 
overtook and slew Zeeb, one of their kings, and 
sent his head to Gideon. It was beyond Jordan, 
probably near the borders of Moab, Ammon, and 
Midian ; but whether it was merely an ordinary 
wine-press, which, from the circumstances at- 
tending it, was thenceforward named as above, 
or whether it designated the residence of Zeeb 
itself, is not known. 

ZELAH, a city of the tribe of Benjamin, 
Josh, xviii. 28. It was probably the native 
city of Saul and of his father Kish; for here 
was the sepulchre of Kish, where they buried 
the bones of Saul and Jonathan, after the fatal 
battle with the Philistines in Gilboa, 2 Sam. 
xxi. 14. It is conjectured to have been the 
same with Zelzah; but this is doubtful. 

ZELZAH, 1 Sam. x. 2., a city or district in 
the border of Benjamin, hard by Rachel's Se- 
pulchre. Here, after his having been anointed 



king of Israel, Saul met the two men who told 
him the asses of his father were found ; which 
Avas the first of the three signs that Samuel had 
promised him. 

ZEMARAIM, a city of the tribe of Benjamin, 
Josh, xviii. 22., which appears to have given 
name to Mt. Zemaraim. 

ZEMARAIM, MT., 2 Chron. xiii. 4., an 
eminence of Mt. Ephraim, where Abijah, king 
of Judah, stood, when declaring the right of his 
cause and that of Judah, previous to the battle 
with Jeroboam and the men of Israel, in which 
the latter were signally vanquished. 

ZEMARITE, THE, a Canaanitish people de- 
scended from the tenth son of Canaan, the son 
of Ham, Gen. x. 18.; 1 Chron. i. 16. They 
appear to have settled on the W. coast of Syria, 
opposite the island of Cyprus, in the neighbour- 
hood of the modern town of Tripoli ; Avhere was 
a city called Simyra by the profane authors, 
the ruins of which still bear the name of Sumra. 

ZENAN» Josh. XV. 37., a city of Judah in the 
Valley. See Zaanan. 

ZEPHATH, a city on the S. borders of 
Canaan, in the territory of Simeon; the old 
inhabitants of which were attacked and slain by 
Judah and Simeon soon after the death of 
Joshua, when the Israelites began more vigor- 
ously to take possession of their promised in- 
heritance, Judg. i. 17. The place was formerly 
called Hormah ; which see. It appears to have 
given name to the Valley of Zephathah. 

ZEPHATHAH, THE VALLEY OF, 2 Chron. 
xiv. 10., where Asa, king of Judah, met the 
huge host of Zerah the Ethiopian, who had 
come against him with a million of men ; whom, 
however, the Lord, at his prayer, was graciously 
pleased to smite down before him. Cf. 2 Chron. 
xvi. 8. 

ZEPHONITES, a family of the tribe of Gad, 
so named after his eldest son Zephon ; they 
were numbered by Moses in the Plains of Moabj 
when he numbered all Israel the second time, 
shortly before his death, Num. xxvi. loi 

ZER, a fenced city of the tribe of Naphtali, 
Josh. xix. 35. 

ZERED, THE BROOK or VALLEY OF, 
Deut. ii. 13, 14., otherwise Zared; which see. 

ZEREDA, 1 Kgs. xi. 26., a city of Ephraim, 
the birth-place of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, 
who became the first king over the Ten Tribes. 
It is identified hj some with Zeredathah and 
Zererath ; but this seems improbable. 

B B 2 



372 



ZEREDATHAH. 



ZIDOX. 



ZEREDATHAH, 2 Chron. iv. 17., a place in 
the Plain of Jordan, near Succoth. It appears 
to be the same with the Zarthan of 1 Kgs. vii. 
46, ; which see. 

ZERERATH, a district in the tribe of Ma- 
nasseh on this side Jordan, not far from this 
river, and in the neighbourhood of Abel-me- 
holah, Judg. vii. 22. Hither Gideon, with his 
diminished army of 300 men, chased the van- 
quished Midianites, previous to their final over- 
throw by the men of Ephraim. It is identified 
by many with Zeredathah and Zereda. 

ZIDDIM, a fenced city of the children of 
Naphtali, Joih. xix. 35. 

ZIDON (Heb. Tzidon), Gen. x. 15., marg., 
usually written SmoN in the New Testament, and 
by the ancient authors, a famous city of Canaan 
at its N. extremity. Gen. x. 19., Obad. 20., on 
the shore of the Mediterranean Sea. It was one 
of the most ancient cities of the world ; having 
been founded, as is believed, by Zidon, the eldest 
son of Canaan, the son of Ham, Gen. x. 15. ; 
1 Chron. i. 13. It soon grew into sufficient 
importance to give its name to a large and im- 
portant district to the W. of Mt. Lebanon, 
along the coast, probably the old inheritance of 
the founder of the nation; hence, we read in 
Gen. xlix. 13., that the border of Zebulun was 
to extend to Zidon ; and in 1 Kgs. xvii. 9. ; Lu. 
iv. 26., that Zarephath was a city of Zidon. 
The inhabitants of the whole district, likewise, 
are all called Zidonians, Deut. iii. 9. ; Josh, 
xiii. 4. 6. ; Judg. iii. 3., x. 12., xviii. 7. ; 1 Kgs. 
V. 6., xi. 1. 5. 33., xvi. 31. ; 2 Kgs. xxiii. 13. ; 
Ezek. xxxii. 30. The same region seems also 
to have been sometimes designated Tyre, after 
the latter city had begun to surpass its mother 
in greatness and importance, Ps. Ixxxiii. 7., 
Ixxxvii. 4. ; Hos. ix. 13. The name of Canaan 
is, in the Old Testament, sometimes restricted 
to this region; which, at a later period, was 
better known to profane authors by that of 
Phoenicia, an appellation occurring in the New 
Testament, Acts xxi. 2., as well as that of Syro- 
Phcenicia, Mk. vii. 26. But the term by which 
the whole of this country seems to be usually 
designated in the New Testament, is that of the 
Country or Coasts of Tyre and Sidon, 
Matt. xi. 21, 22. xv. 21. ; Mk. iii. 8., vii. 24. 31. ; 
Lu. vi. 17., X. 13, 14.; Acts xii. 20. See 
Ppienicia. 

The magnitude and influence of Zidon at a 
very early period may be inferred from Joshua's 
calling it Zidon-rabbah, or Great Zidon, Josh. 



xi. 8., xix. 28. ; as well as from many inci- 
dental circumstances recorded in Hoi}'' Writ. 
Its inhabitants appear to have been amongst 
the earliest merchants and navigators of the 
world, Isa. xxiii. 2, 3, 4. ; Ezek. xxvii. 8. ; and 
hence perhaps they received the name of the 
Daughter of Tarshish, Tsa. xxiii. 10. They are 
said to have been the first people who steered 
their ships by the stars, and ventured to lose 
sight of land. They founded Tyre, hence called 
the Daughter of Zidon, Isa. xxiii. 12., and sent 
out colonies to almost all parts of the Mediterra- 
nean Sea (amongst which Carthage may be 
especially mentioned), passing beyond the Straits 
of Gibraltar to the W. Coasts of Africa and 
Spain, and even to Britain, whence they exported 
our tin. Cf. Ezek. xxvii. 12. They also tra- 
versed the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean, and 
their sailors, probably, were joined with the 
Tyrians in navigating the ships of Solomon, and 
steering them to Ophir for gold. They were 
likewise celebrated as skilful shipbuilders and 
architects, some of them having been employed 
both by David and Solomon in preparing ma- 
terials for the first Temple, 1 Kgs. v. 6. ; 1 Chron. 
xxii. 4. ; as also by Zerubbabel in rendering a 
like assistance for the second Temple, Ezra iii. 
7. They were likewise reputed for their wisdom, 
Zech. ix. 2., especially among the profane 
authors ; had a language of their own, Deut. iii. 
9., and according to Herodotus it was Cadmus, 
a man of this nation, that introduced letters and 
writing into Greece. They were the earl}- mer- 
chants of the world both by sea and land, " the 
mart of nations," Isa. xxxiii. 3., trading in all 
the products of the world with every people, 
the Israelites included ; so much so indeed, that 
even Tyre itself, which eventually became the 
great mistress of all commerce, had first been re- 
plenished by Zidon, Isa. xxiii. 2. It was cele- 
brated for its beautiful purple, for its manufac- 
tures of glass and fine linen, as well as for the 
skill and invention of its inhabitants in working 
metals, and in hewing timber and stone; in 
short, its fame in the heathen world was so 
extensive, that whatever was beautiful, inge- 
nious, or great in any works of art, was con- 
stantly distinguished in the profane authors 
with the epithet of Zidonian. But its luxury 
and ease, Judg. xviii. 7., its pride and de- 
bauchery, Matt, xi, 21, 22. ; Lu. x. 13, 14. ; as 
well as its oppression of the Israelites, when it 
had the power, Judg. x. 12. ; Ezek. xxviii. 24. ; 
Joel iii. 4. ; together with its base idolatry, Judg. 
X. 6. ; 1 Kgs. xi. 1. 5. 33., xvi. 31. ; eventually 
worked its ruin. 



ZIDON. 



ZIKLAG. 



373 



When the Israelites under Joshua advanced 
into the N. of Canaan, the Zidonians appear 
to have united viith. the other Canaanites in the 
league against them, but they were driven back 
to the strongholds of their own city, Josh. xi. 8. 
Soon afterwards the greater part of their terri- 
tory was allotted to the tribe of Asher, Josh, 
xix. i28. ; some to that of Zebulun, Gen. xlix. 
13. ; and some was seized on by the colony from 
Dan, Judg. xviii. 7. 28. But yet it was long 
before the Israelites in any way gained an as- 
cendency over them. Josh. xiii. 4. 6. ; but dwelt 
among them, Judg. i. 31., iii. 3., probably without 
putting them to tribute as they did the other 
Canaanites, until the days of David and Solo- 
mon. Indeed, it would appear, that owing to 
their copying the idolatrj'- of the Zidonians, 
Judg. X. 6., the Israelites were at different times 
grievously oppressed by them, Judg. x. 12. ; 
Joel iii. 4, 5, 6. ; and Avith the exception of a 
few years in the brightest part^of their history, 
when David, 2 Sam. xxiv. 6., 1 Chron. xxii. 4,, 
and Solomon, 1 Kgs. v. 6. 12., either kept them 
in check, or made a league of peace with them, 
the Zidonians were always "a pricking brier 
unto the house of Israel," Ezek. xxviii. 22. 24. 
Solomon was led astray in his old age, by the 
Zidonian wives he had married, into the idol- 
atrous worship of Ashtaroth, the abomination of 
the Zidonians, to whom he built an altar on the 
hill before Jerusalem (the Mt. of Olives), 1 Kgs. 
xi. 1. 5. 33., which remained there for 368 years, 
until it was broken down by Josiah, king of 
Judah, 2 Kgs. xxiii. 13. But Ahab went still 
further from the God of his fathers, by marrying 
Jezebel, the wicked daughter of Ethbaal, king of 
the Zidonians, and by fully establishing the 
worship of Baal in the kingdom of the Ten 
Tribes, from which it was never afterwards 
wholly eradicated, save for a short interval, 1 
Kgs. xvi. 31. 

Zidon was always governed by its own sove- 
reign; and no doubt took the lead of all the 
other Phoenician cities, until eclipsed by the 
rising greatness of Tyre ; when the latter city 
advanced to that pre-eminence which it retained 
to the end. But the prophets Joel, iii. 4. 8., 
Isaiah, xxiii. 2. 4. 12., Jeremiah, xxv. 22., xxvii. 
3., xlvii. 4., Ezekiel, xxviii. 21, 22., xxxii. 30. ; 
and Zechariah, ix. 2. ; all foretold the coming 
overthrow of Zidon. It yielded to Shalmaneser, 
king of Assyria (c/. Judith ii. 28), and after- 
wards to the kings of Babylon and Persia, still 
maintaining its own sovereigns, and flourishing 
both by sea and land. It is mentioned in the 
book of Ezra, iii. 7., as supplying materials and 



labour for money, at the rebuilding of the 
second Temple. But at length, on its casting off 
the Persian yoke, the words of prophecy were 
fulfilled ; and Artaxerxes Ochus came against it 
with a vast army, which completely destroyed 
it, about B.C. 351. It was, however, soon rebuilt 
by those of its inhabitants who had escaped 
from this fearful catastrophe ; and on the inva- 
sion of the country about eighteen years after- 
wards by Alexander the Great, it opened its 
gates to welcome the Macedonian hero, that it 
might be freed from the hateful Persian yoke. 

After Alexander's death, Zidon was alternately 
in the possession of the Syrians and Egyptians, 
and seems to have still continued its enmity to 
the Jews, 1 Mace. v. 15. ; until, at length, it was 
swallowed up in the Eoman empire. Its wick- 
edness is frequently alluded to by the Blessed 
Saviour in His warnings to the Jews, Matt. xi. 
21, 22. ; Lu. x. 13, 14. ; though at the same time 
declared to be less heinous than the impenitence 
of some of the cities of Israel that had wit- 
nessed His mighty works. He appeal's to have 
occasionally preached the gospel in their coasts, 
which in the New Testament are called the 
Coasts of Tyke and Sidon ; and to have been 
followed by many of its inhabitants, some of 
whom were healed by Him, particularly the 
Syrophoenician's daughter. Matt. xv. 21.; Mk. 
iii. 8., vii. 24. 31. ; Lu. vi. 17. Zidon is likewise 
mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles, xii. 20., 
on the occasion of Herod's memorable harangue 
to the ambassadors from Tyre and Sidon, when 
he was smitten for his pride, and perished. 
Here also St. Paul touched, when on his way 
to Rome as a prisoner. Acts xxvii. 3, It is still 
called Saida, and is yet a place of some little 
consequence in Syria, though in a state of great 
wretchedness. The ruins of the old city are 
lying around it in melancholy decay ; the once 
busy harbour is blocked up ; and the Avhole 
place presents that appearance of neglect and 
ruin, which might be looked for from the prophe- 
sies concerning it. 

ZIDONIANS, Judg. x. 12., xviii. 7. ; 1 Kgs. 
xi. 1. 5. 33., xvi. 31. ; 2 Kgs. xxiii. 13. ; 1 Chron. 
xxii. 4. ; Ezek. xxxii. 30. ; the inhabitants of 
the city and territory of Zidon ; which see. 

ZIHA, CHILDREN OF, a tribe of the Nethi- 
nims, who returned to Jerusalem with Zerub- 
babel at the end of the seventy years' captivity, 
Ezra ii. 43. ; Neh. vii. 46. 

ZIKLAG, an ancient city in the S.W. part of 
Canaan, which on the division of the land by 
Joshua, was at first assigned to the tribe of Judah, 

B B 3 



374 



ZIMRI. 



ZIOK. 



but afterwards to Simeon, Josh. xv. 31., xix. 5. ; 
1 Chron. iv. 30. But during the domination 
of the Philistines over this part of the land, in 
the days of the judges and of Saul, it appears to 
have fallen into their hands ; for when David fled 
to Gath to avoid the persecuting fury of Saul, 
he petitioned Achish to give him a place in some 
of the towns of the country ; whereupon Achish 
gave him Ziklag, which thenceforward pertained 
to the kings of Judah, 1 Sam. xxvii. 6. Here 
David resided for some time, and was joined 
by many of his own countrymen from the tribes 
of Benjamin, Judah, Gad, and Manasseh, who 
came well-armed to his support, 1 Chron. xii. 1. 
20. But whilst he and his men were absent for 
a short time, with the Philistine host, when 
advancing to the fatal battle of Gilboa, the 
Amalekites, probably in retaliation for David's 
late attack on their territory, 1 Sam. xxvii. 8., 
invaded Ziklag and burned it with fire, xxx. 1. 
They were, however, pursued by him, and nearly 
exterminated ; the captives were all recovered, 
as well as the spoil ; David's share of the latter 
being chiefly divided amongst his friends in many 
cities of Israel, 1 Sam. xxx. 14. 26. Two days 
after his return to Ziklag, an Amalekite brought 
him tidings of the overthrow and death of Saul, 
stating that he himself had killed Saul, at the 
king's urgent request, because he was sorely 
wounded, and thinking that he should receive 
a reward for his tidings ; but David caused him 
to be put to death as a regicide, 2 Sam. i. 1., iv. 
10. Ziklag is not mentioned in the subsequent 
history, save that it was re-inhabited by the 
tribe of Judah aft^r their return from the Baby- 
lonian captivity, Neh. xi. 28. Eusebius mentions 
it as lying in the region of Daromas*, but its 
exact situation and present name are unknown. 

ZIMRI, a region of some extent, probably in 
the N. part of Arabia, against the kings of which 
the prophet Jeremiah, xxv. 25., is directed to 
denounce the coming wrathful desolation of God. 
It is conjectured to have derived its name from 
Zimran, the eldest son of Abraham by Keturah, 
Gen. xxv. 2. ; 1 Chron. i. 32. ; whose descendants 
settled somewhere in the East Country, Gen. 
xxv. 6. 

ZIN, DESERT or WILDERNESS OF, in the 
N. and E. part of the extensive waste of the 
peninsula of Mount Sinai, must not be con- 
founded with the Desert of Sin which was in 
the S.W. part. See Sin. The Desert of Zin 
appears either to have included the Wilderness 
of Kadesh, or else to have been one and the same 
with it, Num. xx. 1., xxviL 14., xxxiii. 36. ; 



Deut. xxxii. 51. ; and to have extended from 
the borders of Canaan and the Sea of the Plain 
on the K, to Mt. Seir on the E., and Ezion-geber 
and the Desert of Sinai on the S. See Kadesh. 
It is often mentioned as forming the frontier of 
the land of Israel on the S. side, Num. xxxiv. 
3, 4.; Josh. XV. 1. 3.; and from it the twelve 
spies sent to search the land began their journey, 
advancing N. to Rehob in Syria, Num. xiii. 21. 
It was long the abode of the Israelites, and the 
scene of many of their rebellions and mercies, as 
well as of the miracles of God in their behalf, 
though the name of Zin is attached to only one 
of their numerous encampments during their 
forty years' wandering, Num. xxxiii. 36. It 
was in this Wilderness, at Meribah-Kadesh, 
that the Israelites murmured for water, where- 
upon Moses smote the rock, and for his offence 
was not permitted to enter the Promised Land, 
Num. xxvii. 14. ; Deut. xxxii. 51. Here also 
Miriam died. Num. xx. 1. The E. portion of 
this great desert is now known by the name of 
El Ghor or El Arabah ; which is a wide and 
arid valley of a most singular character, run- 
ning from the S. end of the Dead Sea to the 
head of the Arabian Gulf. The W. portion of the 
wilderness is called El Tyh, i.e. the Wandering. 

ZIOR, a city of the tribe of Judah, situated 
in the mountains, Josh. xv. 54. 

ZION (i.e. Dry Ground, or as others translate, 
a 3Ionu7nent raised up), a mountain at the S.W. 
end of Jerusalem, which was a loftier and 
stronger position than any other part of 
the city. It contained a well-fortified citadel, 
called the Stronghold of Zion, 2 Sam. v. 7., or 
the Castle of Zion, 1 Chron. xi. 5. 7. ; whither 
the old Canaanite inhabitants retreated when 
their city Jebus, which stood upon lower 
ground, was burnt by the Israelites under 
Joshua, Josh. xv. 63.; Judg. i. 8. Here, owing 
to its great natural strength and the skill of 
its defences, they were able to maintain their 
ground, for about 400 years, against the tribes 
of Judah and Benjamin, who were settled round 
them; and with whom some of the Jebusites 
lived in amity in the newly built city at the foot 
of the Stronghold. But when David ascended 
the throne of Israel, he called upon the 
Jebusites to surrender this important post; 
but so impregnable did they consider their 
ancient fortress, that they only answered his 
summons by a message to the intentthat, ex- 
cept he "took away the blind and the lame," 
he should not come in thither; i.e. probably 
that even the blind and the lame might defend 



ZION. 



375 



so stout a position without the help of their | 
army. But on David promising that ■whoever 
took it should be his chief general, Joab went i 
against it, and succeeded in taking it ; after ' 
•which David took possession of Zion, and dwelt j 
there, surrounding it with a lofty and well-for- j 
tided wall, and calling it henceforth the City 
OF Daa'id, 2 Sam. v. 7. ; 1 Chron. xi. 5. 7. ; Ps, ! 
ii. 6. I 

It became thus united with the rest of the i 
metropolis of Israel; a long narrow valley, i 
called by Josephus, Tyropoeon, or the Valley of | 
the Cheesemongers, separating it from the j 
N. part of the city. It was soon adorned by 
David, and afterwards by Solomon, with a 
palace, and many other noble edifices; hither, 
likewise, David brought the Ark of God from 
the house of Obed-edom, and here it remained 
under a temporary tabernacle until Solomon re- 
moved it to his gorgeous Temple, 1 Kgs. viii. 1. ; 
2 Chron. v. 2. Here also, in the City of 
David, were the chief sepulchres of the kings 
of Judah. It always continued the most import- 
ant position for defence and security of all Je- 
rusalem; and though we are not told how 
it held out against the Chaldeans under Nebu- 
chadnezzar, yet from the circumstance of Zede- 
kiah's escape, 2 Kgs. xxv. 4., Jer. xxxix. 2, 3, 4., 
it would seem that he had entrenched himself 
here, in full confidence, until the rest of the city 
was broken up. And when Jerusalem was 
rebuilt after the edict of Cj^rus, the commanding 
position of the Hill of Zion was again so care- 
fully fortified, that it was the last point to 
be jnelded to the Romans ; indeed, so strong and 
well fortified did it appear to Titus, that he 
is reported to have said, that except Heaven had 
been on his side, he and his troops, with all 
their engines of war, could never have taken it. 
The height of the hill itself has been calculated 
by modem travellers to be about 2540 feet above 
the level of the sea, or about 170 feet lower than 
Olivet. See City of David. 

The name of Zion is seldom employed in the 
Bible to designate either the City of David or 
Jerusalem in any of the historical portions 
of the Inspired Volume ; but is almost exclu- 
sively confined to the book of Psalms, and 
to the writings of a few of the prophets. In 
these it seems to be chiefly used in reference to 
the City, Worship, and People of God, as con- 
nected with His chosen nation Israel ; or else, as 
a typical term, embracing the whole Church 
of God in every age and every nation, as well as 
its future glories in another dispensation. It is 
hence frequently styled " the Holy Mountain," 



or " the Holy Hill," as in Ps. ii. 6. ; Joel ii. 1., 
iii. 17., and in many other passages, though the 
same title is also bestowed on all Jerusalem. It 
is declared to be the chosen dwelling-place 
of God, in preference to any of the other 
dwellings of Jacob, or among the nations of the 
world, Ps. ix. 11., xlviii. 2., 1. 2., Ixxiv. 2., 
Ixxvi. 2., cxxxii. 13. ; Isa. viii. 18., xii. 6. ; Jer. 
viii. 19. ; Joel iii. 17. 21. ; Mic. iv. 7. ; Zech. ii. 
10., viii. 3. ; and is likewise asserted to be under 
His watchful and jealous protection, 2 Kgs. xix. 

21. 31. ; Ps. Ixix. 35., ex. 2. ; Isa. i. 27., iv. 5., 
xiv. 32., xxix. 8., xxxi. 4. 9., xxxiv. 8., xxxvii. 

22. 32., xlvi. 13., Ixii. 1. ; Joel ii. 32., iii. 16. ; 
Amos i. 2. ; Obad. 17. ; Zech. i. 14. 

The entire term Mt. Zion is often applied to 
the whole city of Jerusalem, though in some of 
the passages regard seems to be more especially 
had to that chosen portion of it where the Lord of 
Hosts had been pleased to put His throne, 2 Kgs. 
xix. 31.; Ps. xlviii. 2. 11., Ixxiv. 2., Ixxvii. 68., 
exxv. 1.; Isa. iv. 5., viii. 18., x. 12., xxiv. 23., 
xxix. 8., xxxi. 4., xxxvii. 32. ; Lam. v. 18. ; 
Joel ii. 1. 32. ; Obad. 17. 21. ; Mic. iv. 7. ; Heb. 
xii. 22. ; Rev. xiv. 1, It is probable, too, that 
the expression, " the Mountains of Zion," used 
in Ps. cxxxiii. 8., where David speaks of the 
dew that fell on them, refers to the several hills 
I upon which the holy city was buUt, as a city that 
I was " compact together ; " though some, with 
j less appearance of probability, refer it to the 

Sion in the N.E. part of Canaan. 
I We also find the appellation of " the Daughter 
I of Zion," employed to designate Jerusalem, 
i particularly in regard to its sufierings and ex- 
i altation, 2 Kgs. xix. 21. ; Ps. ix, 14. ; Isa. i. 
; 8., X. 32., xxxvii. 22., Hi. 2., Ixii 11. ; Jer. iv. 

31., vi. 2. 23. ; Lam. i. 6., ii. 1. 4. 8. 10. 13. 18., 
I iv. 22. ; Mic. i. 13., iv. 8. 10. 13. ; Zeph. iii. 14. ; 
Zech. ii. 10., ix. 9. ; Matt. xxi. 5. ; Jo. xii. 15. 

But the simple appellation itself, Zion, is 
more frequently employed alone to designate 
Jerusalem, than with any adjunct : and a most 
wonderful, as well as moving history, both to 
the warning and encouraging of the church, 
might be gathered from that simple name 
alone, combined as it is often found : ex. gra. 
the God of Zion, the King of Zion, the Founda- 
tion in Zion, the Rock of Ofi"ence in Zion, the 
Children of Zion, the Daughters of Zion, the 
Precious Sons of Zion, the Mourners in Zion 
the Good Tidings of Zion, the Law of Zion, the 
Solemnities of Zion, the Songs of Zion, the 
Ways of Zion, the Palaces and Bulwarks of 
Zion, the Travail of Zion, they that are at ease 
in Zion, the Sinners in Zion, the Captivity of 



376 ZION. 

Zion, the Redeemer of Zion, the Converts of 
Zion, the Envy of Zion, the Haters of Zion, the 
Builders of Zion with Blood, the Fury upon Zion, 
the Desolation of Zion, Ps. ix. 11., xiv. 7., xx. 
2., xlviii. 12., 1. 2., li. 18., liii. 6., Ixv. 1., Ixix. 
35., Ixxvi. 2., Ixxxiv. 7., Ixxxvii. 2, 5., xcvii. 
8., xcix. 2., cii. 13. 16. 21., ex. 2., cxxvi. 1., 
cxxviii. 5., exxix. 5., cxxxii. 13., cxxxv. 21., 
cxxxvii. 1. 3., cxlvi. 10., cxlvii. 12., cxlix. 2. ; 
Isa. i. 27., ii, 3., iv. 3, 4., x. 24., xii. 6., xiv. 32., 
xxviii. 16., XXX. 19., xxxi. 9., xxxiii. 5. 14. 20., 
xxxiv. 8., XXXV. 10., xl. 9., xli. 27., xlvi. 13., xlix. 
14., li. 3. 11. 16., lii. 1, 7, 8., lix. 20., Ix. 14., Ixi. 3., 
Ixii. 1., Ixiv. 10. Ixvi. 8.; Jer. iii. 14., iv. 8., 
viii. 19., ix. 19., xiv. 19., xxvi. 18., xxx. 17., 
xxxi. 6. 12., 1. 5. 28., li. 10. 24. 35. ; Lam. i. 4. 
17., ii. 6., iv. 2. 11., v. 11.; Joel ii. 1. 15. 23., iii. 
16, 17. 21. ; Amos i. 2., vi. 1. ; Mic. iii. 10. 12., 
iv. 2. 11. ; Zech. i. 14. 17., ii. 7., viii. 3., ix. 13. ; 
Rom. ix. 33., xi. 26. ; 1 Pet. ii. 6. 

The predictions of Zion's punishment for its 
sins against God and its manifold rebellions 
against light and knowledge, are as plainly as 
fearfully proclaimed in some of the passages 
wherein the much-cherished name is introduced ; 
as Isa. i. 8., iii. 17., iv. 4., x. 12., xxxiii. 14., 
Ixiv. 10. ; Jer. iv. 6., vi. 2. 23., xxvi. 18. ; Joel 
ii. 1. 15. ; Amos vi. 1. ; Mic. iii. 12., iv. 10., &c. 
The Lamentations of Jeremiah abundantly testify 
how literally these and many similar threat- 
enings were carried out by the Chaldeans ; but 
the complete fulfilment of them was, probably, 
only fully seen, after the final destruction of 
Jerusalem by the Romans. These idolatrous 
instruments of the vengeance of the Most 
High, ploughed up the very soil upon which 
the city stood : and now, though another half- 
pagan city exists upon a portion of the old 
site, yet the hill of Zion is itself excluded, be- 
ing, with the exception of a few mean houses 
and tombs, either divided into sloping terraces 
for gardens, or else "ploughed as a field," as 
the prophet Micah had foretold. Indeed, so 
thoroughly have these operations and the ha- 
voc of time changed the very appearance of 
" the height of Zion," once deemed impreg- 
able, that its precipitous and almost inac- 
cessible sides, have mostly become easy slopes 
and broken undulations. Yet the daj's are at 
hand, when the glory of Zion shall once more 
be manifested to the world ; and the predictions 
of that season of wonders appear to be more 
largely strewed over the volume of pro- 
phecy, than the threatenings themselves. A 
few of these may suffice, Ps. cii. 13. 16. 21.; 
Isa. ii. 3., iv. 3. 5., xxiv. 23., xxx. 19., xxxiii. 



ZIZ, THE CLIFF. 

20., XXXV, 10., li. 3. 11. 16., lii. 1, 2. 7. 8., lix. 
20., Ix. 14., Ixi. 3., Ixvi. 8. ; Jer. xxx. 17., xxxi. 
6. 12., 1. 5. 28. ; Obad. 21. ; Mic. iv. 2. 8. 13. ; 
Zeph. iii. 14. 16. ; Zech. i. 17., ii. 10., viii. 3., 
ix. 9. ; Rev. xiv. 1. 

The name of Zion or Sion is occasionally 
met with in some of the books of the Apocrypha ; 
but there, also, it appears used in the same 
qualified way mentioned above, as displayed in 
the Inspired Volume ; 2 Esd. iii. 2,, v. 25., vi. 
4., X. 7.; Judith ix. 13.; Ecclus. xxiv. 10., 
xlviii. 18. 24. See Jerusalem. 

ZIPH, a city of the tribe of Judah, mentioned 
amongst those which lay in its uttermost quarters 
towards the coast of Edom, Josh. xv. 24. It may 
have been afterwards included in the lot of Si- 
meon. Cf. Josh. xix. 1. 9. 

ZIPH, a city of the tribe of Judah, situated in 
the mountains near Maon and Carmel, Josh, xv. 
55. It gave name to the neighbouring Wild- 
erness OF ZiPH, where David hid himself for 
some time to avoid the persecuting fury of Saul, 
who followed him hither with a large force, after 
the Ziphites had betrayed him, and promised 
to deliver him into the king's hand, 1 Sam. 
xxiii. 14, 15. 19. 24., xxvi. 1, 2. ; Ps. liv. title. 
It appears to have been enlarged and fortified by 
Rehoboam at the beginning of his'reign, 2Chron. 
xi. 8. J erome mentions it as existing in his day, 
about 8 miles to the S. of Hebron ; and ruins of 
some extent are still found in that quarter, which 
bear the name of Tel Zif. 

ZIPHIMS,Ts. liv. title, or 

ZIPHITES, 1 Sam. xxiii. 19., xxvi. 1. ; the 

inhabitants of Ziph, 

ZIPHRON, a city or district apparently of 
Syria, appointed by Moses, at the command of 
God, to be one of the N". limits of the land of 
Israel, probably towards Damascus, Num. xxxiv. 
9. It does not seem to be mentioned in the pa- 
rallel passage of Ezekiel, xlvii. 15 — 17., when 
describing the bounds of the land on the future 
restoration of Israel. 

ZIZ, THE CLIFF or ASCENT OF, a rocky 
eminence to the S. of Engedi, in the Wilderness 
of Judah, on the W. shore of the Dead Sea. 
Here the confederate forces of the Moabites, 
Ammonites, and Edomites, were encamped, when 
they invaded Judah during the reign of Jeho- 
shaphat ; but it pleased Almighty God to listen to 
the prayer of His people, when the arms of these 
implacable foes of Israel were miraculously 
turned one against another, and they were nearly 
exterminated, 2 Chron. xx. 16. 



ZOAN. 



ZOBAII. 



377 



ZOAX, an ancient and famous city of Egypt, 
situated on the shores of the lake, now called the 
L. of 31enzalek, at the mouth of one of the seven 
streams of the Nile. It was, probably, not so old 
as some of the other great cities of Egypt ; and 
is described by Moses, who had resided at it, to 
hare been built seven years later than Hebron in 
Canaan, Num. xiii. 22. It became, however, so 
large and important a place, that it was chosen 
for a long period as the residence of the Pharaohs, 
and the capital of Lower Egypt. Here Moses 
and Aaron appeared before the monarch and his 
court, when they made known to him the mes- 
sage of Almighty God, that Israel should be set 
free; and hence the miracles which they then 
did, are mentioned by the Psalmist, Ixxviii. 12. 
43., as having been wrought in the "Field of 
Zoan." It appears to have continued to be one 
of the royal cities for 800 years afterwards, since 
Isaiah mentions it as such in his time; for so 
fond were the Jews always of their Egyptian 
allies, notwithstanding what they had sulfered 
from them, that even the good king King He- 
zekiah, when Sennacherib invaded Judiea, sent 
ambassadors to Zoan to treat with Pharaoh, for 
help against the Assyrians ; for which confidence 
in Egypt, and distrust of God, the Jewish nation 
is threatened with punishment, Isa. xxx. 4. 
The same prophet also, when foretelling the 
coming desolation of all Egypt, describes the 
pride and folly of the princes of Zoan as one of 
the many causes that would bring on the ruin of 
their countiy, Isa. xix. 11. 13, : and Ezekiel, 
about 150 years afterwards, predicted that Zoan 
should be burnt by fire, xxx. 14. ; a doom which 
was no doubt in due season fulfilled, for nothing 
is now found there but a confused heap of ruins, 
to which the natives of the country still give the 
name of San. Zoan was usually called Tanis by 
the Greeks, and is so rendered in the Septuagint; 
(cf. Ezek. xxx. 14., marg. ; Judith i. 10.) ; and 
hence that mouth of the Nile on which it stood, 
viz. the second from the E., was called the Tanitic 
mouth. 

ZOAR (i.e. Little), called originally Bela, the 
southernmost of the Five Cities of the Plain, at 
the lower end of the Yale of Siddim, on the banks 
of the R. Jordan, on the borders of Canaan and 
the Great Desert of Zin, Gen. xiii. 10. It suf- 
fered with the other cities of the league, from the 
invasions of Chedorlaomer, king of Elam, Gen. 
xiv. 2. 8. ; but when the four neighbouring cities 
were destroyed by God for their great wickedness, 
Bela was saved at the intercession of Lot, whose 
plea was its being *' a little one," when its name 



was changed to Zoar, Gen. xix. 22, 23. 30. It 
is a matter of doubt, whether it was ever reckoned 
one of the cities of the Holy Land, though it 
probably was. At all events, it is mentioned as 
one of its S. bounds, in the Pisgah view of the 
land vouchsafed to Moses shortly before his death, 
Deut. xxxiv. 3. In the time of Isaiah, xv. 5., 
and Jeremiah, xlviii. 34., it appears to have 
fallen into the hands of the Moabites ; as these 
prophets include it in their predictions of the 
coming desolation of Moab. Its ruins are met 
with at the S. end of the Dead Sea, at a small 
miserable place still called Ghor Szafye. See 
Cities of the Plain. 

ZOBAH, an extensive kingdom of Syria, on 
the N.E. of the land of Canaan, the limits of 
which are wholly unknown ; though it is con- 
jectured to have eventually reached from Bashan 
to the R. Euphrates, having the Phoenician ter- 
ritory and the kingdom of Hamath for its bounds 
on the N. It is thought to have been originally 
a much smaller state ; immediately adjoining the 
N. and N.E. frontiers of the Holy Land, whence 
its frequent collisions Avith Saul, David, and So- 
lomon, as well as its confederacy with the Am- 
monites ; but that through conquests, it had 
greatly increased its bounds by the time of Saul, 
who is stated to have harassed " all the kings of 
Zobah," 1 Sam. xiv. 47. Damascus appears to 
have been originally one of these vassal kingdoms, 
1 Kgs, xi. 23, 24. ; and hence, probably, it Avas 
that, when David made war with the king of 
Zobah, as he went to recover his border at the 
R. Euphrates, the Sj'rians of Damascus came to 
the help of Zobah; upon which occasion they 
shared in the signal defeat which the king of 
Israel gave to these confederate Syrians, when 
they became his servants, and he put garrisons 
in their land, and carried away great spoil, 2 
Sam. viii. 3. 5, 6. 12. ; 1 Chron. xviii. 3. 5, 6. 

The kingdom of Hajmath-Zobah, mentioned 
in 2 Chron. viii. 3., as having been conquered 
by Solomon, is conjectured to have been, like- 
wise, an addition to the original kingdom of 
Zobah, which the latter monarch had taken 
from the king of Hamath, who had been fre- 
quently at war with Zobah, and rejoiced in 
David's success, 2 Sam. viii. 9, 10. ; 2 Chron. 
xviii. 9, 10. Many critics, however, consider 
Zobah and Hamath-Zobah to designate the 
same region. But about three years afterwards 
the forces of Zobah were again severely de- 
feated by the Israelites under David and Joab 
when they hired themselves out to assist the Am- 
monites, upon the occasion of the insult ofiered by 



378 ZOHELETH, STONE OF. 



zuzms. 



the latter people to David's ambassadors, 2 Sam. 
X. 6. 8. ; 1 Chron. xix. 6. If Hamath-Zobah and 
Zobab were not different kingdoms, but one and 
the same, then it would appear that they must 
have once more shaken off the yoke of Israel 
on the death of David, and been again subdued 
by Solomon, 2 Chron. viii. 3. ; to whom they 
remained tributary, until Damascus burst out 
as a powerful and independent state, whose 
king was raised up by God to be an adversary 
to this offending king of Israel, 1 Kgs. xi, 23. 
One of David's mighty men seems to have 
sprung out of Zobah, 2 Sam. xxiii. 36. 

ZOHELETH, THE STONE OF, 1 Kgs. i. 9., 

a celebrated stone by Enrogel, which was a foun- 
tain adjacent to Jerusalem. Here Adonijah, the 
favourite son of David, who was also Absalom's 
brother, purposing to usurp the kingdom in his 
father's old age, invited to a great feast Joab, Abia- 
thar, and other leading men of the state, together 
with all the men of Judah, hoping to compass 
his end ; but was foiled in his plan by Nathan 
and Bathsheba, who obtained leave from David 
to proclaim Solomon king. Zoheleth could not 
have been far from the city, as the sound of the 
music and the shouting of the people in the 
city, were distinctly heard there, 1 Kgs. i. 40, 41. 
It is stated to have been near some of the royal 
pleasure gounds, and to have been a well-known 
spot, owing to the use made of it by the^fullers 
and others, when whitening their clothes at the 
neighbouring fountain. And according to the 
Kabbinical accounts, the young men of the city 
were wont to resort hither, to make trials of 
their expertness and strength, 

ZOPHIM, FIELD OF, a place on the top of 
Pisgah, in the country of Moab, which was the 
second station whither Balak led Balaam, that 
from it he might curse Israel, Num. xxiii. 14. 
It was, probably, nearer to Shittim and the 
Jordan than the first station (cf. Num. xxii. 1. ; 
Mic. vi. 5.) ; but still too far off, or too low, to 
see the whole mighty host of Israel, Num. xxiii. 
13. Like the other spots selected by Balak, it 
is presumed to have been a favourite scene of 
some of the idolatries of Moab. The name is 
said to signify the Field of Watchers, and, 
according to the Eabbinical tradition, it was an 
elevated military post, where spies were always 
on the look-out, to guard the kingdom against 
sudden inroads from enemies. 

ZORAH, a city of Judah, in the Valley, 
Josh. XV. 33. (in Avhich passage the name is 



written Zoreah), but eventually assigned to the 
tribe of Dan, Josh. xix. 41. It was not far from 
Eshtaol, with which it is often joined. It was 
the city of Manoah, the father of Samson, who, 
himself, also appears to have been born here, 
and to have been first moved by the Spirit of 
God, to display his mission in its neighbourhood, 
Judg. xiii. 2. 25. Near it, also, was the burying- 
place of his father, where he likewise was in- 
terred, Judg. xvi. 31. It was chiefly from 
Zorah and Eshtaol that those Danites went 
out to enlarge the inheritance of the tribe of 
Dan, who eventually seized upon Laish in the 
N. extremity of Canaan, and there settled with 
a large body of their brethren in the new city 
of Dan, Judg. xviii. 2. 8. 11. On the division of 
the kingdom, Zorah seems to have sided with 
Rehoboam, who repaired and fortified it at the 
beginning of his reign, to protect his frontier in 
that quarter, 2 Chron. xi. 10. At the end of 
the Babylonian captivity, its inhabitants are 
thought to have returned home with Zerubbabel, 
and to have repeopled their old city, though in 
the account of Nehemiah, xi. 29., the name is 
written Zareah. The people are called Zarea- 
thites in 1 Chron. ii. 53. ; and are conjectured 
by some to have been of the same stock with 
the ZoRATHiTES of 1 Chrou. iv. 2., and the 
ZoKiTES of 1 Chron. ii. 54. ; but this seems 
doubtful. According to Eusebius, it M^as 10 
miles from Eleutheropolis, on the road to 
Nicopolis. 

ZOREAH, Josh. xv. 33. See Zorah. 

ZUPH, Deut. i. 1., marg., i.e. the Red Sea, 
according to the text; but as the word sea is 
not in the original, many critics think it is the 
name of some region, perhaps in Moab, near 
Zophim, Num. xxiii. 14. Cf. Suphah, Num. 
xxi. 14. See Red Sea. 

ZUPH, LAND OF, 1 Sam. ix. 5., a region in 
the inheritance of the tribe of Benjamin, but 
probably near the borders. It was traversed by 
Saul and his servant, when in search of the asses 
of his father ; and appears to have been at no 
great distance from Ramah, which is conjectured 
to have been sometimes called Ramathaim- 
zophim, 1 Sam. i, 1., from having been situated 
in this district. The old name is to be still 
traced in that of Soba, a small town about 
6 miles from Jerusalem. 

ZUZIMS, Gen. xiv. 5., a powerful and gi- 
gantic race, who dwelt beyond Jordan in Ham, 
possibly the country afterwards inhabited by 



ZUZIMS. 



tlie Ammonites. They Tvere conquered by Che- 
dorlaomer, king of Elani, and his confederate 
forces, together vnth all the neighbouring 
nations, about 1913 b.c ; and are identified by 
some critics with the Zamzummims, mentioned 



379 

in Deut. ii. 20., as a race of giants conquered by 
the Ammonites, who seized upon their territory, 
and dwelt in their stead. The Chaldee and the 
Septuagint render the word merely as an ap- 
pellative for the strong and valiant. See Ham. 



THE END 



London : 
and G. A. Si'ottisvvoode, 
]N a w-street- Square. 



